Nuh, Haryana’s only Muslim-majority district, has a tendency to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. It keeps in the news for cattle smuggling and automobile thefts in Delhi-NCR. The convicts in the infamous Nikita Tomar murder case (2020) also hailed from Nuh. Contemporary Hindi writer Bhagwandas Morwal (b.1960) has tried to grapple with various aspects of social life in this neglected district in his voluminous novels. However, the district is currently in the news for mayhem and bloodshed that followed after stone-pelting on a procession of Hindu pilgrims, visiting the Nalhar Shiv Temple, at the foothills of the Aravali range.
As the folklore tells, the Pandavas, during their exile, lived in the hills and drank from the little reservoir of fresh water that lies 250 steps above the temple. The pilgrims were participating in Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra, jointly organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal and Matrishakti Durgavahini that was flagged off from Civil Lines in Gurugram. As soon as the 2000-strong reached Nuh Chowk, the procession was greeted with stones and brickbats. The incident triggered a string of communal violence spreading out to Sohna in Gurugram, Hodal in Palwal and Ballabhgarh in Faridabad. The assailants seemed armed as two home guards were killed in gunshots.
Nuh district is situated at the heart of the Mewat region, which extends beyond Haryana, into Alwar, Dausa and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan and Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh. The Mewat region lies at the heart of the “golden triangle” tourist circuit comprising Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. One could virtually see it from the rooftops of condominiums that promise to turn Gurugram into Beverly Hills of California. However, like the darkness below the lamp, Mewat is an antithesis to the Golden Triangle dreams.
Ludicrous as it might sound today, a demand for sovereign “Meostan” stretching from Mehrauli in Delhi to Bandikui in the Dausa district of Rajasthan was actually raised during 1946-47 ahead of the partition. It was pitched by Kunwar Mohammed Ashraf, a Communist leader of Meo origin, and a section of the Rajputana Muslim League, comprising Meos of Alwar and Bharatpur, who wanted to achieve it as a sister state of Pakistan by the force of gun. They were, of course, acting on the presumption that the whole of Punjab (which comprise today’s Haryana and Himachal Pradesh), as demanded by Jinnah, will fall into the lap of Pakistan.
N.B. Khare, the then Prime Minister of Alwar state, noted in his memoirs how the National Guards of the Muslim League through their nighttime propaganda swayed the allegiance of many Muslim military and police officers, even Muslim magistrates, in the Alwar state. The Muslims formed unlawful associations which desecrated Hindu houses and temples. This provoked Hindus to form unlawful assemblies which attacked Muslim houses and mosques (My Political Memoirs or Autobiography, P.302).
On December 1, 1946, a large meeting of Meos took place in Bharatpur, another princely state. Dr Ashraf, the Communist leader, made an inciting speech at the meeting. It was in this meeting that a resolution was passed defining the boundaries of Meostan from Mehrauli in Delhi to Bandikui in Dausa (My Political Memoirs, P.329). Continuous propaganda in favour of independent Meostan was undertaken. At a panchayat held on February 3, 1947, at Hasanpur in the Tijara area (Alwar), a new song Tarana-e-Mewat (anthem of Mewat) was unveiled. It was propagated everywhere in Alwar and Bharatpur states. Sayed Muttalabi of Faridabad carried out vehement propaganda in favour of independent Meostan in March and April 1947.
Meos of Gurugram (then Gurgaon) district with the help of other Muslims began a terrible rioting, leading to serious loss of life for the Hindus. The rioters entered the territory of Alwar state and burnt down some villages. On April 3, 1947, a large number of armed Meos collected near the Gandhian Hill in Tijara area of Alwar. They had rifles, swords, axes, and other weapons. They fired upon the state police that had come to disperse them. The communal riots were aimed at forcing the Maharaja of Alwar to join Pakistan at independence. On May 5, 1947, Meos attacked a contingent of the Alwar state’s army, though all they could seize was one rifle. It was then the council of ministers recorded a resolution that it was useless to try for a peaceful solution with the Meos (My Political Memoirs, P.329).
