Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday (3rd January) while addressing a religious event in Thane district raked up the issue of Malanggad, or more popularly known as the Haji Malang Dargah.
Reiterating Shiv Sena’s commitment to liberate the structure, Shinde said that Anand Dighe had initiated the liberation movement of Malanggad which led to the chant “Jai Malang Shri Malang”.
He said, “Your sentiments towards Malanggad are well known to me. It was Anand Dighe who initiated the liberation movement of Malanggad, leading us to chant ‘Jay Malang Shri Malang’. However, I must tell you that there are certain matters that aren’t meant for public discussion. I’m aware of the deep-rooted beliefs you hold about Malanggad’s liberation. Let me say this that Eknath Shinde will not stay quiet till he fulfills your wishes.”
The dargah is situated 3000 feet above sea-level to the south of Kalyan in the Matheran hill ranges. On 20th February, devotees will mark the death anniversary of Haji Abd-ul-Rahman, a so-called Sufi saint of the 12th century.
In 1980s, prominent Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe – who was Eknath Shinde’s political mentor – led the first agitation claiming that the structure was the location of an old Hindu shrine belonging to the Nath Panth.
Dighe began an agitation claiming that the shrine belonged to Hindus and that it was a site of a 700-year-old Machindranath temple. In 1996, he insisted on leading 20,000 Shiv Sainiks to the shrine to perform pooja.
It is since then that the structure has been called Shri Malanggad.
According to reports, the first signs of conflict began in the 18th century when local Muslims objected to the structure being managed by a Brahmin.
The conflict was brought before a local administrator who decided in 1817 that the will of the saint should be found by “casting lots”.
According to the Gazette, “Lots were cast and three times the lot fell on the representative of Kashinath Pant, who was proclaimed the guardian.”
The Ketkars have been the trustees of the Haji Malang Dargah Trust since then.
The dargah is maintained a three-member trust which reportedly includes a Hindu Brahmin family.
“Anyone claiming that the dargah is a temple is doing it for political mileage,” said Chandrahas Ketkar, whose family has been managing the dargah over 14 generations.
He said that in 1954, the Supreme Court had in a case related to the control of the dargah within the Ketkar family had observed that the dargah was a composite structure and cannot be governed by either Hindu or Muslim law but only by its own special custom or by general law of trusts.
Ketkar says that he issue is being politically raked up only to appeal to the vote bank.
The Gazetteers of Bombay Presidency published in 1882 mentions the dargah. It says that the shrine was built in honour of an Arab missionary, Haji Abd-ul-Rahman. He reportedly arrived with a bunch of followers from Yemen and settled on the lower plateau of the hill.
At the time, a local king named Nal Raja was in power. Local legend claims that Nal Raja married off his daughter to Haji Malang. The graves of both Haji Malang and “Maa Fatima” are located inside the dargah premises.
The structure and graves have reportedly existed since the 12th century and are considered holy.
Abhijit Ketkar, another member of the Ketkar family that manages the trust, said that thousands of devotees visit the shrine every year to fulfill their “mannat”.
According to The Gazetteers of Bombay Presidency, in the 18th century, the Maratha Confederecy sent offerings to the shrine as the departure of the British was “ascribed to the power of the saint”.
These offerings were sent under the charge of Kashinath Pant Khetkar, a Brahmind from Kalyan. Pant is reportedly said to have funded the repairs and taken over the management of the structure.
“The stewardship of the dargah rests with a local Brahmin family. It is a syncretic shrine and historically people who are distressed and marginalised irrespective of their faiths visit the shrine,” said Rama Shyam, who has written a thesis on the dargah.
In February 2023, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde performed aarti at the site and offered a saffron covering inside the dargah. Shinde has now raised the issue once more.
