When Jawaharlal Nehru signed the Waqf Act of 1954 into law, he did more than just introduce legislation for managing Islamic religious endowments he carved out a separate, preferential legal ecosystem for Islamists, directly undermining the secular fabric of the nation he claimed to uphold. Hidden within this Act was a dangerous and insidious clause that continues to wreak havoc on property rights across India: ‘Waqf by User’.
This provision allowed Islamic bodies to claim any land as Waqf property based solely on evidence of historical use for religious or charitable purposes even in the absence of a formal Waqf deed. In simple terms, if a piece of land had once seen a namaz offered under a tree or a charity meal served to a handful, it could now be claimed permanently as Islamic property. No ownership title. No transfer documents. No registration needed.
Nehru’s obsession with appeasement of Islamists and his desperation to be seen as a secular icon abroad blinded him to the devastating consequences his decisions would have on India’s future. His so-called secularism was a deeply flawed, one-sided arrangement where the state aggressively controlled Hindu religious institutions and their wealth, while empowering Islamic bodies with unchecked autonomy and property rights.
Even as temples across Bharat were being taken over by state governments, Waqf Boards were being handed the legal means to expand their property portfolios without opposition. Nehru gave birth to a parallel system where Muslims, through the Waqf mechanism, could claim land without proof, while Hindus faced government control, audits, and bureaucracy in their temple management.
‘Waqf by User’ is a draconian concept introduced by the Nehru government in 1954, just seven years after he permitted the creation of Pakistan in the name of religion. This move was yet another law that enabled Muslims to claim land parcels owned by Hindus in India. Nehru was a… pic.twitter.com/6tVPn4cQYv
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) April 17, 2025
The 1954 Act was not born out of any pressing social need; it was a calculated political move. Seven years after agreeing to the creation of Pakistan — the greatest partition based on religion in modern history — Nehru decided to reward the same ideology within India by empowering Islamic institutions and legitimising religious land grabs.
The Central Waqf Council, created under this Act, would later oversee an empire of unimaginable scale. Today, Waqf Boards are one of the largest non-governmental landowners in India, holding over 6 lakh acres of land. And thanks to Nehru’s ‘Waqf by User’ clause, a vast chunk of this land was acquired not through purchase or donation, but by exploiting a legal loophole that would never be permitted for any other religion.
In contrast, Hindu religious institutions — whose existence predates Islamic arrival in Bharat by millennia — are heavily regulated, audited, and even looted by the state, with no equivalent legal route to protect or reclaim their lands from encroachment.
If Nehru planted the seed, successive Congress and secular governments nurtured the tree. The 1995 amendment to the Waqf Act created Waqf Boards in every state and union territory, giving them the power to survey, list, and claim land across Bharat — often without notice to current landholders. These Boards operate with quasi-judicial authority, functioning beyond the scrutiny that other public bodies face.
Perhaps the most outrageous example of this overreach came when the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board claimed the Taj Mahal as its property — a UNESCO heritage monument built by Mughal royalty using state resources of that time. The absurdity of this claim underscores the unchecked audacity given to Waqf Boards under Nehru’s framework.
Nehru’s 1954 decision was not a one-off miscalculation — it was part of a consistent pattern of minority appeasement that would continue for decades. From Haj subsidies funded by Hindu taxpayers, to the Shah Bano U-turn in 1985, to Manmohan Singh’s infamous declaration in 2006 and again in 2009 that “Muslims must have the first claim on national resources” — every government walking Nehru’s path has continued to favour one community in the name of secularism.
While Hindus fought legal battles to protect their temples, ancestral homes, and pilgrimage sites, Waqf Boards expanded without restraint, often bulldozing over local records, municipal objections, or public sentiment.
Fast forward to present-day West Bengal, and we see Mamata Banerjee walking in Nehru’s footsteps — with added zeal. Under her tenure, allegations of illegal land grabs in the name of Waqf have surged. Local reports have emerged of Hindu families being driven out, lands quietly marked as Waqf without notice, and government silence in the face of mounting grievances.
Islamic appeasement has become the bedrock of her political strategy. From stipends for imams to unofficial ‘Waqfisation’ of village lands, Mamata’s governance model echoes and amplifies Nehru’s vision: securing minority votes at the cost of civilisational justice and national integrity.
Jawaharlal Nehru’s Waqf Act was not a secular policy — it was a betrayal of the majority. It created a second-tier legal framework that disadvantages Hindus and other communities while privileging Islamic religious institutions with unchecked powers.
