69was justified (Vijetha and Ali 2012 ) in the name of secularism and the
need for the state to stay away from personal beliefs of its citizens, the
removal of the subsidy would be a hardship for many ordinary Muslims.
The number of Indian haj pilgrims has significantly increased in the past
two decades and so have the travel costs. For example, in early 1990–91
about 25,000 Indian Muslims travelled to Saudi Arabia for haj, while in
2010 the number had increased to 170,000. Likewise, the cost of travel
has shot up from about INR 17,000 (US$700) in 1990 to INR 55,000
(US$850) which means the overall subsidy cost for the exchequer has
increased from INR 10.5 crore (US$4.2 million) in 1994 to INR 685
crore (US$105 million) in 2011 (India, SCI 2011 ).
Due to cost considerations, in 2011 Air India lost its monopoly over
haj pilgrims and the Haj Committee signed an agreement with Saudia as
the official carrier for the Indian hajis. The subsidy removal as demanded
by the courts and loss of lucrative contract by Air India had compelled the
government to revive the earlier practice of maritime travel. With the
advancement of technologies and seaborne innovations, a large number of
pilgrims can travel to Jeddah within 2–3 days and this practice is scheduled
to resume in the coming years (PTI 2018 ).
In addition, the government has been providing additional help in the
form of medical support to the hajis and had been compensating them in
cases of accidents and calamity. In 1958, for example, following a fire in
the haj site, a sum of ₹5000 was provided to affected Indian pilgrims
(India, MEA 1959 ), and likewise, about 45 Indian nationals were killed in
a stampede during the 2015 haj. Indian officials have been periodically
visiting the Kingdom to supervise the facilities and amenities available for
the hajis (India, MEA 1961 ).
As highlighted in Annexure 5 , there is a continuous increase in the
number of Indian hajis and from about 12,000 in 1950 it rose to 20,000 in
1960 and nearly to 100,000 in 2000. It reached a record number of
171,671 in 2010 and for a while, the number remained the same. However,
due to the ongoing expansion work in the Masjid al-Haram around
Ka’aba, in 2014 the Saudi authorities reduced the total number of pil-
grims to two million and imposed a cut and this resulted in a drop in
Indian pilgrims. In 2016, “a total of 135,904 Indian pilgrims performed
haj, out of which 99,904 hajis went through Haj Committee of India and
36,000 through private operators” (India, MEA 2017a). The haj quota is
often decided on a year-on-year basis and it enables Indian leaders and
officials to engage with the Kingdom. With the near completion of the
ISLAMIC DIMENSION