Harmony stands tall: Vadodara lane hosts tazia and Ganesh pandal

As one enters the lane, a signboard by ‘Naujavan Hussaini Committee’ and ‘Kalamandir Yuvak Mandal’ reads, “Woh ek hi hasti, ek hi wajood hai, jisne ye sara jahaan banaya hai. Fark itna hai ki kuchh use ‘khuda’ toh kuchh use ‘bhagwaan’ kehte hai.” (It’s one personality, one existence, who has created the entire world. The only difference is some call him ‘khuda’, some call him ‘bhagwaan’.) Another board adjacent to the previous one reads, “Have any one of you ever asked at a bloodbank specifically for a blood of a Hindu or blood of a Muslim? No one would have ever. When we don’t discriminate at death, why do we discriminate in life. We are one, We are humans.”
The lane is dotted by shops on either side. While most of the shops are owned by Hindus, majority of the Muslims live in houses situated behind those shops.

In less than 20 metres from the starting of the lane, a pandal is set up housing the tazia to mark Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is the same spot that has been housing the tazia for the last 135 years. The only difference this time is that the Ganesh pandal has been set up just 15 metres away from the tazia, which has been tilted at a 45 degree angle to enable people to see the Ganesh idol.
The neighbourhood has been celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi for the last 40 years, but this is for the first time that both the Ganesh pandal and tazia have been placed adjacent to each other.

Gulam Mohammad Ummarbhai, 70, who was born and brought up in this neighbourhood says: “I have lived here all my life. Nobody here hurts each other irrespective of how grim the situation is in other parts of the city. We have learnt to co-exist and we continue to do so. For years, the two communities have been living together, and we do not believe in the divisive communal feelings.” Ummarbhai’s son now runs a shop in the lane.

Remembering the communal riots of 1969, Ummarbhai says, “That is my last memory of bloodshed in the area. But we still tried to maintain peace. We had to immerse the tazia but we couldn’t step outside and the main priest at the temple not only kept the tazia inside the temple but even guarded it for us. Since then till today, come what may, we have fought it together.” The temple ‘Shree Ramdwara Mandir’ is exactly behind the pandal housing the tazia.

58-year-old Mayuddin Sheikh was the first one to establish a Ganesh pandal in the neighbourhood and today he has handed over the responsibility of Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations to the youth in the area. Echoing Ummarbhai’s sentiments, Sheikh says: “Both communities have always supported each other and been with each other in festivals, celebrations, happiness and grief. This is for the first time that two occasions have collided and everybody vowed to go ahead with their respective festival without any hindrance.The two communities have decided to be a part of both the tazia procession and the Ganesh festivities, and even the final immersion in both cases,” Sheikh said.

Sameer Pandya alias Bunty, 30, one of the leading team members of Kalamandir Yuvak Mandal, says, “We are aware of the nuisance that a few anti-social elements create to build up communal tensions. There also had been a wave that youth were being targeted and polarised to initiate and be a part of the violence. We are all a young-member group and we are very clear with our idea of communal peace and harmony and that is what we are here to promote.”

Ahead of the Ganesh festival and the tazia procession, the Vadodara police had taken strict measures to avoid any untoward incident by keeping a close vigil on anti-social elements. They increased patrolling and deployed police forces in the old city area.