Photo by Chattrapal (Shitij) Singh on Pexels.com
Nana Patekar once famously said that Hindu aur Musalman Ka Khoon Hai ye, can you point out the difference? Perhaps that scene from Krantiveer is most relevant today as vicious hateful messaging fills studios. As the world grapples with the curse of Corona, India’s Muslims and Hindus have proved that amidst the shrill rhetoric, they will do anything to make each other feel at home and peace. Even if that meant taking the name of Rama instead of Allah while a fellow Hindu is taken on his or her last journey.
When 65 year old, Draupadi Bai a paralysis patient suffering from immense discomfort breathed her last, there was a pall of gloom at home. As a lockdown kept everything off the roads, a herse car was hard to get for her last journey. With none around and haplessness fast creeping in, the neighbours, mostly Muslims came forward in Indore and helped in taking the body to the cremation ground in the South Toda area of Indore.
Photos of the Muslims carrying the body fast went viral with them all in protective gears. Not just lending a shoulder but they also helped making arrangements for the last rites. For these Muslim men it was like a mother passing away because she used to shower a lot of love on them, when these men were kids.
Similar scenes were reported from Bulandshahr as well. The odds aside, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr when a Hindu man died, his relatives chose to stay inside. Marking a new chapter in communal amity, Muslim neighbours cremated his body as per the Hindu rites. It is reported that they even chanted ‘Ram naam satya hai’ (truth is the name of Lord Ram).
The deceased man was identified as Ravishankar, a resident of Anand Vihar locality of Bulandshahr, a cancer patient. While people have confined themselves indoor for remaining untouched from Coronavirus, people are not ready to come out and be part of the last rites of their own.
India has been under lockdown since March 24 to fight the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. Things in the North East are no different, when the family members of Shanti Choudhary could not reach her home for the last rites, an entire group of 25 Muslims in Dhubri district of Assam, led by the All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU), performed the last rites.
Not just cremations across India, but Muslims across India wholeheartedly supported the PM Modi’s call for a lighting of diyas to send a message of unity and oneness. While Diwali is primarily a Hindu tradition, this event was equally participated by Muslims, who shut off the lights in their houses and lit earthen lamps, candles, and mobile phone flashlights for nine minutes.
As India’s media sees red in terms of a crisis of credibility, there is growing outrage over some sections of the electronic media trying to paint the Coronavius pandemic in communal colour. Repeatedly channels have given a rather dangerous spin to the Tabligi Jamaat community spread fiasco by alleging that one community has done all the wrong. It is a well known fact that Corona has affected people of all ages, races, genders and communities. It is a well known fact that disease sees no religion. While the irresponsibility is not pardonable, to profile the minority community does not bode well.
The Centre has cracked the whip based on the argument that there were clear indications that the members of the Jamaat were not well, but they decided to stay on. Many of whom were foreigners from hotspots.
A member of the religious minority in India, Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been clearly quoted saying: “The Tablighi Jamaat spread is a Talibani crime not negligence.”
Even as Corona and its fallout impacts the life of millions globally, Muslims have been dangerously demonized for what the popular media calls a type of Corona Jihad. Many of these communally charged messages and content has now started making its way to Whatsapp groups, which has now even led to Whatsapp regulating forwards. There have also been multiple cases where a story run by media outlets in these times has turned out to be fake. It is now well recorded knowledge that if the Tablighi Jamaat congregated between 13 and 15 March, temples like Siddhivinayak and Mahakaleshwar only closed after March 16. Religious centres like Shirdi Saibaba Mandir and Shani Shingnapur Temple closed not before March 17. Vaishno Devi on 18 March, and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple was operating until 20 March. This was incidentally the day after PM Modi called for social distancing. As weeks passed, several acts of fake chivalry have been caught on camera with little condemnation.
Not very long back Activist Kavita Krishnan’s video tirade against a top journalist for a show titled ‘Madrasa Hotspots’ has created a furore for the clear demonizing of small children in the guise of religion. Several top brands have added the word ‘jihad’ to everything. Be it, Corona jihad, zameen jihad, love jihad, arthik jihad, and much more. Amidst the din there are also a handful of the good guys who still stick to fact based shows, without any sugar coating or masala. Who are receiving equal love for sticking to the hardened ethics that are ingrained in the fair journalist.
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