Indian Mutiny, Fate of Jama Masjid and other Islamic Buildings of Delhi:

Indian Mutiny, Fate of Jama Masjid and other Islamic Buildings of Delhi:
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Jama Masjid suffered desecration and threat, either to be converted into a Church or war memorial for the British deaths during the Indian Mutiny. One option was to demolish it completely because of its image as a spiritual center for both Hindus and Muslims of the Indian Mutiny.

Other buildings of religious importance had similar fates. Some were demolished (Akbarabadi Masjid and Madarssa-i-Rahimiyya), some were transformed into army barracks (Jama Masjid and Zinatunnisa Masjid) and some were auctioned to Hindu Baniya (Fatehpuri Masjid).

These 85 Indian soldiers started the 1857 Revolt

Below is the description from The Last Mughal, what Britishers recommended for the Majestic Jama Masjid of Delhi.

‘Hugh Chichester was typical. ‘There are several mosques in the city most beautiful to look at’ he wrote to his father. ‘But I should like to see them all destroyed. The rascally brutes desecrated our churches and graveyards and I do not think we should have any regard for their stinking religion’. Charles Raikes thought the Jama Masjid should be saved but converted into a church, ‘and name each stone after a Christian martyr’.

Page 408, The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple.

This is a Photograph taken by Felice A. Beato in the year 1858 from the top of the left minaret of Jama Masjid (Delhi). This is the only existing panoramic view shows residential buildings on the north-eastern end between Jama Masjid and Red Fort. Later they were destroyed by British Army. You can notice north eastern corner of the mosque which states its ruin condition during the illegal occupation by Sikh Regiments. You can see one person sitting in the corner fashioned with TURBAN as a headgear, might be a Sikh.
This is a Photograph taken by Felice A. Beato in the year 1858 from the top of the left minaret of Jama Masjid (Delhi). This is the only existing panoramic view that shows residential buildings on the north-eastern end between Jama Masjid and Red Fort. Later they were destroyed by the British Army. You can notice the northeastern corner of the mosque which states its ruined condition during the illegal occupation by Sikh Regiments. You can see one person sitting in the corner fashioned with a TURBAN as a headgear, might be a Sikh.

 

Below is another account of the atrocities of the Colonial British Army.

“After the people came the buildings of the city. There was a cry that the whole city should be razed to the ground….A similar cry arose for the demolition of the principal mosques on the ground that they were Muslim rallying points, that some like Jama Masjid, had been used as strongholds in the street fighting, and that it was a fitting act of revenge. The principal mosques were occupied by troops and for some time their fate was debated. There was proposal to sell the Jama Masjid, and then to use it as a barrack for the main guard of European troops since ‘it can never be allowed to remain in the hands of the Muslim population’.

Twilight of the Mughuls by Percival Spear page 220.

 


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