A secular shrine…

The Haji Malang dargah, also referred to as Malanggad, is popular among the faithful from all religious backgrounds, and located on the hills of Kalyan. It houses the tomb of the 12th-century Sufi saint Haji Abd-ul-Rahman, popularly known as Haji Malang Baba. The district gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, released in 1882, referred to Haji Malang as an Arab missionary who came to Kalyan in the 12th century and became very popular. The gazetteer mentioned a fair held annually in his honour, attended by a large number of Hindus and Muslims. The colonial-era document further mentioned the Sufi saint’s proximity to the reigning Hindu king Nala Raja and explained the shrine was visited by Hindus and Muslims from Kalyan, Thane, Panvel and Mumbai during the annual fair. More recently, the state government website stated that the shrine was one of the few dargahs where a Hindu vahivatdar (traditional priest) and a Muslim mutavalli (claiming to be distant kin of the saint), officiated at religious rituals.

...And a site of contest

However, Hindu and Muslim devotees are also engaged in a legal battle over rights and ownership. While the Muslim side refers to it as Haji Malang Dargah, the Hindu side calls it Machindranath Temple.

The controversy first erupted in 1986 after Dighe and his supporters argued that the shrine was the site of Machindranath Panth of the Nath Panth, who was the heir of saint Adinath. Thus, it was right to call it a temple. Starting then, Dighe and Sena's supporters repeatedly called for its “liberation” making it a prominent issue to appease Hindu voters in the elections of 1990.

This was in the backdrop of an already burning national political issue over the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, which Hindutva groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed was the site of the birth of Ram. In February 1996 — a few years after the kar sevaks brought down the 16th-century masjid — Dighe led thousands of Shiv Sainiks to Malanggad to perform a puja.

A Sena strategy

The contestation around Malanggad and attempts to make it an electoral issue is not the only instance where the Sena used the 'Us versus Them' strategy to garner support. One of the earliest instances of the party’s espousal of the Hindutva cause was its involvement in the communal tensions that erupted over the Durgadi fort shrine in Kalyan in 1968.

The Durgadi fort became a point of conflict in the 1960s. While Hindus worshipped a Durga temple on the fort, Muslims in the neighbourhood started offering Namaz at an adjacent area claiming it to be a mosque. In 1968, Bal Thackeray promised Hindu devotees that he would ensure that the saffron flag was hoisted atop the fort. Even as the police banned assembly in the area, Thackeray went ahead and addressed multiple public meetings in Kalyan over the next few days. At one such meeting held in September itself, nearly 8,000 supporters defied the ban. The issue remains unresolved and is revived now and then.

Mahad’s Mahikawati shrine too was a site of contestation. It was claimed by both Hindus and Muslims. In 1969, at a meeting held at Girgaum Chowpatty, Thackeray announced that just like Durgadi, he would give the Mahikawati temple “back to the Hindus”. On January 17, 1970, Thackeray went to Mahad and held a public meeting at the footsteps of the temple. He unfurled a saffron flag on the ruins of the structure situated atop a hill and broke a coconut, a Hindu tradition of offering prayers.

A political fortune

Prominent leaders like Dighe have used such issues to make their mark and garner support among the party’s majority Marathi and Hindu followers. The revival of the Malanggad controversy by Eknath Shinde more than 35 years after it was first raised is indicative of the issues he faces as CM.

One, it affords Shinde a chance to position himself as a protégé of Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe by reviving issues that they once stood for — vital at a time when the Supreme Court is poised to decide over the validity of his government after Uddhav Thackeray took him to court last year over the split in the party. Indeed, after his rebellion within the party in June 2022, Shinde frequently cited his discomfort with the Sena’s less aggressive stance on Hindutva. He blamed Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray for changing the face of Shiv Sena. In his speeches, he has often claimed ownership over the Sena brand and the legacy of Bal Thackeray. His revival of the controversy can be seen as a strike in that direction.

Two, it is an opportunity to wave his Hindutva credentials in a year where both state assembly and Lok Sabha polls are coming up, hitching his bandwagon onto the national discourse set by the BJP-led Centre — in a few weeks, their long-held promise of inaugurating the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will come true — as well as to cement his value in the BJP-led coalition in the state over the recent joiner, Ajit Pawar.

Three, a revival of issues around Malanggad helps leaders like Shinde to form a narrative that does not focus on the Maratha reservation issue alone — an issue that has put him and his deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in a bind. Anyone who speaks against Malanggad or is critical of such divisive politics would become an easy target of their ire.

Dr Sanjay Patil’s doctoral work looks at the journey of Shiv Sena between 1985 and 2022. He works at the University of Mumbai and has been chronicling the Shiv Sena’s journey for the last ten years.