Poor Muslim farmer donates land for Kali temple in West Bengal's Nadia district

KOLKATA: Six months after West Bengal witnessed high-octane Assembly polls highlighted by a communal divide, a poor Muslim farmer has donated a portion of his land to construct a Kali temple in Nadia district.

The village of Bhimpur has 450-odd families, of which 150 are Muslims. The village is located next to a fencing of the Indo-Bangla border. Hindu villagers use a vacant plot beside the border road for Kali Puja, but they need to seek permission from BSF every year.

This year, BSF was not initially ready to give permission which touched Hannan Mondal and he decided to solve the issue permanently. The small farmer donated a portion of his land to villagers to construct a permanent Kali temple. 

Ahead of the Assembly polls, the district was in the list of BJP's bigwigs, as it is dominated by Matuas, a Hindu religious sect that migrated from Bangladesh. During the poll campaign, BJP leaders tried to woo the Hindu refugee electorate by talking about alleged atrocities by Muslims in Bangladesh while explaining why Matuas had to migrate from the country during Partition.

"This is the real colour of India. Bengal has always been famous for its communal harmony and communal discord has no place here. We all are grateful to Hannan for setting up an example of brotherhood," said Bimal Sarkar, president of the Kali Puja committee.

Hanna donated a piece of land measuring up to around 460 square feet to the committee. "Every year, villagers used to be concerned about BSF's green signal to organise the Puja. I never thought that the Puja would not be held because of this land problem. I decided to donate the plot so that a permanent temple can be constructed there, where Kali Puja will be organised every year," said Hannan. 

Welcoming Hannan’s decision, Hindu villagers of Bhimpur said that the political parties, who are trying to play the religious card to bag votes earlier this year, should take a lesson from this gesture of a poor man.

"We witnessed a never-seen-before attempt to polarise the voters on the line of religion ahead of the Assembly polls. Butr Hannan's sacrifice makes it clear that such line of politics will not work in Bengal," said a villager.

Fitting reply to polarisation attempts, say villagers

Earlier this year before Assembly elections in West Bengal, there were attempts to divide voters along religious lines. Villagers of Bhimpur where the Muslim farmer has donated land for the Kali temple, say that this incident shows such tactics will not work in the state.