Opinion Express View on demolition of Akhoondji Masjid: A collective loss
Akhoondji mosque, located in close proximity of the Qutub Minar, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is believed to have been between 600 and 700 years old, built during the reign of Delhi Sultanate’s Razia Sultana, and listed by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1920.
The DDA has contended that it has followed due process in compliance with the directions of the Ridge Management Board — the structure's “encroachment” on Sanjay Van in south Delhi, a city forest the edifice predates by several centuries — is said to legitimise its actions 
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The demolition of the Akhoondji mosque in Mehrauli on January 30 by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) as part of its anti-encroachment drive calls into question, yet again, the nature of due process and the lacunae that exist in cultural conservation. While its precise history remains unknown, the Akhoondji mosque, located in close proximity of the Qutub Minar, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is believed to have been between 600 and 700 years old, built during the reign of Delhi Sultanate’s Razia Sultana, and listed by the Archaeological Survey of India in 1920.
The DDA has contended that it has followed due process in compliance with the directions of the Ridge Management Board — the structure’s “encroachment” on Sanjay Van in south Delhi, a city forest the edifice predates by several centuries — is said to legitimise its actions. It is an argument that does not pass muster. The Delhi High Court has sought an explanation on why the structure was razed without notice, directing DDA to maintain status quo on the land until the next hearing on February 12.
This is not the first time that the DDA’s anti-encroachment drive has come under criticism. Last year, its drive to clear unauthorised encroachments on government land housing protected ASI monuments in the villages of Mehrauli and Ladha Sarai had met with a pushback from several quarters.
But the present case is particularly disquieting because it points to what a weaponisation of a rightful mandate might do to a significant part of Delhi’s cultural heritage — its Islamic past. It also underscores the need to strengthen the conservation mechanism to address such questions. In a city like Delhi, with its wealth of heritage monuments, demolitions cannot happen in an arbitrary manner.
In December last year, the New Delhi Municipal Council had asked for public opinion on a proposal to demolish the 150-year-old Sunehri Bagh Masjid, a Grade-III heritage structure near the Parliament, to ease the movement of traffic. While its fate still hangs in balance, it had, rightfully, initiated a larger conversation around the proposal. The DDA could have followed its example.
Any conversation about Delhi’s history comes to rest on its storied past — the cities on whose foundation the modern metropolis rests, the rise and fall of dynasties that shaped its tryst with power. But Delhi is also a city of survivors, a city that knows how to co-exist cheek by jowl with its mandirs and masjids, jhuggis and highrises, its pasts and its present. Any attempt to change that composite culture, or to shrink it, will be a collective loss.
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