Indian authorities order demolition of most buildings at university founded by Muslim leader

Rampur, India – More than 100 people sat cross-legged on mats, enduring the harsh July heat, holding up placards and waving the national flag in a northern Indian town.

Less than 200 km from the capital New Delhi, where thousands of young people had recently forced a minister to resign over demands for education reform, a group of students, alumni, and residents staged a sit-in to protest plans to demolish 38 of 40 buildings at Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.

Named after a freedom fighter against British colonial rule, the university was founded by prominent Muslim politician Azam Khan in Rampur district, Uttar Pradesh. Khan established the Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust in 2003 and oversaw the university's founding three years later.

On July 15, as protests by the Cockroach People's Party (CJP)—a youth movement born from a joke—peaked, the Rampur district administration ordered the demolition of most of the university's buildings, accusing them of violating regulations. Only two structures, including a planned medical college block, were built with proper approval, the authorities said, ordering the university to demolish the “illegal” buildings by August 5. If it fails to do so, the government will bring in bulldozers and recover the costs from the university.

On Monday, the state government ordered a stay on the demolition, but did not specify whether the demolition order had been rescinded. Jauhar University Chancellor Zaheeruddin told Al Jazeera that the stay did not mean the demolition was canceled. “The university is seeking a verdict that completely rejects the demolition order,” he said.

For the nearly 3,000 students enrolled in dozens of courses on the 250-acre campus, the government's action was a shock. Since July 15, a group of students and alumni have been sitting outside the main gate, demanding the withdrawal of the demolition order. “If a minister can be forced to resign after the CJP protest, why can't the Uttar Pradesh government stop the demolition of a university when there are so many students protesting?” asked Usama Tayyab, a 2019 Jauhar graduate.

Uttar Pradesh—home to about 240 million people—has been governed by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2017. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is a hardline Hindu monk known for anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies. Khan, the 77-year-old founder and lifetime chancellor of the university, was one of the most vocal critics of the BJP. He was a founder of the Samajwadi Party, popular among the state's 38 million Muslims and a majority of low-caste voters.

After the BJP came to power in 2017, the Adityanath government filed nearly 100 cases against Khan, alleging land grabbing, forgery, and hate speech. Dozens of cases involve Jauhar University. Khan spent more than two years in jail before being granted bail by the Supreme Court in 2022. In 2023, a court in Rampur convicted him, his wife, and son for using a fake birth certificate. He is currently serving a two-year prison sentence since May this year for inciting speech. His supporters say the cases are politically motivated. The state government denies this.

Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan called the demolition order “the government's revenge politics against education.” “There are many reasons: the university was founded by Azam Khan, its foundation stone was laid by Mulayam Singh, the Samajwadi Party leader, and it was inaugurated by former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. And it is a minority university,” he said.

BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said the demolition order “is in line with legal procedure against illegal construction,” and accused the Samajwadi Party of playing “appeasement politics.” “Who can deny that Azam Khan built this university on illegal land? He abused power during the Samajwadi Party's tenure. What we are doing is merely following the law, which means the university must be demolished,” Tripathi said.

Anger has been rising in Rampur, a district with a literacy rate that ranks above only four of the 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh. Nearly half of Jauhar's students are women, according to Dean Gulrez Nizami. Iqra, a fifth-year law student, said she chose the university because her parents felt assured of safety for female students. “If the university is demolished, girls like me will never get a chance to study elsewhere. Our parents won't trust sending us elsewhere,” she said.

It is not only Muslims protesting—more than a third of the students are Hindu. Chandni Diwakar, a first-year medical student, said, “They call this a Muslim university, but I never felt like a non-Muslim in a minority institution. Everyone is friendly.”

The Rampur Development Authority (RDA) said its action was based on a report from a regional official. District Magistrate and RDA Vice-Chairman Ajay Kumar Dwivedi said only two of the 40 buildings were legal. Chancellor Zaheeruddin rejected the allegation, saying the land came under RDA jurisdiction only in September 2024, long after the buildings were built. “There was no RDA authority in Singankhera at the time the university was established. They are just using this as a tool against Azam Khan,” he said.

The university has appealed the RDA order as protests escalate. Usman Ali, a law alumnus, said police were visiting striking students' homes to pressure them. “Police come to our homes and threaten our parents, but we will not back down,” he said. On Saturday, a delegation of Samajwadi Party MPs joined the protesters.

Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, India has seen a wave of demolitions of homes, mosques, and other properties, which human rights groups say disproportionately affects Muslims. Apoorvanand, a professor at Delhi University, said the demolition serves multiple purposes: creating a spectacle of confronting powerful Muslims for Hindu voters, a campaign against minority institutions, and preventing the integration of Hindus and Muslims, which is a strength of universities. Abdul Kaleem Ansari, a Jauhar alumnus, compared their protest to the CJP movement that forced the education minister to resign and expressed surprise that calls for education reform did not include the demolition of a university. “The future of all students and alumni is at stake, and we don't know where to go from here,” he said.