NEW DELHI (RNS) — Sitting on a rock on the lawns of the sprawling 14th-century Feroz Shah Kotla Fort complex in Delhi, Aarif often writes letters to spirits. His love interest, Neha, sits on the rock opposite him.
“Every Thursday, we tell the djinns (spirits) to help us,” said the 28-year-old Muslim software professional, who’s been in a secret relationship with Neha, who is Hindu, for four years. The Old Delhi resident is being referred to by his first name only due to concerns about his family finding out. “Our families won’t accept our union, so we need divine intervention.”
For Aarif, the red sandstone complex built during the reign of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, the sultan of Delhi from 1351 to 1388, isn’t just a historical monument. He believes it to be a haven of spirits created from smokeless fire.
However, Aarif and other devotees — Muslims and those of other faiths — who once roamed the medieval complex freely have been locked out of some of its spiritually significant spaces after a spate of reforms in the last several years. With it, their connection to the fort that holds a special space in their lives has been jolted. Meanwhile, fort complex authorities say religious rituals of the crowds are harming the historic site.
“We can no longer go inside the cells below the Jami Mosque to give our letters or offer our prayers,” said Wasim Iqbal, a college student from Delhi, referring to the iron grilles that have been raised in front of the cells to keep visitors from entering the lower recesses of the mosque.
The restoration project at the Feroz Shah fort complex was started by the Archaeological Survey of India in 2019. It involved restoring the mosque’s citadel, repairing cracks on its façade, laying out new pathways and providing upgraded facilities to tourists. The archaeologists intended to showcase the royal citadel as a unique example of the medieval Tughlaq dynasty’s architecture, visited by many historical figures and chroniclers, according to medieval Indian historians and researchers.
The ramparts of the Jami Mosque at the 14th-century Feroz Shah Kotla Fort complex in Delhi, India, March 20, 2025. (Photo by Priyadarshini Sen)
But as the restoration work around the fort and its three main structures — a third-century B.C. monolithic column, a stepwell and the Jami Mosque with its Mecca-facing western wall and its northern side dropping steeply onto a park below — went on sporadically, believers say they’ve been left out.
“It’s true that the monument requires practical intervention,” said Rinku Bhagat, a 45-year-old Hindu businessman who’s been visiting the historic site for 15 years. “But we also need places that break barriers around religion and caste.”
Devotees say djinns — the spirits that are the monument’s binding force — don’t discriminate among people, though djinns are an integral part of Islamic mythology. Before the renovations and restrictions, devotees visited the cells under the Jami Mosque to ask the spirits to fulfill their wishes, or to act as companions and help influence their choices, allowing them to choose hope over despair.
Belief in the healing power of djinns grew after India’s 21-month emergency, when from 1975 to 1977 the government enforced emergency powers across the country, severely curtailing civil liberties. People on the margins — especially the poor and working classes of Old Delhi — went seeking spiritual respite at the site.
A devotee folds a letter written to djinns, spirits in Islamic mythology, at the 14th-century Feroz Shah Kotla Fort complex in Delhi, India, March 20, 2025. (Photo by Priyadarshini Sen)
Over the decades, belief in the healing powers of the site has grown across religions.
“My son who has epileptic fits finds peace here, not with doctors who can’t understand his heart,” said Sushila Chowdhary, a housewife from Uttar Pradesh who visits the monument on Thursdays, known as the day of the djinns.
But others believe those supernatural powers are myths, and administrative officials and caretakers of the site are focused on protecting the fort as a historical monument.
“This is not a picnic ground,” said Praveen Singh, the superintendent archaeologist at the Archaeological Survey of India in Delhi. “This is our national treasure and we don’t want anti-social elements to corrupt its sanctity or perpetuate myths.”
Singh said preservation efforts have been done with as minimal alterations as possible. And thousands of devotees have continued to arrive every Thursday with candles, flowers, letters and photos to place at the altar of the spirits.
“That’s why we decided to raise iron grilles in front of the cells to ensure public safety,” said Sonu Ranjan, a conservation assistant at Feroz Shah Kotla. “The walls inside the cells have blackened because of candle wax and people have been treating it as a living monument.”
Devotees call on the supernatural power of djinns at the 14th-century Feroz Shah Kotla Fort complex in Delhi, India, March 20, 2025. (Photo by Priyadarshini Sen)
The Archaeological Survey of India has identified 955 monuments being used for worship and prayers as living monuments, but it hasn’t identified this fort as one. Ranjan said religious rituals and distributing sacred food and water during festivals will negatively impact the historical site, as it leads to littering and water overuse.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, an entrance fee for visitors has drawn widespread criticism from devotees.
Every Thursday, sacred food used to be distributed among devotees, and during Ramadan, thousands of Muslims and others used to break their daily fast at the monument with dates, juices and other traditional dishes, but the fee is now a barrier.
“The entrance fee has essentially commercialized a historical place of worship,” said Shaheen Khatoon, a Muslim devotee who now offers Eid prayers at a mosque nearby. “Many ancient temples allow devotees to offer prayers, so why alienate us?”
With cells being locked down and more restrictions placed on worship practices, Muslim devotees fear minorities will be sidelined further because of the surge of Hindutva nationalism in India.
Devotees prepare to break their fast during Ramadan at the 14th-century Feroz Shah Kotla Fort complex in Delhi, India, on March 20, 2025. (Photo by Priyadarshini Sen)
“The government is playing politics over a monument,” said Sahabuddin Wajood, a Muslim businessman from Delhi.
While conservationists see preservation of tangible heritage as their primary goal, believers say their efforts can’t be disentangled from the site’s human ecosystem.
“Instead of adopting a surgical approach toward conservation, the archaeologists should have safety protocols in place so that the human ecosystem stays intact,” said Shashank Sinha, a Delhi-based independent researcher and author of “Delhi, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri: Monuments, Cities and Connected Histories.”
Sinha said safety guidelines should not interfere with people’s belief systems, folklore and stories that are an integral part of the life of a monument.
The imam of the Jami Mosque, M.D. Taslimuddin, who has been leading prayers and working to build interfaith solidarity for 42 years, concurred. Restricting some religious rituals that may adversely impact the medieval monument is a practical decision, he said, but it must be done without harming people’s faith.
Still, Aarif is hoping his prayers to the djinns will help him in his relationship, despite his family’s opposition, and despite being locked out of the complex’s spiritual spaces.
“Sometimes, you need to summon powers beyond human understanding, like the djinns, to make the impossible possible,” he said.