Muslims perform last rites of elderly Hindu woman in Ch’nagar, show what it means to be humane

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Mysuru: Chamarajanagar district witnessed two contrasting incidents which prove how helpful some people can be in extreme situations and how negative others can be While a group of Muslims performed the last rites of a Hindu woman to show the world that humanity still exists, in another incident, some persons boycotted the cremation of an old man whose family had been ostracized.

A group of Muslims of Ward Number 5 in Chamarajanagar City came to know that Nanjamma, a 75-year-old woman, had died of natural causes at a house in the same ward. She had been living alone after being separated from her family because of the intercaste marriage.

Her husband had died a few years ago and since then Nanjamma was living alone as she did not have children. On Monday, she died of old age. After coming to know about her death, the TMC member Tousia Banu, her husband, Ishtar Pasha, Rumman, and Samiullah, performed the last rites as per Hindu rituals.

This act of the Muslim friends was appreciated by one and all. In a contrasting incident involving a family in Nagavalli village in Chamarajanagar taluk, no villager came forward to help in the last rites of a 65-year-old man, Rangashetty, after he died on Sunday. The family had been socially boycotted for five years for some reason. With no help from their community, others helped in performing the last rites of the deceased.

Rangashetty is survived by his wife Mahadevappa and four children, Siddaraju, Rangaswamy, Gangamma, and Mahalakshmi, After the social boycott of the family, they were living in a farmhouse. Even the shamiana owner was prevented from putting up the shamiana to perform the rituals before the cremation.

Except for 15-20 relatives, none from the entire village attended the final rites of Rangashetty. The family then filed a case with Chamarajanagar West Police Station. When this was brought to the notice of the tahsildar, he went to the village to enquire about the incident. At that time, villagers claimed innocence and denied imposing a boycott on the Rangashetty family.

They said they had taken a decision on their own against participating in the last rites and none could force them to attend. Police Inspector Srikanth has begun an investigation into the incident to find out the truth.