Communities unite to restore an ancient mosque

The `Guru Ki Masit’, as it’s known, was built in 1630 after the Guru’s battle with Jalandhar’s ruler Abdullah Khan. Why a mosque? Baba Kaladhari, a spokesman for the Nihangs, explained: “Had it been a dharamshala, it might have been destroyed by the Turks. By building a mosque, and that too by a Sikh Guru, it was ensured that people of all religions would protect it.”

Though no one destroyed it, not too many looked after it either. Its period of neglect began with Independence, when the Muslims of this town migrated en masse to Pakistan. “The mosque was deserted; for a few weeks, no namaz was held. Then someone installed a Guru Granth Sahib and started taking care of not just the masit (mosque) but also treating the sick,” recalls Mohinder Kaur, who was 18 at the time of Independence and still lives a few yards from the shrine.

For Rai and her team, undertaking any kind of restoration work here wasn’t easy. The Nihangs, who took over control of the mosque in the mid-1970s, weren’t keen on having anyone tamper with what they consider to be the Guru’s own work.

“When I first approached them with the idea of restoration, the response of the Nihangs was very simple — take care not to damage the shrine, and do not ask us for any money,” says Rai.

She must have done a good job convincing the Nihangs because Baba Kirtan Singh, head of the Taruna Dal (the sect in charge of the mosque) was upbeat when this reporter met him at the mosque. He had just blessed Rai’s six-women-band of activist restorers and said her name should be Bhagan wali (The Blessed) given the nature of her work.

The enthusiasm has been contagious; the entire village and even those from the surrounding areas answered Rai’s call for kar seva in clearing the earth around the shrine. “The Guru Ki Masit was originally built on a raised spot but the area around it was later also raised, and to a higher level. So, we needed to remove tonnes of malba (broken bits of brick and mortar),” she says.

Hundreds of schoolchildren and Nihangs did the spadework, and today the mosque stands elevated. “We will now try and remove all later additions like cement, plaster and whitewash from the brick structure and then apply chuna plaster, which will allow the building to breathe,” Rai said.

The mosque site presents a happy scene. A number of women, most of them from Hindu families, prepare langar for the kar sevaks. Villagers talk animatedly about what the city-bred young women were doing in their village. They are excited by the possibilities the project presents, including a library here for which Rai has started collecting books.

Rai’s band comprises Sangeeta, a conservation architect and UN volunteer, Shruti and Archika, both architects, Tayiba, a sociologist currently engaged in chronicling the oral history by talking to the old folk, and Minoo, the `didi’ of a large number of bubbly girls from the village who learn about history from her and are excited about the daily quiz that she comes up with.

The conservationists, who bought some 1,000 square feet of adjoining land, have already started work on adding another block comprising a multi-purpose room, a store and a langar verandah.

The US-based Sikh Foundation, headed by renowned physicist ad optic fibre technology guru N.S. Kapani, has given a grant of $20,000 to Rai’s Conservation Resource Cultural Initiative (CRCI) for the venture. But she may soon have to look for more funds as the Nihang chief also wants a music room.