Why did India’s bishops back a bill opposed by Muslim leaders?
A short statement from the country's bishops’ conference has caused large ripples across the country.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India issued a short statement Monday that caused large ripples across the country.
The CBCI expressed support March 31 for the reform of regulations governing Islamic charitable endowments, arguing that some provisions in the existing law were incompatible with India’s Constitution and secular democratic values.
The CBCI’s intervention came days before a bill on Muslim endowments supported by the country’s Hindu nationalist government returned to India’s parliament, passing in both lower and upper houses after marathon debates.
But while the CBCI’s statement might seem at first reading to be a mild contribution to an arcane policy dispute, it has provoked strong reactions.
In an April 3 op-ed, the veteran Indian Catholic journalist John Dayal said the bishops “may have permanently soured Christian relations with the Muslim religious establishment by backing the country’s Islamophobic government on a controversial bill that Muslims see as a direct blow to their ancient codes.”
If that’s correct, it would be a big deal. According to the most recent census in 2011, India’s population of 1.21 billion is 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim, and 2% Christian. (The overall population has since grown to over 1.4 billion.) In the Hindu-dominated country, Muslims are the largest religious minority and far more numerous than Christians.
While Christian-Hindu relations are understandably a priority for India’s Catholic Church, Christian-Muslim dialogue remains vitally important.
What, precisely, is the Islamic endowments dispute about? Why has the Church taken a position? And what impact is it likely to have?
What’s driving the endowments dispute?
In Islamic legal tradition, there is a principle known as waqf, from the Arabic word for “endowment” or “dedication.” It refers to an act in which a Muslim permanently dedicates property, money, or other assets for a religious or charitable purpose. Examples include mosques, cemeteries, and schools.
Once a waqf is validly established, it cannot be revoked by the donor or anyone else, in Islamic understanding, because it is considered to belong to God.
In India, the first documented waqf was in the 12th century. Over the centuries, the practice expanded. Today, there are around 870,000 waqf properties covering around 1 million acres in India. Waqf boards, which manage the dedicated properties, are India’s third-largest property holders after the Indian Railways and the Indian Armed Forces.
India’s government, led by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has pushed for sweeping changes to the waqf system, arguing that it is beset by mismanagement, corruption, and a tendency to claim properties illegally.
Critics, who include prominent Muslim leaders, accuse the BJP-led government of seeking to centralize control over waqf properties, limit religious freedom, and polarize public opinion ahead of state elections.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2025, passed by the lower house of parliament April 2 and the upper house the following day, requires that Muslim women and non-Muslims are appointed to boards. The bill also says that properties can no longer be recognized as waqf based on long-term use without solid documentation.
The bill will become law after it receives presidential assent, likely in the coming weeks.
Why has the Church spoken out?
The Catholic Church has become embroiled in the waqf debate because of a land dispute in Munambam, a suburb of the coastal city of Kochi, in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Christian families have lived for generations in a 400-acre area, earning their living from fishing in the local harbor. In 1950, a deed was registered designating the land as waqf property. The fishing families, who are predominantly Latin Catholics, continued to occupy the land and there were ambiguities in the waqf designation that triggered decades of legal battles.
In 2022, the Kerala Waqf Board asserted ownership of the land, leaving the families fearing possible eviction. The Kerala state government intervened, but the board appealed to the Kerala High Court, which halted the state government’s actions.
On March 29 this year, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council urged members of parliament from Kerala to vote in favor of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. BJP government ministers welcomed the move by the council, which includes bishops of the three main Catholic rites in India (Latin, Syro-Malabar, and Syro-Malankara).
Two days later, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, another body uniting all three rites, made a similar intervention, underlining the unanimity of Church leaders on the issue.
The CBCI said: “It is a reality that certain provisions in the existing [1954] Central Waqf Act are inconsistent with the Constitution and the secular democratic values of the country.”
“In Kerala, the Waqf Board has invoked these provisions to declare the ancestral residential properties of more than 600 families in the Munambam region as waqf land. Over the past three years, this issue has escalated into a complex legal dispute. The fact remains that only a legal amendment can provide a permanent solution, and this must be recognized by the people’s representatives.”
The CBCI urged lawmakers to take “an unbiased and constructive approach” to the issue.
“The rightful ownership of land must be fully restored to the people of Munambam,” it said. “Any provisions or laws that contradict the principles of the Indian Constitution must be amended. At the same time, the rights of religious minorities, as guaranteed by the Constitution, must be safeguarded.”
Government ministers were also quick to welcome the CBCI’s statement.
What impact will it have?
India’s bishops clearly hope that when the Waqf (Amendment) Bill becomes law, it will enable the Munambam land dispute to be resolved in favor of the Christian families. That would be a tremendous relief for the local community.
But Catholics such as John Dayal worry that the bishops’ support for Munambam’s residents could come at the cost of good relations with the Muslim community, with whom Indian Christians share certain difficulties as religious minorities.
Dayal argues that Church leaders have helped Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP to gain a political foothold in Kerala, which has been dominated by the Indian National Congress and an alliance of left-wing political parties led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) since the country achieved independence in 1947. The BJP gained its first member of parliament in Kerala in June 2024, after a campaign targeting Christian voters.
The alleged cooperation between the bishops and the BJP seems counter-intuitive as Indian Catholics are typically wary of the party which insists that Hindutva, or “Hindu-ness,” is the bedrock of the country’s culture.
The BJP has also been accused of stirring up animosity toward India’s religious minorities, primarily Muslims, but also Christians — though it strenuously denies the claim. Just this week, a Hindu mob assaulted two Catholic priests in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
India’s bishops may also be hoping their support for the bill will earn them credit with the government, potentially helping them to convey their concerns about anti-Christian violence and maintain their autonomy in a sometimes hostile climate.
But commentators like Dayal argue that any benefit will likely be short-lived and Christian properties dating to colonial times, such as schools, colleges, and hospitals, could, in turn, be threatened as their 99-year leases expire.
I’m not sure why the Church should feel compelled to defend a law that 1) specifically privileges Muslim charities over all others and 2) has been used to take land from Catholics on dubious pretexts. The argument that religious minorities should always band together simply doesn’t persuade. If the government wanted to target Catholic charities, it already could because the waqf law is specific to Muslims. Instead, the current waqf systems seems to provide no recourse for anyone in the sights of a waqf board. That seems like a problem in need of solving.
I'm a little confused about the 400 acres. How did it get designated as waqf? Based on the explanation given above, it sounds like an endowment or will. Was the whole property owned by one Muslim who made that designation? And the Catholic fishing families are tenants?