Since the lockdown kicked in, Sama Namdev’s family has relied on neighbours for food and house rent. And when she died on Wednesday of tuberculosis, the neighbours, Muslims, came forward yet again. This time, they bought items for last rites, put together a bier and carried it on their shoulders to a ground, where they cremated the body with Hindu rituals.
“We believe in supporting each other during tough times, and help each other tide over any crisis,” said Mohammed Shahid Khan, 43, a resident of Teela Jamalpura in Bhopal.
Her husband, a kulfi vendor, is left without work now. The sons, daily wage labourers, confront the same fate. Their relatives, staying in other parts of the city, could not reach owing to barricading. “Due to the lockdown, they are unable to step out for work. So, their condition is pretty bad,” said Mr. Khan, who works at the Barkatullah University.
Ms. Namdev’s body was brought to the locality at 3 a.m., and Mr. Khan and 15 other Muslim men, without thinking twice, swung into action in the morning. They just needed someone from the family to guide them with the rites.
Navigating through a shuttered market, Mr. Khan reached Mangalwara, 2.5 km away, where he knew a shopkeeper, who gave them a white shroud, rice, an earthen pot, sacred thread and incense sticks. And at 11 a.m., they took out the procession.
The possible threat of contracting coronavirus from the body, if she had died of it, or coming too close to each other during the procession came last. First, the men wanted to accord her the last honours. “We are strictly following the lockdown, so we hope the disease is at bay,” Mr. Khan said.
The family had stayed at the rented house for 25 years, but faced difficulty in paying the rent of late. “We will not allow them to leave at any cost. They are an integral part of the neighbourhood,” said Mr. Khan.
Praising their act, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath wrote on Twitter: “...We saw a picture of communal harmony. Muslim youth gave shoulder to the bier of a Hindu woman. Such love and brotherhood shows our Ganga-Jamuna sanskriti.”
On April 6 in Indore, in a similar act, Muslim youth had carried the bier of a Hindu woman, whose relatives refused to touch her body as they suspected she had contracted the coronavirus.