“Wanted to send across a message of brotherhood,” Muslim boys after cremating Hindu man

Sanat, a 55-year-old man from Jharkhand, recently died in Silchar. He has been living in the Madhurband area for the last few years. He used to work as househelp at the residence of Hillal Uddin Mazumdar. In the last few days, the condition of his health deteriorated. He was rushed to Silchar Medical College and Hospital on Thursday but was declared brought dead by the treating doctors.

After postmortem, the body was handed over to the boys from Madhurband who took him to the hospital. Sanat does not have any relatives in Silchar and the locals do not know about his family back in Jharkhand.

“He lived in an area where most of the residents are Muslim. After he died, we decided that we must respect his religion and his last rites must be performed according to the Hindu rituals,” said Najmul Haque Mazumdar, nephew of Hillal Uddin Mazumdar.

Najmul was accompanied by Masum Mazumdar, Hillal Uddin Mazumdar and Iftisham Mazumdar and all of them took the body to Silchar crematorium in Samshan Road.

“All our life we are taught that each religion has its own rituals. When the senior citizen died in our colony, we asked ourselves what must be done with his mortal remains. At the end, we thought it will be divine if the last rites of a Hindu man is conducted following the Hindu rituals, so we brought the body to the crematorium,” said Najmul.

“We wanted to send across a message of brotherhood, which we have hopefully done. At the same time, this is also a way of saying that all religions must be equally respected,” he added.

Chants of “Hari Anande Bol Hari” (the sacred Hindu chant) echoed when Najmul walked up to the pyre with fire. “I was doing it for the first time. I did not even see cremation from close quarters before,” said Najmul.

Prahallad Thakur, a Hindu man who stays in Madhurband also accompanied Najmul, Hillal Uddin to the crematorium. He appreciated the effort of a few Muslim boys and said, “They could have easily buried him at the graveyard following the rituals according to Islam. Instead, they decided to cremate Sanat which leaves a very positive message especially in today’s day and age.”