By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: Abdul Kadir Khondkar, a veteran school teacher of Joibhoom Kamkhya in Chunari area in Goalpara district, some 40 kilometre west from the Goalpara town, who along with a bunch of likeminded people have been taking care of a temple of Goddess Kamkhya and have been organizing Durga Puja with gaiety and joy.
Though the area, Jaibhoom Kamkhya, where the age old temple is situated is dominated by Muslims with more than 99 per cent population, Puja rituals have been performed since its inception.
Joibhoom Kamkhya in Chunari area in Goalpara district
“We have been doing with great spirit for a long time. We don’t have time to think who is Hindu or Muslim. For us it’s a place of worship which has a legacy and we need to respect that,” said a busy Khondkar, headmaster of Jaibhoom ME School, during the Durga Puja celebrations.
According to the locals, the temple was set up around three hundred years ago when a Zamidar named Prithi Narayan Choudhury donated a plot of land measuring 367 bighas. Since then people of the locality have been performing puja in the temple.
Later, gradually the area decreased due to various reasons and it is confined to an area of 32 bighas of land. But much later, in 1983, the few Hindu families who were residing in that locality left the place during the time of Assam movement.
“They left us with a huge responsibility on our shoulder to look after and take care of the temple. After that we have working in the temple. It’s good for us if we can keep the temple in a well state. We are always looking forward to upgrade the temple,” Khondkar who is also the advisor of the Temple committee said. In that area around 1.5 kilometre of the temple there is not a single Hindu family lives.
Recently, they have done work with a sum of Rs 20 lakh from collection. “We have to run the temple from the collected money from the well-wishers. We ourselves go for the collections. We feel good that being Muslims we go to collect funds for temples. I wish this message of brotherhood and harmony is spread not just in India but across the globe. If Babri Mosque incident spread hatred among the Hindu and Muslim brothers, I feel our initiative will be able to bridge the gap and spread love,” he added.
He also urged upon the people not to be misled by some provocations which are meant to bring divisions in the society.
In a land called Assam, in the north-eastern part of India, the supreme examples of communal harmony and brotherhood have never been less since the ages which may be very difficult to find anywhere else. If the state has someone like Srimanta Sankardeva, a saint in the 15th century, who propagated this theory of harmony of brotherhood, at the present time, person like Abdul Kadir Khondkar is spreading his message ever further.