Sambhal: Anatomy of an Engineered Crisis
Myth, Violence, and the Weaponization of Faith in a Muslim-majority City
Sambhal, a town in Uttar Pradesh, has long been a center of religious and cultural confluence. Historically significant for its large Muslim population, Sambhal has been deeply embedded in India’s medieval Islamic architecture, notably as home to the Shahi Jama Masjid—one of the oldest surviving Mughal-era mosques. The city is also mythologized in Hindu belief as the future birthplace of Lord Kalki, the prophesied tenth avatar of Vishnu. This theological narrative, particularly the association with the Hari Har Temple, has been increasingly mobilized by Hindutva forces, reshaping Sambhal into a contested site of religious symbolism and sectarian memory. Despite past communal flare-ups (notably in 1976, 1978, and 1992), the town had maintained relative calm until recent developments reignited historical and religious disputes with drastic consequences.