Rebuilding Mosques Brings Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims Together After Punjab Violence.
Sikh and Hindu villagers in Indian Punjab have donated land, money and materials to rebuild mosques that fell into ruin after the 1947 partition, according to a Guardian report.
In Jakhiwal village, in Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib district, a mosque under construction has been funded almost entirely by the Sikh and Hindu residents. Eighty-seven-year-old Gajju Khan, whose village has 18 remaining Muslim families, said he hoped to hear the call to prayer in the village again before he died. He last heard it at age eight.
The land came from Bibi Rajinder Kaur, 77, a Sikh villager who persuaded her grandson to donate part of the family farm. Local Muslims had been traveling 4 km (2.5 miles) to another village to pray. "There is no deed better than giving someone a place to worship," Kaur said.
The Guardian reports that partition split Punjab in two and set off communal violence and forced migrations that left the Indian side almost empty of Muslims. Hundreds of village mosques were abandoned, desecrated or turned into cattle sheds and storage units.
Over the past decade, several rural Sikh and Hindu communities have quietly restored them. In Punawal village in Sangrur district, Jaspal Sharma, 48, who comes from a family of Hindu priests, donated land for a mosque and hosted a feast for the whole village when it opened in February. He said Hindus and Sikhs alike gave money, bricks and cement. In Umarpura village in Malerkotla, Sukhjinder Singh Pandher and his brother restored a local mosque. Even in villages with no Muslim residents, people have invited Muslim farmhands and clerics from nearby districts to pray in revived mosques.
The article says non-Muslim villagers have contributed to more than 165 such mosques in the past nine years, inspired by the former shahi imam of Punjab, Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Sani Ludhianvi. His son and successor since 2021, Maulana Muhammad Usman Rehmani Ludhianvi, said: "on the ground in our villages, ordinary people are still choosing to protect each other."
Note: The headline refers to Punjab violence, but the page describes the sectarian violence of the 1947 partition, not recent events.
At a Glance
- More than 165 mosques in Punjab have received contributions from non-Muslim villagers over the past nine years, according to the Guardian.
- Jakhiwal has 18 remaining Muslim families, who previously traveled 4 km (2.5 miles) to another village to pray.
- Jaspal Sharma, 48, donated land in Punawal village, Sangrur district, and hosted a village feast at the February inauguration.
- Bibi Rajinder Kaur, 77, persuaded her grandson to donate family farmland for the Jakhiwal mosque.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.