An Indo-American Searching for Vanishing Islamic Heritage Sites

Chennai: Mr. Siraj Thakor, from Toronto, Canada, has undertaken the monumental task of creating an online database of all the Islamic Heritage Sites of India. He likes to preserve it digitally and make it available to cherish this great country’s Islamic past.
Mr. Siraj is looking for volunteers to assist him with the information on Islamic Heritage Sites in India. In response to his call, someone wrote to me with detailed information about a graceful mosque that lies in ruins in the Gaya district of Bihar.
This mosque, popularly call the ‘Loda mosque,’ was built around 1536 AD during the Lodhi rule in India. It is believed that Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, one of the rulers of the Lodhi dynasty, had taken the initiative to get this mosque constructed.
This mosque is about 25 km from Gaya on Gaya-Patna road. It is precisely near Kundwa village at Khijrasarai block in Gaya district. It is situated on the banks of the river Falgu, a kilometer from village Kundwa. On the West of the river is Lodhipur village, colloquially called Lodpur, while on the east is Kundwa village.
The mosque becomes functional only during the ‘Eid’ and ‘Bakrid’ festivals when some Muslims from Kundwa village offer prayers in this mosque.
For the rest of the years, this mosque remains a picture of neglect and want for maintenance. There is no Azaan called from this mosque as there is no one to take care of this house of worship. Some people have illegally occupied the land around this mosque, but there is none to challenge such encroachments.
This historical mosque comes under the Archaeological Survey of India, but neither ASI nor the Bihar government, nor the Waqf Board, can protect this Islamic heritage site.
In this context, people like Mr. Siraj Thakor, who is Past President of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI), come into the picture. He wrote to me:
Mr. Siraj has started an All India campaign to document such historical Islamic heritage sites in ruins. If you have any similar story of any such Islamic heritage site near you, please write to him directly with photographs; ([email protected]). You can even contact him on ‘WhatsApp’ -+1 416-277-7082
(Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@ gmail.com)