From wall pulled down springs the mosque this village wanted

It was in 2003 that a Kadalpur panchayat decided they deserved a mosque of their own. The closest masjid was in the next village, three kilometres away, and the village had grown to close to 3,500 residents, the majority Muslim. Progress was slow, and it was in 2008 that money began to be collected from residents. Five years brought Rs 3.75 lakh, identification of a plot of land and one wall, and prayers commenced. Then came July 27, 2013, when subdivisional magistrate(Sadar) Durga Shakti Nagpal reminded them they had not followed procedure.

Policemen and JCBs with her, Nagpal reportedly ordered the demolition of the wall, leaving only three feet still standing.

She was suspended by the Samajwadi Party government for allegedly threatening communal peace, with many calling it an excuse for removing an officer who had cracked down on sand mining. Eventually under pressure, the government relented and reinstated the officer, but elsewhere. “But in all of the headlines, and the TV channels that came here, everybody forgot about the wall. They told us that all we needed was permission that we had failed to apply for from the district authorities. We said we would do it, and begged her to not raze the wall. When she didn’t listen there were protests in the village, and Eid came and went under heavy police cover. We blamed her for the problems, but never did we imagine that the controversy could actually prove good for us,” said Shafiq Khan, pradhan of the village.

A month after the demolition, the TV crews, reporters and politicians left, but donations that were once a trickle turned into a torrent. “People from all over, neighbouring villages of Greater Noida, and from as far away as Bulandshahr began coming to the panchayat to donate. In the next 11 months, we got upwards of 16 lakh. Our original estimate was of Rs 10 lakh, but now we have been able to make the masjid even grander with an estimate of Rs 20 lakh,” Khan said.
“Right now, it isn’t complete,” said Ishfaq Ahmed. “The walls have to be painted white and green, the boundary needs to be completed.”

Many in the village are now hostile to outsiders, with politicians and the media particularly the focus of their ire. “Why have you come to rake up the issue again? Why are you taking photographs? For two months you left us with no peace,” said one angry man.

But didn’t the attention turn out well for them? Even the angry man managed a smile. “The babulog made an issue of our masjid for our own gains. Allah ne humaare hi fayde mein badal diya (God turned fate in our favour).”