Haj subsidy

The Haj subsidy was a subsidy based on religion that was given to Hajj pilgrims by the Government of India in the form of discounted airfare so that a pilgrim can fly to Mecca for Hajj. The policy has always been controversial until it was abolished under the ruling of the Indian judicial organs.

Quotes

• One thing remained constant throughout the reign—the investments of Hajj. On average, around 15,000 pilgrims visited Mecca annually to perform Hajj during the Tīmūrid (distorted as Moghūls) era. The official Tīmūrid records tell us that the Tīmūrids sponsored the pilgrimage at public expense with gold, goods and rich presents merely with the desire to stand out as defenders of Islam. The major sponsorship began with the period of Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar when he conquered Gujarat in AD 1573. This victory had given him access to the port of Surat.
  • Aabhas Maldahiyar - Babur_ The Chessboard King-Vintage Books (2024)

• The traveling expenses of anybody who might intend to perform the pilgrimage to the Sacred Places should be paid.
  • John Slight, The British Empire and the Hajj, s.l.: Harvard University Press, 2015.

• This, my friends, is the Jaziya that non-Muslims pay in "free" India, one governed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Hajpayee.
  • Varsha Bhosle: The Jaziya that Hindus yet pay [1]. See also [2] and Bhosle's definition: 'Hajpayee = Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for forcing non-Muslims to subsidise the Hajj' [3]