Indian Mutiny, Fate of Jama Masjid and other Islamic Buildings of Delhi:
Jama Masjid suffered desecration and threat, either to be converted in to the Church or war memorial for the British deaths during the Indian Mutiny. One option was to demolish it completely because of its image as a spiritual center for both Hindus and Muslims of the Indian Mutiny. Other buildings of religious importance had similar fate. Some were demolished (Akbarabadi Masjid and Madarssa-i-Rahimiyya), some were transformed in to army barracks (Jama Masjid and Zinatunnisa Masjid) and some were auctioned to Hindu Baniya (Fatehpuri Masjid).
Below is description from The Last Mughal, what Britishers recommended for Majestic Jama Masjid of Delhi.
‘Hugh Chichester was typical. ‘There are several mosques in the city most beautiful to look at’ he wrote to his father. ‘But I should like to see them all destroyed. The rascally brutes desecrated our churches and graveyards and I do not think we should have any regard for their stinking religion’. Charles Raikes though the Jama Masjid should be saved but converted into a church, ‘and name each stone after a Christian martyr’.
Page 408, The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple.
