Bulandshahar: When Muslim Neighbours Helped Cremate a Dead Hindu I The Wire

2021-06-03 7

बुलंदशहर में इंसानियत की जो मिसाल देखने को मिली वो काबिले तारीफ है। यहां एक हिंदू व्यक्ति का अंतिम संस्कार मुस्लिम समुदाय के लोगों ने किया ।

मरने वाला व्यक्ति काफी गरीब था और पिछले लंबे समय से मुस्लिम आबादी के बीच ही रह रहा था।मरने वाला व्यक्ति रवि शंकर लंबे समय से बुलंदशहर शहर के मोहल्ला आनंद विहार में रह रहा था । उनकी मौत के बाद उनके परिवार में उनके दो बेटे और और पत्नी बचे हैं । परिवार की आर्थिक स्थिति काफी कमजोर थी। लेकिन मुस्लिम समुदाय के लोगों ने हर तरह से परिवार का साथ देकर एक मिसाल कायम की है । इलाके के लोगों की माने तो उन्होंने कभी मृतक को अपने से अलग नहीं माना और पूरे रीति-रिवाज से हिंदू परंपराओं के मुताबिक मृतक का अंतिम संस्कार किया गया । रास्ते में सभी लोग यह देखकर हैरान थे की किस तरह मुस्लिम लोग राम का नाम सत्य कहते हुए एक हिंदू व्यक्ति को मोक्ष के द्वार तक ले जा रहे हैं।

वास्तव में देश में कोरोना के कहर के बीच इस तरह की मानवता की मिसाल कम ही देखने को मिलती है। लेकिन शायद ऐसे ही लोगों की वजह से आज इंसानियत जिंदा है।

Reporter: Zaheer Khan

A shared humanity transcended every other question in Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh, when a Hindu man who died of cancer was carried to the cremation ground here by his neighbour who were all Muslim.

The person who died, Ravi Shankar, was very poor and had been living among Muslim neighbours in Mohalla Anand Vihar of Bulandshahar city for a long time. He was living with his wife and two sons.

The financial condition of the family was quite weak. But Ravi Shankar's Muslim neighbours have been supporting them in every way. If people of the area are to be believed, they never considered the deceased man as different from them in any way and the funeral was performed according to Hindu traditions and customs. Onlookers were surprised to see how Muslims were saying 'Rama naam satya hai' or 'The name of Rama is the truth', as they carried his bier up to what Hindus traditionally believe is the door of salvation.

One of Ravi Shankar's sons said that that because of the lockdown, some people could not come for the funeral. The Muslims took [the body], he said, and later others joined.

In fact, such examples of humanity are rarely seen in the country these days, especially amidst the havoc wrought by the Corona pandemic and lockdown, when landlords and employers compelled lakhs and lakhs of poor workers and their families to leave their homes and places of work in the cities and set out on foot to their villages. But perhaps it is due to ordinary Indians – such as Ravi Shankar's neighbours – that humanity is alive today.

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