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Retired school teacher T K Balasubramaian, 84, says the local festival at the 1,500-year-old Chandrasekhara Swamy Temple at Thiruchendurai village in Tiruchirappalli district was celebrated with more “gusto” than usual this year.
Sitting on the thinnai (porch) at his house in an Agraharam (a Brahmin settlement) in the village, Balasubramaian says, “Now that we are sure that temples in the village will no longer be claimed by the Waqf Board, the temple festival was celebrated with more excitement this time. The Waqf law has breathed a new life into this area.”
Spread over 900 acres, Thiruchendurai village shot to fame after Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju mentioned it as a “case study” while speaking in support of the Waqf Bill in Parliament in August 2024. He had said the entire village, including the temple, was being claimed as Waqf property.
Passed by Parliament on April 4, the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, came into force on April 8. Even as the Opposition has criticised the Act as “unconstitutional” and an attack on the constitutional rights of the Muslim community, Agraharam residents say they are in favour of the new law.
To a query by The Indian Express on the dispute, an official with the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board said “it had not claimed the entire village”.
The official adds, “Only the part of the village that was donated by Rani Mangammal to the Muslims in the 18th century is considered a part of Waqf land. The village is considered as an inam gramam (gift land) as per a 1954 Gazette notification.”
Disputing this, Kannan Venkataraman, another resident of the Agraharam, says, “I have been living at the Agraharam for generations. All this time, the issue of the village being an inam gramam was never raised.”
Thiruchendurai village is dominated by Hindus, from both the dominant and historically marginalised castes. Its residents include the nearly 40 families residing in the Agraharam. Protests against the Waqf Board’s claims over the village land have been centered at the Agraharam.
The issue at Thiruchendurai village first came to light in 2022, after Rajagopal, a farmer from the OBC community, decided to sell his 1.2-acre land. Locals say the village revenue officials told him to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Waqf Board “since the land belonged to them”. The Indian Express reached out to the district revenue officials, but they were unavailable for comment.
Kannan Venkataraman, another resident of the Agraharam, says, “Rajagopal’s case soon became a rallying point. The Agraharam residents too supported the cause.”
Rajagopal eventually sold his land, after the Tamil Nadu government intervened in the dispute in 2022 and its revenue department said that an NOC was not required from the Waqf Board for land transactions.
“When I bought property in the Agraharam nearly 25 years ago, there was no objection from the Waqf Board. Though the board is claiming we are its tenants, we have never paid any rent till date,” Venkataraman says.
Claiming that “seven generations of my family have lived here”, Balasubramaian alleges, “All of the nearly 40 households in this Agraharam are involved in a land dispute with the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board.”
Crediting former BJP MLA, H Raja, with “supporting our claim over our land”, the former school teacher adds, “With the Waqf Act coming into effect, there is no cause for us to worry anymore.”
Meanwhile, in a Muslim-dominated area located around 900 metres from the Agraharam, Mohammad Meeran, a landowner, says he is unaware of the finer details of the Waqf Act.
“The village has had no trouble with the Waqf Board. Our land in the village is ours alone. The Waqf Board cannot claim it. If the Waqf law settles this dispute, I have no problem with it. I was told that non-Muslims will be included in the Waqf Board. I am opposed to that,” Meeran says.
Though a mosque and a madrasa in the village were found closed, local leaders said both were “going about their business as usual”.
“We are not perturbed by the BJP’s campaign against Waqf properties. In this village, everyone owns their own land,” says a mosque custodian.
Meanwhile, the farmer who set the ball rolling is no longer around. “Rajagopal passed away a year ago. He sold his property and married off his daughter. None of his family members live here,” a friend of his from the village tells The Indian Express.