The Mountbatten declaration on June 3, 1947, regarding the partitioning of Punjab and Bengal as part of India’s partition knocked the bottom of the barrel of Meostan demand. Geography was against Meostan becoming a contagious state in Pakistan. As Punjab Legislative Assembly voted on June 23, 1947, on the partitioning of the state, it was evident that the eastern and southern parts of the provinces would unambiguously fall on the Indian side. On July 1, 1947, the Maharaja of Alwar decided to join the Indian Union. Though all hopes of Meostan were dashed, the worst of trouble was yet to come. By the middle of July 1947, a large number of Meos marched from Bharatpur to Alwar. Thinking them to be peaceful civilians, the state allowed them to stay. But soon, their true colours came to light. Three Hindus, travelling in an automobile from Buntoli to Alwar, were fired upon and killed by the Meo rioters on July 29, 1947. The old Jain temple of Alwar state was desecrated, and many Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam (My Political Memoirs, P.331).
As India’s independence approached on August 15, 1947, the situation became grave in Mewat. There were large-scale riots between the Meos and Hindus in the Gurugram (Gurgaon) district. On the other hand, Meos in the Alwar State Military deserted and joined the rebels. Meos in Alwar Police also joined the rebels. On August 13, 1947, they looted Bahadurpur village in Alwar Nizamat. The state forces responded strongly when an armed mob of around 10,000 had collected. At this time, a lot of goods looted by the Meos in Tijara were recovered. The riots continued even after independence in the territories of Alwar and Gurgaon districts.
Different sections of Hindu society like Rajput, Jats, Gurjars, Ahir and Baniyas came together to meet the attacks by Meo Muslims. They formed unlawful associations and began to raid Meo villages. There was severe loss of life on both sides. Hindus also began to raid Meo villages and converted the Meos on a large scale. Khare estimates around 40,000 to 45,000 Meos were converted to Hinduism (My Political Memoirs, P.333). It might be mentioned here that until the beginning of the 20th century, Meos were only nominal Muslims. It was the Tablighi Jamaat outreach activity, by Maulana Mohammed Ilyas (1885-1944) in the 1920s that led to a hardened Islamic identity in Mewat. Mewat acted as the laboratory of Tablighi Jamaat, an outreach programme which has now reached worldwide. We might reserve that subject for the second and concluding part of this article.
There was desecration and destruction of religious places on both sides. One of the conspicuous legacies of that conflict is the visible absence of any mosque on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway as one travels through Gurugram and Alwar districts before entering the Jaipur district. The Alwar state, as a result of the conflict, was emptied of the Muslim population. Many Meos fled to Gurugram, Mathura, Agra, Delhi and even Hyderabad (Deccan). And many apparently went to Pakistan.
As the embers cooled off after the independence and partition, the Nehru government tried to repatriate the Meos who had crossed over Pakistan. Criticising this policy, Sardar Bhopinder Singh stated in the Constituent Assembly on August 12, 1949: “Meos from Gurgaon, Bharatpur and Alwar not very long time ago, on the inspiration of Muslim League, demanded Meostan and they were involved in a very serious rioting against the Hindus — their neighbours — at the time of freedom. Right in 1947, a serious riot was going on by these Meos against their Hindu neighbours. These Meos, under this very lax permit system, are returning and demanding their property. On the other hand, we are short of property and the other hand concessions are being given to them. This is secularism no doubt, but a very one-sided and undesirable type of secularism which goes invariably against and to the prejudice of Sikh and Hindu refugees. I do not want to give rights of citizenship to those who so flagrantly dishonoured the integrity of India not long ago.”
While Muslims comprised 7.06 percent of Haryana’s population as per Census 2011, they constituted 75 percent of the population in the district. This reversal of demographic character has adversely affected the situation of the Hindus in the district. In October 2020, a group of lawyers and a social worker submitted a plea to the Supreme Court with a prayer to constitute an SIT to investigate the alleged crimes and forcible conversion of Hindus in the district. The petition was moved by Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, who has come to the limelight in the Kashi Gyanvyapi mosque case.
The writer is author of the book “The Microphone Men: How Orators Created a Modern India” (2019) and an independent researcher based in New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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