Communal harmony
On Feb. 19 I came across an interesting news item while surfing the Internet. I would like to share it with readers who believe in communal harmony.
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar related the following event.
While the entire Kashmir valley in India busied itself with purchases for the Idul Fitri festival on Feb. 9, the residents of Karan Nagar in Srinagar were busy performing the last rites for their Hindu neighbor Shamlal, aged 80, who passed away on the same day.
Shamlal had chosen to stay back with his mentally-handicapped daughter, Santosh Kumari, while almost all the community, including his relatives, fled the valley in 1990.
With no one from his community left in Karan Nagar, his Moslem neighbors performed his last rites. They prepared the dead body and lit his funeral pyre, every detail carried out by his Moslem neighbors who had fended for him while he was alive.
Emotion and communal amity were at their best, and those who witnessed the Moslem neighbors showering Gangajal (holy water from the Ganges) on the dead body, would hardly have believed that so much blood could have been shed in Kashmir.
As a mark of respect for the departed soul, Moslems in the area did not even go about their normal Idul Fitri festivities. Instead, they looked for ways to console his mentally-handicapped daughter who was not even able to fathom her great loss. In fact, she was the only person who ate a normal meal that day. Everyone around offered their sympathy and food.
The death and cremation of Shamlal is not the first of its kind. In the past, similar emotional scenes have been witnessed in the valley. Women lamenting the death of an elder in the area and the genuine grief cutting through religious and communal lines have been the hallmark of the Kashmiri people.
Due to the migration of the Kashmiri Hindus, there are few purohits (priests) left behind who can perform the religious rites of the community brethren still living in the valley. The few available carry on their normal life among their Moslem brothers in remote villages and inaccessible hamlets of the state.
C. RAMAKRISHNA
Jakarta