By Imran Inamdar, TwoCircles.net
This year on February 19, the birth anniversary of Shivaji celebrated as Shiv Jayanti, Muslims not only registered notable participation in rallies but also celebrated the event at their institutions and places independently at dozens of Taluka places and cities of Maharashtra.
“When we look into the history of Shivaji Maharaj, it clearly appears that he was a secular Maratha king. He never hurt Muslims or tried to defame Islam…in fact, near about 30% of his soldiers including 11 personal bodyguards were Muslims,” said a member of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Muslim Brigade.
In Tuljapur of Osmanabad district, group social workers including Haji Gouse Bagban and Toufiq Shaikh etc visited Shivaji’s Statue to pay the respect. Similar rallies took place in Mumbai, Pune, Sangli and Baramati.
In Solapur city, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Muslim Brigade unit organised a Shiv Ekta rally with Maratha Seva Sangh to mark the Shiv Jayanti. In this event, nearly 50 Muslim women of the Yashda Foundation also registered their presence under the leadership of local body member Firdos Patel and Suhel Pathan to show their respect towards this Maratha King.
Regular participants of the shiv Ekta rally Sayyed Gufran Inamdar said that Shivaji Maharaj had given very important responsibilities to his Muslim commanders and they were all very loyal to Maharaj. History says that Maharaja is our own, and we will be giving respect to this secular king and social reformer, Gufran added.
While speaking with TwoCircles.net, Maratha scholar Shrimant Kokate expressed happiness over this social development. He informed that credit of this historical change went to the literary work of Govind Pansare, author of Marathi book ‘Shivaji Kon Hota’, Prem Hanvate who authored ‘Shivaji Maharajanche Muslim Sipe Salar’ along with Advocate Gaziuddin who did the Urdu translation of Shivaji Kon Hota etc. Kokate further appreciated the work of Maratha Seva Sangh which came into existence in 1990 and its units Sambhaji Brigade and Chhatrapati Shivaji Muslim brigade for coming up with the real history of great personalities and spreading brotherhood.
According to Sheikh Subhan Ali, a 34-year-old lecturer and a social activist, Shivaji remains an important figure for all citizens of Maharashtra irrespective of their religious beliefs and he wants to claim Shivaji as one of “our own”. Ali said that he had delivered nearly 25 lectures on the Maratha King’s character in places like Sangli, Satara, Solapur, Pune etc. It was very pleasing to see that Muslims are equally involved in this activity, he added.
