Conference · October 2025
Waqf in India
Rights, Resistance and Reform
Waqf, the Islamic charitable endowment, has sustained mosques, schools, graveyards and community property in South Asia for centuries. The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 changed how those endowments are governed, and brought the institution to the centre of a national debate over minority rights, constitutional safeguards and the future of Muslim public institutions in India.
The conference took up the Act across four sessions, bringing together legal scholars, historians, policy specialists and advocates. The first day met at Roosevelt University’s Schaumburg campus; the second met online.
Four sessions
The Act read through law, the constitution, the courts and policy.
- Session I
Law and the Politics of Muslim Identity
How legal language and public debate frame Muslim identity in India, and how waqf connects to the wider pressures on Muslim civic institutions.
- Session II
Constitutional Safeguards and Waqf Governance
The constitutional protections available to Muslim endowments, and the tension between state regulation and religious autonomy.
- Session III
The Waqf Amendment Act and the Indian Judiciary
How the courts have shaped waqf governance, and the part they will play in reviewing the 2025 amendment.
- Session IV
Reconceptualising Waqf through Policy
Paths to reform that let waqf institutions serve their communities while keeping their religious and charitable character.
Recorded talks
Ten talks from the conference, recorded and published by the Center on South Asian Studies.
Publication
Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law and Practice
Full papers from the conference are to appear in a special issue of the Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law and Practice, a Scopus-indexed journal, announced for June 2026.