DHAR — The Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled that the medieval Bhojshala complex in Dhar is a temple dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Vagdevi, dismissing petitions by the Muslim community and barring Muslims from accessing the site. The judgment allowed Hindus to worship at the protected monument and permitted the Muslim community to seek alternative land in the district to construct a mosque.

The court's judgment relied on a survey of the monument conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) two years earlier. The court did not accept a gazette notice from August 1935, which had stated the complex was a mosque and would remain so with no prohibition on Muslim prayers, holding that the notification predated current laws. The court also asked the government to consider returning a Vagdevi idol from the British Museum to the site. The idol, referred to as "Ambika" and carved from coarse white marble, is described by the British Museum as an artefact from the Paramara dynasty found in the ruins of the City Palace in 1875 by Major-General William Kincaid.

Under a 2003 agreement with the ASI, Hindus had been permitted to visit the Bhojshala site on Tuesdays and Muslims to pray there on Fridays. The site has been disputed since the late 1950s. Muslims pledged to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.

On Sunday, saffron flags associated with Hindutva were displayed at the 13th-14th century monument, and local activists installed a temporary idol of the goddess. Hindu worshippers gathered in large numbers with heavy police deployment, with young men dancing to religious tunes and filming rituals.

Mohammad Rafiq, 78, who has served as the muezzin at the Kamal Maula mosque in Dhar for 50 years and whose grandfather Hafiz Naziruddin led prayers there before 1947, said, "Until last Friday, our mosque was ours; today it is not. I had never imagined in my dreams that something like this would happen."

Lawyer Ashhar Warsi, referring to the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which freezes the religious character of places of worship as they existed in August 1947, challenged the basis of the ruling. "This is an erroneous judgement. It is a clear violation of the established rule of law." Warsi said historical records showed the Vagdevi idol was not unearthed at the mosque site. "A map accompanying the description clearly shows that 'Kamal Maula mosque' is marked separately from the City Palace," he said.

Historian Audrey Truschke questioned the survey underpinning the judgment. "Scholars are looking for methodology, rigour, and conclusions that meet international scholarly standards. Politically-motivated and substandard surveys carry little weight," Truschke said.