In a significant step, Kingdom of\nSaudi Arabia increased India\u2019s Haj quota by 30,000 thus lifting the figure to\n200,000 per year (from 170,000). This move will pave the way for more Indians\nto go for the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Background<\/strong>: In 2018, Saudi\nArabia increased India\u2019s Haj quota by 5,000, while in 2017 it was increased by\nabout 35,000. Last year government removed the Haj subsidy it provided to\npilgrims undertaking Haj in the light of a Supreme Court order of 2012 and the\nsame year government also allowed Muslim women to go on Haj without Mehram<\/em>\n(means male companion), following which about 1,300 women went to Hajj without\nany male companion. They were exempted from lottery system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discussion<\/strong>:\nThe issue related to India\u2019s Haj quota was discussed during Prime Minister\nNarendra Modi\u2019s bilateral talks with Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed\nbin Salman<\/em> during ongoing G20 Summit<\/em><\/strong> in Osaka Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India-Saudi\nArabia<\/strong>: During the talks India discussed deepening cooperation in trade and\ninvestment, energy security and counter-terrorism with its invaluable\nstrategic partner <\/em>Saudi Arabia. Two leaders also spoke about need for\ngreater tourism, more flights. Saudi Crown Prince also invited PM Modi to be\none of the main guests at an International Conference in late 2019. The\ninvitation was accepted by India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Significance<\/strong>:\nThis is the 3rd hike in past three years. When the Modi government first came\nto power in 2014, India\u2019s Hajj quota was 136,000 which has now been increased\nto 200,000 per year. This enhanced quota means that India will send 2nd-highest\nnumber of pilgrims for Hajj after Indonesia i.e. 2 lakh Indians will have the\nopportunity to go for Haj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About\nHajj<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is an annual\nIslamic pilgrimage to Mecca, a city in Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia. It is the\nholiest city for Muslims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hajj is a\nmandatory religious duty for all belonging to Muslims faith and all adult\nMuslims who are physically and financially capable have to carry out this\npilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hajj pilgrimage\noccurs from the 8th to 12th (or sometimes 13th) of Dhu al-Hijjah<\/em>,<\/strong>\nthe last month of Islamic calendar (which is a lunar calendar).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a significant step, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia increased India\u2019s Haj quota by 30,000 thus lifting the figure to 200,000 per year (from 170,000). This move will pave the way for more Indians to go for the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi kingdom. Background: In 2018, Saudi Arabia increased India\u2019s Haj quota by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-3026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles","tag-international-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3028,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions\/3028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}