Muslim girls observing Navratri fast in the Gohra village in Uttar Pradesh.

Muslim girls recognise their Hindu roots, observe Navratri fasting, worship goddess Durga with devotion in Gohra village near Agra.

HENB | Agra | April 11, 2016:: This is an unique effort to connect their Hindu roots with heart’s desire and devotion for making a precious and natural atmosphere of unity and harmony where life is based upon pure faith and understanding each other in a village near Chambal region and 80 km away from Agra.

Name Chambal was once taken with the names of bandit queen Fulan Devi or Dacoit Maan Singh.

Nafisa who is a devout rozedar never misses roza during the holy of month ramazan. Interestingly, she also never misses the age old tradition of nine-day fast during the Navratri festival which runs deep in her family.

Residents of village Gohra in Kherarathaur area of Jaitpura kala block (nearing Chambal region) which is nearly 80 km away from main Agra city, Nafisa along with bunch of teenage Muslim girls have been observing the customary fast or worshipping the deity during the Navratras. In these days of Navaratri they all take vegetarian foods only and sing Bhajans dedicated to Ma Shakti (the Mother of Power).

Speaking to a national media, 15-year-old Nafisa daughter of farmer Noor Mohammad said, “In my family we have custom to celebrate both Hindu as well as Muslim festival, whether it is month of Ramazan or Navratras we observe both the holy festivals as well as others.”

Ten-year-old Mahak daughter of Mouin-ud-din said, “We all belong to different Muslim families, but none our families have objection to observe the customary fast or worshipping the goddess Durga during the Navratras.” She said, “Even my mother Hasina who is devoute rozedar but also pray to Hindu deity and regularly visits the temple along with Hindu women.”

Sahana, Nasifa, Mahak, Sapna, Shahla, Khushbu and six other girls in the village have been on fast since Friday and claim that their faith in Islam does not clash with their love for the Hindu god and goddess and not even with other Hindu rituals. They also believe that their forefathers were also once Hindus and consequently they feel attraction for various Hindu festivals in a very natural way.

Tahseel Khan, father of one of the girl observing the Navratri fast said, “Times have changed but not tradition. We never stop our children or anyone else from observing any festival. Both Hindu and Muslim people have been living in the village since Mughal era but not a single incident of communal flare up incident has ever been reported.”

The Sub Divisional magistrate of Bah, Umashankar said, ” Not only Gohra but villages in Chamrauha, Pinhat, Jaitpura and Bah and others have such traditions where both Hindu and Muslim celebrates each other festivals and set true image our country. Communal incidents in and around Agra have been reported, though people over here have never been indulged in such kind of incidents. People have accepted the cultures and tradition and even incorporated, examples of cross-religion devotion can be seen in a lot of villages.”

From sources, it is revealed that these villages are free from communal tension out of any menace of ‘cow-slaughter’ or ‘love jihad’. Both the communities living here avoid  ‘beef’ or ‘pork’ eating as they respect others sentiment as a tradition of this areas. Muslims are bare minority here and these areas never seen any case of attack upon place of worship by others.