Setting Example Of Communal Harmony, Muslim Community Join Hands To Rebuild Kali Temple In Bengal
Muslims residents at Nanoor in Birbhum district came forward to construct a Kali temple which had to be demolished for widening a village road two years ago. The temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali was inaugurated on Sunday evening amid Kali Puja revelry. Kali is considered as the first incarnation of Goddess Durga and is considered a more fierce and aggressive form of the goddess.
Setting an example of communal harmony and tolerance, Muslims residents at Nanoor in Birbhum district came forward to construct a Kali temple which had to be demolished for widening a village road two years ago.
According to a HT report, the temple, dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali, was inaugurated on Sunday evening amid Kali Puja revelry in Basapara, located in the Nanoor area, 160 km from the capital city of Kolkata.
Neighbours collected funds, bought a plot and started constructing the temple so that the puja of the goddess can be organised this year.
¡°Two years ago the local panchayat widened the road, a much-awaited demand of the residents. The temple was demolished. Last year, we hired a decorator to make a pandal and organised the puja. But it was very expensive. We were not sure whether we would be able to organise the puja this year,¡¯¡¯ said Nikhil Bhattacharya - a resident - told the New Indian Express.
Muslims joined the drive to raise funds and, in fact, ended up collecting Rs 7 lakh of the total Rs 10 lakh that was spent to rebuild the temple at a new site, reports HT.
¡°If local Muslims did not help us, organising the puja and rebuilding the temple would not have been possible. So we invited Nasiruddin Mandal to inaugurate the temple on Sunday evening,¡± Sunil Saha, president of the temple¡¯s puja committee told HT.
In a similar incident, Muslims living in Durgapur village in Sonamura along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura also celebrated Kali Puja.
Reports state that after a Hindu man sold his property to a local Muslim man and left, the Muslims in the area continued to celebrate Kali Puja with fervour every year. While North India celebrates Diwali to commemorate Lord Ram¡¯s return to Ayodhya after exile, Bengalis, Odia and Assamese across the country celebrate Kali Puja.
Kali is considered as the first incarnation of Goddess Durga and is considered a more fierce and aggressive form of the goddess.
