Partition, Refugee Rehabilitation, and Waqf Properties: Legal Conflicts in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh (1947–1965)

Abstract

The Partition of India in 1947 triggered not only mass displacement and communal violence but also a profound reconfiguration of property relations in North India. While refugee rehabilitation has been widely examined as a humanitarian and administrative challenge, its implications for minority religious institutions—particularly Waqf properties—remain insufficiently explored. This article examines the legal conflicts surrounding Waqf properties in post-Partition Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, focusing on the intersection of refugee rehabilitation policies, evacuee property laws, and minority property rights between 1947 and the mid-1960s.

Drawing upon legal statutes, administrative practices, and judicial interpretations, the study argues that Waqf properties occupied an ambiguous legal position in the immediate aftermath of Partition. Although Waqf assets were legally inalienable charitable endowments under Islamic law, they were frequently treated as abandoned or evacuee property by state authorities responding to the urgent demands of refugee settlement. The establishment of the Custodian of Evacuee Property and the expansion of executive powers resulted in the temporary—and often permanent—appropriation of Waqf lands and buildings for housing, commercial use, and state infrastructure.

Through a comparative regional analysis, the article demonstrates that urban redevelopment pressures in Delhi and agrarian reforms in Uttar Pradesh produced distinct yet convergent patterns of dispossession and legal contestation. Judicial interventions, while occasionally reaffirming the special status of Waqf, largely failed to prevent administrative encroachment, revealing the limits of legal redress for minority institutions in a period of emergency governance. The article contends that the treatment of Waqf properties reflects a broader postcolonial dilemma: the subordination of religious trust law and minority rights to the imperatives of nation-building and rehabilitation. By foregrounding institutional property disputes, this study contributes to Partition historiography and legal history by highlighting how humanitarian crises can produce enduring transformations in legal norms and minority-state relations in independent India.