Ujjain on Edge: Shahi Mosque Partially Torn Down as Muslims Take Demolition Into Their Own Hands Ahead of 2028 Kumbh Mela

Tensions remain high in the central Indian city of Ujjain after authorities partially demolished a historic mosque to make way for a road-widening project linked to a major Hindu pilgrimage, with members of the local Muslim community saying they were forced to dismantle part of the structure themselves to avoid a full-scale bulldozer operation.

The unrest in Ujjain, located roughly 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, has become the latest flashpoint in a long-running dispute over the fate of Muslim religious sites across India. Madhya Pradesh has been governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2003, apart from a brief 15-month period when the opposition Congress was in power.

At the centre of the controversy is the Shahi Mosque, situated in the city's Chhatri Chowk area. According to Zeeshan Khan, a 30-year-old digital marketing professional who took part in the protests, the trouble began about two months ago when the Ujjain Municipal Corporation issued a notice stating that the mosque would have to be acquired because the adjacent road needed to be widened.

The stated purpose of the project is to clear and expand the route for the Simhastha Kumbh Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage held every 12 years on the banks of the Kshipra River. The next edition of the festival is scheduled for 2028, and authorities have argued that additional space is needed to manage the huge influx of pilgrims expected to travel to Ujjain from across India and beyond.

Khan told Al Jazeera that the municipal authorities initially set a September 10 deadline for the community to "remove the structure ourselves," warning that the government would otherwise take strict action. Fearing that the mosque could be demolished overnight, hundreds of Muslims gathered outside the building on Sunday night for a vigil aimed at preventing any sudden operation.

The community's legal efforts to halt the demolition proved unsuccessful. A petition filed before the local High Court seeking to stop the work was dismissed, with the court ruling that the 2028 pilgrimage required additional space to handle traffic. "Their argument was that a lot of people would be coming from outside and that the public should not face problems. So public interest had to come first," Khan recounted.

Following sustained protests, the mosque management entered into several rounds of negotiations with district authorities, eventually securing a concession. Instead of the more than seven feet of the structure originally demanded by officials, it was agreed that roughly three feet of space from the street would be removed.

On Sunday night, as the administration moved bulldozers close to the mosque, thousands of people converged on Chhatri Chowk. Authorities later claimed that AI-generated social media posts circulated by some Muslim men had spread rumours that the mosque was about to be demolished, which they said triggered the night-long demonstration.

According to Khan, the administration sealed off the area and presented the community with an ultimatum: "Either you demolish the mosque yourselves, or we will demolish it." Faced with that choice, the mosque committee agreed to take down part of the structure on its own, and dozens of Muslim men began removing the platform along the mosque using hammers and rods.

"We demolished it with our own hands," Khan said. "It hurts us deeply." He added that on Tuesday, part of the mosque's minaret was removed by the authorities, though no work had yet begun inside the main prayer hall. The partial demolition has left the community feeling both grief-stricken and fearful of what may follow.

The situation escalated on Monday morning when police fired tear gas to disperse protesters. Media reports indicated that demonstrators threw stones at officers, who responded with a baton charge. At least a dozen people were injured in the clashes, and several men were arrested. Authorities have since sealed the area around the Shahi Mosque and deployed heavy security.

The events in Ujjain reflect a broader pattern that has alarmed Muslim communities and rights groups across India. Hundreds of Muslim religious sites — including mosques, shrines, graveyards and madrasas — have been partially or fully demolished by authorities in several BJP-governed states in recent years, often in the dead of night and frequently while legal proceedings were still pending.

The BJP has faced accusations of waging a deliberate campaign against Muslim religious structures, either by claiming they were illegally constructed or by asserting that they were built on the sites of former Hindu temples. These disputes have become increasingly common, contributing to a climate of anxiety among India's Muslim minority.

As Ujjain remained tense on Tuesday, a Muslim group staged a protest in the national capital against what it described as continued action and demolition targeting mosques and places of worship. The demonstration was organised by the Monitoring Committee of Indian Muslims and drew several Muslim parliamentarians among its participants.

The Shahi Mosque case has thus become a symbol of the wider struggle over religious space in India. For the residents of Ujjain, the coming days will determine whether the partial demolition marks the end of the dispute or the beginning of a longer confrontation over the fate of one of the city's oldest Muslim places of worship.