BeyondHeadlines News Desk
Hindus and Muslims of riot hit Basirhat celebrated Raksha Bandhan on Monday by tying rakhi to each other under the banner ‘Bangla Sanskriti Mancha’ in the town hall to send the message of peace and harmony.
Baduria and Bashirhat came to the news last month after reports communal riots over morphed photo on Facebook. The locality has since tried to overcome the communal tension by organizing several interfaith programs.
The programme was organized by NGO ‘Rights to Life Foundation’ and a local media, Times Bangla. Besides locals, some civil society members from Kolkata also participated in the event attended by over 100 people.
Around 20 intellectuals from various fields, including literary world, artist, writers, poets, teachers, and journalists attended the event where cultural programs were also organized.
Pannalal Mallick, a Bengali writer from Bashirhat, said, “The current political situation in Bengal demand that we follow the path of Tagore who thwarted the divide and rule policy of Britsh by organizing Raksha Bandhan. Through rakhi we are trying to remind each other of our peaceful coexistence.”
112 years ago, when the British government had decided to partition Bengal in 1905, Rabindranath Tagore had used the occasion of Raksha Bandhan that co-incidentally that year fell on the same day when partition plan was to take effect on October 16, to send a political message of communal-harmony by encouraging Hindu and Muslims to tie the sacred threads of fraternity and unity on each other’s wrists and urged everyone to keep fast for a day.
Incidentally, August 7 is also the death anniversary of the Nobel Laureate.
“Bengal is the Land of RabindranathTagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Netaji Subash Chandra Bose where Hindus and Muslims have lived together peacefully. Through this program, we want to send the message of peace and harmony,” said Samirul Islam of ‘Rights to Life Foundation,’ adding, “Bengalis will stand firm and fight all kinds of communal forces.”
Nirmal Ghosh of All India People’s Forum, several local madrassa teachers from nearby villages, journalists and locals attended the program.
Earlier, on the birth anniversary of the world poet, on May 7, a similar program was organized at Dhulagarh under the same banner of ‘Bangla Sanskriti Mancha’.
