IN JACOBABAD’S Bano Bazaar, the thickly populated ancient bazaar in the centre of the city, both the Hindu and Muslim communities have lived together through the years.
Before Gen Zia’s regime, there had never been a distinction between them. Both communities enjoyed their religious festivals and holidays peacefully.
“The great harmony that I had witnessed amongst our communities, all my life, is not there anymore,” says an old resident of Bano Bazaar. The elders of the city, who fed the pigeons on John Jacob’s clock tower, have gone to their graves and the brotherhood that was once found between them, now remains only in their memoirs.
A recent incident regarding the conversion of a Hindu girl to Islam and her marriage to a Muslim man, has widened the gulf that has developed between the two communities over the years.
One night, when her mother and ailing father woke up in the middle of the night, they found that Sonia was missing from her bed. When they turned to the phone to inform the police, they noticed a number on the CLI, which belonged to the PS Saddar’s SHO. As sources revealed, he is from Rojhan and a relative of Zulfikar Ghunjo, who got married to Sonia.
When the couple were brought before the court in Jacobabad, Sonia repeatedly stated, “I’ve not been enticed by anyone and I have accepted Zulfikar as my husband and Islam as my eternal religion.” The court permitted them to live together.
Sonia has since been renamed Fatima. People of Bano Bazaar, including Sonia’s parents, were surprised that a matriculate, Sonia fell in love with a boy who earns barely a thousand rupees a month. “Sonia couldn’t live a day without me. It is difficult to believe that she left me in the middle of the night,” Sonia’s mother says, weeping.
A greater humiliation followed, when in this peaceful community, the couple was paraded in the streets and chowks like a triumph, while the crowd frantically raised slogans of “Allah-o-Akbar” and “Ishq Zindabad.” “This time they even raised slogans against those who support the Hindu community,” says a local journalist.
It is rumoured that couples such as this one are encouraged and protected by religious bigots. Well-informed sources say that Sonia had been kept in custody for 14 days in Rojhan with the help of a very influential individual.
Members of the Hindu community and other citizens believe that such cases occur only when the local administration is blackmailed by religious parties. Though an FIR had been lodged against the SHO and others, Sonia was kept in the custody of the accused party (as it often happens in similar cases) and the police didn’t take any action. “We are not opposing love marriages or conversion,” says Babu Mahesh, president of the Hindu General Panchait, Jacobabad. “But the point to be discussed is that such girls from the Hindu community should be kept in the Darul Aman or with a neutral party. Only then, should she be allowed to give her statement,” he urged.
When Sonia’s family tried to contact her in Rojhan, and went to call upon ‘them’ to free her, they were refused. When Sonia was brought before the court, her parents rushed to talk to her, but in vain. “When we tried to hear her version of the story, she got a call on her mobile and she even refused to talk to us,” her parents lamented.
In Jacobad’s history, Hindu women have come out on the streets twice. Once on a call for the Joint Electorate System, and now in Sonia’s case. Hundreds of women came out on the streets and demanded Sonia’s release.
In Sindh the tradition of Niyani Merr, when women come at someone’s door with a request, has always been considered an act of virtue. Bloody disputes have been settled and people have even forgiven the murderers of their dear ones as a result of this tradition. However, in Sonia’s case, Niyani Merr was of no avail.
Jacobabad’s Hindu community feels insecure. “Imagine what would happen if a Muslim girl eloped with a Hindu boy,” asks a citizen on condition of anonymity. “If this unfortunate incident occurred, the entire Hindu community would be brought to the pyre.” Some years ago, a young girl fell in love with a Hindu youth and eloped with him. Some days later, their dead bodies were found in the Indus, near the Sukkur Barrage.
Despite these incidents, the civil authority in interior Sindh remains oblivious. It, for some reason, never breaks the silence. But Javed Qazi, an intellectual and son of the renowned Sindhi politician, Kazi Faiz Muhammad, called upon the conscience of the Sindhi people. He appealed to all political leaders and social activists to go to Jacobabad and take notice of the grievances of the Hindu community there. Though no eyebrows were raised, his appeal went largely unnoticed.
The centuries-old brotherhood is on the brink of extinction in these parts of Sindh. Near Jacobabad, at the shrine of the Sufi poet Cheezal Shah, Hindus and Muslims sit together. Half of his disciples are Hindus and the other half are Muslims. On the night of the 7th moon, they gather at Cheezal Shah’s shrine and perform the mystic traditions in the same way. There are also Hindu saints which provide refuge for Muslims. Udero Laal, Bhagat Kunware and Paaro Fakeer from the Thar desert, are mentors to people of both faiths.
IN JACOBABAD’S Bano Bazaar, the thickly populated ancient bazaar in the centre of the city, both the Hindu and Muslim communities have lived together through the years.
