Muslim villagers fell homes for temple in Bihar

Patna: Setting a brilliant example of communal harmony and love towards all religions, Muslim villagers in Bihar fell down voluntarily concrete roofs, cemented pillars and brick-made boundary walls of their houses to let a temple come up near their homes.

The rare scene took place at Kabirpur village in eastern Bihar’s Bhagalpur district which had witnessed the worst communal riots in 1989 in which around 1,000 people were perished.

Witnesses and villagers said a big truck carrying huge stone slabs to carve out statues of deities for an upcoming Jain temple was on way to the temple site but as it reached Muslim-dominated Kabirpur village, it failed to move further as it got badly stuck in the narrow lane of the village.

The low roofs of the buildings, boundary walls and open drains at the village’s lane were preventing the movement of the 70-feet-long truck carrying temple materials from the south Indian city of Bengaluru. The truck had reached the site shortly past midnight on July 25, but the driver as well as the temple organisers was just unable to find out any solution about how to make the truck reach the temple site despite trying almost everything the whole night.

In the meantime, dawn broke and this attracted a large number of local villagers, seeing the truck stuck in the village lane.

Soon after knowing the entire matter, the local Muslim villagers consulted among themselves and at once decided to do something to make the truck cross the village lane and reach the temple site at any cost.

First came Mohammad Janisar who voluntarily broke down the boundary walls, roofs and two pillars of the main gate of his house. Other villagers followed him soon in removing whatever portions of their house blocking the movement of the vehicle while Mohammad Alam got the building materials — such as, sands and stone chips which he had brought for construction of his house — packed up in in gunny bags and lay them on the overflowing muddy village drain to widen the lane and thus make way for the truck. The collective efforts of the Muslim villagers eventually helped the truck reach the temple site and dump materials. This initiative by the Muslims has drawn praises from all quarters.

Bhagalpur has an old history of communal riots and, according to an official report, nearly 1,000 people were killed in the months-long 1989 communal riots which also affected more than 50,000 villagers as their houses were burnt or demolished by rioters.

According to a latest interim report the recently-constituted Bhagalpur Communal Riots Judicial Inquiry Commission, the riots spread in about 250 villages in 15 blocks of the Bhagalpur district and were one of the worst which continued for a considerable long period — from October 24, 1989 to December 1989. It again broke out in March 1990.