Mumbai: Mumbai city has two famous dargahs, Haji Ali dargah and the other one is Makhdoom Ali Mahimi dargah famously known as the Mahim dargah. People not just from the Muslim community but from all faiths visit the dargah and even contribute to them.
Normally during Eids, the holy festival of Muslims, the number of visitors swells up to a million at both the dargahs respectively. With the recent news of Ajmer dargah, where provocative speeches from top Muslim clerics from the community has led to a major footfall, we decided to check whether the two famous dargahs in Mumbai had any impact.
According to Suhail Khandwani, who is the managing trustee at Mahim Dargah and a trustee at Haji Ali Dargah, things have changed for them too.
Khandwani claims that the dargah at Haji Ali and Mahim haven’t seen any drop in footfall, but is seeing a drop in the charity from people that would come to them.
According to Khandwani, during the Ramzan Eid festival, around 1 million devotees visited the Haji Ali dargah and the same number of devotees visited the Mahim dargah too. The number was around 2 lakh on the Bakra Eid that was held on Sunday at both the dargahs.
Khandwani calims, that the numbers of devotees have been consistent for some time now, “Instead we have seen a rise in devotees visiting the dargah by 4-5% as people are now looking for hope and they find it here,” said Khandwani.
However, one thing that Khandwani claims has dropped is the funds they would get in charity. “Charity has been impacted by 25-30%, donations from people have come down. We have seen this drop post COVID,” he said.
According to Khandwani, people from all communities and religions who visit the dargah contribute towards the charity and there’s a drop in it, in the last two years.
This has impacted their social work, such as education for children who need funds and others. Khandwani claims that there has been no impact on the number of people visiting the dargahs. Haji Ali dargah is seen in many Bollywood movies.
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