Amarnath row fails to create rift between communities

During the nine-day-long pro-Amarnath bandh in Jammu, Gurjjars continued to supply milk to their Hindu brethren in curfew-bound Jammu while Muslim traders kept shutters down even in areas predominantly inhabited by them. Even sporadic attempts by some anti-social elements to engineer communal divide failed to have any impact on both the communities, who have been living together for centuries. Rather, when some people torched nearly a dozen kullas (thatched huts) of Gurjjars or unfurled the Tricolour at a place of worship, the victims saw through the nefarious designs of those behind such incidents and maintained calm. Similarly, when someone threw a hand grenade on pro-Amarnath protestors, injuring nearly 25 people at Bhaderwah, the former took it as a handiwork of anti-nationals.

When pro-Amarnath protests broke out in Jammu, the Muslims, too, supported them, taking the Valley politicians by surprise. In Kathua, Muslims held a demonstration against politicians from the Valley for their anti-Amarnath stand.

Though this sharp increase in the city’s population adversely affected the already erratic drinking water and power supply, people did not complain. It was in view of this gesture of theirs that Ghulam Nabi Azad, after taking over as Chief Minister in 2005, called the residents of Jammu farishtey and devta.

This Hindu-Muslim bonhomie is not new to the region. It has been there for centuries. They have been visiting mazars of peers and celebrating festivals together. If on Eid, Hindus greet their Muslim brethren, the latter, too, reciprocate on the former’s festivals. At Mata Vaishno Devi, where over 50 lakh Hindus from all over the world pay obeisance every year, most porters who carry the old, the children, or the luggage on their backs or on ponies are Muslims.

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