Sadaket Malik : Aman committee, a joint body of Hindus and Muslims has worked towards bringing the two communities together in Bhalessa. Because of this reason, the backward area is becoming an abode of Hindu-Muslim brotherhood.
GONE ARE the days when areas like Bhalessa witnessed a sharp polarisation on communal lines. Historically, relations between Hindus and Muslims here have been fairly cordial as many of Bhalessa’s Muslims are descendants of converts from various Hindu castes, although a sizeable number are also ethnic Kashmiris.
In most cases, it is virtually impossible to distinguish local Hindus from Muslims from their facial features, although sometimes it is possible through their dress, as in the case of Muslims associated with the Deobandi-inspired Tablighi Jamaat (a relatively new phenomenon), with their distinct way of wearing their shalwars above their ankles, their long, bushy beards and their shaven moustaches.
In terms of economic conditions too, Hindus and Muslims appear, on the whole, roughly equally poor, Gandoh being one of the most ‘backward’ parts of Dodain Jammu and Kashmir. Most people here earn their livelihood through animal husbandry and tilling tiny patches of terraced land up in the mountains and in the narrow valleys between them.
The good news is that due to the efforts of the area’s Aman committee, a joint summit of Hindus and Muslims, both the communities continue to live together in the same villages peacefully, barring occasional communal incident. During the turmoil in the valley, both Hindus and Muslims were killed mercilessly by the Gun. Despite the petty movements of the chauvinists and fundamentalist leaders to perpetuate self interests, the people here seem to have discarded narrow and sectarian views.
The area had witnessed a lot of bloodshed when terrorism was at its height – people were killed on a large scale, innocent children and women were killed, local youth and the elderly were harassed.
There are of course several forces at work that maintain the old age tradition of living together. One of such forces was Haji Sahib of Bhatyas, who has taught for over four decades in various government schools in Bhalessa and is now running the one of the area’s few private schools.
In this relatively inaccessible and impoverished part of Jammu and Kashmir, the school is upto the tenth grade and is affiliated to the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education. Most of the roughly 1000 students come from poor families, and the fees is relatively low. Numerous poor children receive education free of cost.
The school has a number of Hindu students, and almost a tenth of its teachers are Hindus, the rest being Muslims. In addition to the school, Haji Sahib has set up a madrassa, the Jamia Ganiatul Ulum, which has some fifty students training to become Ulema or Islamic clerics. Most of these children are from impoverished families, and in the madrassa they receive free education, boarding and lodging as well as the possibility of a job as a religious specialist once they graduate.
To protest the atrocities during the turmoil on both the communities, Jammu city observed a complete shut-down sometimes back. On that very day, a Muslim student of Bhalessa in Jammu University had to appear for an important examination. He assumed that because of the strike the examination had been postponed. In the afternoon, he rang up a Hindu friend of his, who told him, to his utter shock, that the examination was actually on schedule and that he had just entered the examination hall.Unfortunately, no vehicles were plying in the streets that day and he had no way out to reach the university. However, his Hindu friend magnanimously rushed out of the examination hall and sped on his motorcycle all the way to his house and picked him. They arrived in the examination hall just in time to write their paper.
The grandfather of the muslim counterpart revealed that he had sent an appeal to the Chief Minister to announce a reward to his grandson’s Hindu friend for having served as a model of communal harmony.
KALGONI TEMPLE IN BHALESSA: MORTAR FOR AMITY
The temple in Kalgoni is surrounded by mosques, the shrine of Hazrat Gayas Ud Din (RA), an ancient Hindu place like the Durga Mata Cave in Khaljugasar, and Mehlwaar. These cement this age old tradition of living in peace and brotherhood.
Most of the Naga temples are surrounded with thick deodar trees, away from habitation. It is named after the major stream of Bhalessa “Kalgoni’ which stretches from “Kansozoo” and merges into the Chenab thereafter. The Kalgoni Temple has all along remained a source of Hindu Muslim amity.
The surroundings of this temple are virtually barren. In front of the temple, at a distance, is a raised platform (Chabutra). On it, stylish iron tridents and other votive objects are piled. The temple is placed on a raised square plinth. The roughly wrought square wooden pillars support the steeply pyramidal structure of the roof, which is covered with corrugated iron sheets topped by a chiseled wooden pinnacle.
The temple in Kalgoni in Bhalessa has undergone considerable renovation by the management of Sanatan Dharam Sabha in the last few years that make it look a bit outlandish and makes it stand apart from its genre in general appearance, but in essence, it hardly differs from them.
The sanctum occupies the central area, leaving about a metre wide open passage all around for circumambulation. It is enclosed by four wooden walls.
The temple in Kalgoni is surrounded by mosques, the shrine of Hazrat Gayas Ud Din (RA), an ancient Hindu place like the Durga Mata Cave in Khaljugasar, and Mehlwaar. These cement this age old tradition of living in peace and brotherhood.
A fair is held at Kalgoni Temple in the month of Bishakhi where local Muslims and Hindus celebrate together. Holy places could be promoted among tourists who could be taken to historical places like the Naga Temple of Kalgoni as well as other village temples.
Jamia Masjid Changa and Kalgoni temple are historical and the ties between the two communities have been maintained owing to such monumental holy places of the Hindus and Muslims. Kalgoni Temple is looked after by the Sanathan Dharam Sabha Bhalessa. Here the Aman Committee aims at creating a peaceful environment. The committee has played a key role during earlier turmoil. Both the communities have pledged to live and protect one another from nefarious designs.
Interestingly, over the last five years, things began limping back to a semblance of normality in Bhalessa. The people of both the communities share common festivals in these holly places. There are secular Hindu as well as secular Muslim leaders, who represent their own communities in keeping with the religious guidelines to protect the age old tradition and culture. On the eve of ID, Deepawali, Holi, Ramadan people host functions for each other.
(The writer is a Professional Social Activist, Chairman NGO-National Students Welfare Association (NSWA) Bhalessa (A Regd. NGO)