In a village in the district of Malerkotla in Punjab, an extraordinary act of interfaith solidarity made headlines earlier this year. Sukhjinder Singh Noni, former village head of Umarpura, and his brother Avninder Singh donated 5.5 hectares of prime agricultural land for the construction of a mosque.
The reason for this was simple and had nothing to do with politics, but with compassion.
“About 30 per cent of the population of our village are Muslims and they did not have a mosque. My brother and I decided to donate this land to fulfil our obligation,” Sukhjinder told The Indian Express.
On 12 January, the Shahi Imam of Punjab, Mohammad Usman Rehman Ludhianvi, laid the foundation stone for the mosque, calling it “a powerful message of love and humanity”.
Other Sikh villagers soon joined in: Tejwant Singh and Ravinder Singh Grewal donated money to enable the Muslims to build the mosque.
However, this is not an isolated case in Punjab.
The state, where Muslims make up only 1.9 per cent of the population and where there were bloody riots in 1947, has experienced a quiet revolution of communal friendship.
Sikhs and Muslims jointly rebuild mosques
Across villages and towns, Sikh families have agreed to rebuild or restore Muslim places of worship, many of which had been abandoned in the traumatic post-partition period.
In Jitwalkalan, a Sikh-majority village with barely a dozen Muslim families, a new mosque is nearing completion - largely thanks to Sikh donations of land and money.
“90% of the donations came from Sikhs,” says Mohammed Anwar, a local Muslim.
“First the land, then the financial support. Thanks to them, we no longer have to travel to another village to pray.”
According to Shahbaz Ahmed Zahoor of Idara Taameerey Masaajid, an organisation that supports the construction and maintenance of mosques in Punjab, there are around 200 such cases across the state where Sikh families have donated land for mosques.
Around 100 new mosques have been built as a result.
Now the Waqf Amendment Bill passed by the Indian Parliament introduces a controversial clause that has caused an uproar in political circles.
The law stipulates that only a Muslim who has been practising Islam for at least five years can donate land or property for Muslim religious or charitable purposes.
The law, which allows non-Muslims to be included on Wakf Boards, ironically disallows them to donate to the Wakf or Muslim endowments.
Donations by Non-Muslims Invalid
This means that the hundreds of land donations made by Sikh families to help their Muslim neighbours build mosques or cemeteries in Punjab would now be invalid — or simply illegal.
The law requires donors to “prove that they have been practising Islam for at least five years",” which raises questions about how religiosity is to be proven.
Does a person need a certificate? A declaration from clerics? Who decides what “practising Islam” means?
Muslim parliamentarians have spoken out against the law.
“This is an affront to the Muslim community,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, a member of parliament.
“No other community faces such a discriminatory clause. The new converts to Islam are excluded by this provision — it violates the basic principles of Islamic equality and Indian secularism.”
Owaisi termed the clause as “discriminatory against new converts” and warned that it could set a dangerous precedent of forcing Muslims to prove their faith with documents.
Law criminalises generosity
According to legal experts, the amendment to subsection 3(r) of the Wakf Act replaces a broad and inclusive provision — allowing “any person” to donate property — with a narrow, exclusionary provision. The new text requires the donor to prove ownership, declare that he is not “fictitious" and, most importantly, prove that he has practised Islam for five years.
This is an unprecedented intrusion into religious endowments — and it has left communities like those in Punjab confused and angry.
The law effectively criminalises Sikh generosity. “Had this law been in place earlier, we would not have been able to build the mosque,” said an imam who requested anonymity.
“This is not just about a donation — it is about our common life, our common villages. What kind of government stands in the way of that?”
Political commentator Sanjay K. Jha, writing in The Wire, sees the law as part of a larger strategy to sow distrust between communities while pretending to help them.
“The Narendra Modi government's claim that it brought in the Wakf Bill because it cares about the welfare of Muslims is the vilest political fraud independent India has ever seen,” Jha wrote in a scathing article.
“The audacity of the government to sell this lie is mind-boggling. They believe that this operation can be carried out under local anaesthesia of the nation... as if their bigoted supporters will remain calm until the operation is completed.”
He describes the bill as part of a long list of measures — the eviction of homes — designed to give the appearance of “charity", but which ultimately serve to isolate and alienate Muslims. And now, he argues, even Muslim philanthropy and interfaith charity are being monitored.
“Why should only Muslims constantly prove their loyalty to the nation?” Jha asks. “Why are special shackles placed on their religious activities?”
Effects of Law
The impact of the law goes beyond Punjab. All over India, interfaith charity is now under suspicion. A Hindu or Sikh who wants to donate to a Muslim Waqf institution must first convert and wait five years, turning the gesture of charity into a bureaucratic quagmire.
Even worse, it creates a new level of surveillance and religious profiling. What counts as “practising Islam”? Will donors be asked for proof of prayer attendance, religious affiliation or church certificates?
Asaduddin Owaisi warns that such requirements are not only unconstitutional but also dangerous. “This amendment introduces a certificate of practice, which is a form of exclusion and authorisation,” he said during the parliamentary debate.
What is perhaps most perplexing is the contradiction between the stated intention of the bill and its actual effect. In Parliament, BJP ministers raved about the utilisation of Waqf assets for the welfare— of Muslims - particularly for education, health, women’s empowerment and skill development.
However, Sanjay Jha calls this “a magical invention of the Amrit Kaal" - an illusion meant to distract from the government’s otherwise anti-minority stance.
“Forget what Modi said a few months ago,” writes Jha, “that other governments would usurp people’s wealth and distribute it among those who are ‘invaders' and ‘produce more children’.”
“Never mind that the voluble home minister doesn’t say a word when goons call for an economic boycott of Muslim hawkers… ... when innocent men are lynched.”
No Muslims MPs in BJP-government
The contradiction is glaring: a government with no Muslim MPs preaches welfare for Muslims while its political apparatus targets them through hate speech, marginalisation policies and legal landmines.
The question of absence of Muslims as Members of Parliament in Lok Sabha and only one nominated Muslim member from Jammu and Kashmir in Rajya Sabha has been raised during the debate on the Wakf Bill in the Upper House of the Parliament. The participants in the discussion also questioned why there was no Muslim minister in BJP-government at the Centre.
The opposition MPs questioned both the "intent and content" of the Wakf Bill. Some MPs alleged that the BJP-government was only eyeing the big landed estates of the Wakf Boards at prime locations in the country. They alleged that the government was only interested in selling these prime land chunks to its cronies at throw away prices.
In Punjab, this law sends a chilling message — not just to the Sikhs, but to every Indian who believes in helping his neighbour irrespective of his faith. A centuries-old tradition of interfaith harmony is now subject to religious certification and ideological surveillance.
Sanjay Jha warns that this is more than a political manoeuvre — it is a moral crisis.
“Evil intentions are often camouflaged by noble pretences,” he says. “The truth is known to the world, and it rests on a higher vantage point, beyond the weeds and shoots of sophistry and illogic.”
In villages like Umarpura and Jitwalkalan, Sikhs and Muslims still build together. But in the eyes of the law, their love and brotherhood may now be not just irrelevant, but illegal.
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