Bibi Rajinder Kaur said the Muslims of Jakhwali village had to go for namaz to the next village. ‘I thought of giving them five marlas of land so that they have a place to pray,’ Kaur said.
JAKHWALI (FATEHGARH SAHIB): In the season of giving, a 75-year-old Sikh woman has donated land for the construction of a mosque in a village in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district, with Sikh and Hindu families also pitching in with money. The heart-warming gesture comes from Jakhwali, a predominantly Sikh village (400-500 families) with sizable Hindu (150 families) and Muslim (100 families) populations. Located 55km from Chandigarh, the village has a gurdwara and a Shiva temple, but until now, no mosque.”Our Muslim friends here didn’t have a mosque and had to go for namaz to the next village. I thought of giving them five marlas of land (around 1,360 sqft) so that they have a place to pray,” Bibi Rajinder Kaur told TOI, adding with a smile, “We feel very happy that they will be happy.”Her grandson Satnam Singh said Sikh, Muslim and Hindu families in the village live “like brothers” and have done so for generations. “Whenever there is a religious event, everyone contributes and participates,” Singh added.The absence of a mosque had long been felt, but with no solution emerging at the panchayat level, Bibi Rajinder Kaur volunteered her land. “After discussions within the family, we felt we had a field in an area where there is already a temple, gurdwara and another shrine. We asked the Muslim community if the place suited them, and they said it was perfect,” Satnam said. As the land was in his grandmother’s name, it was registered in the name of the mosque committee.”They participate in our events like sabha langar and do sewa. We believe every religion should be respected,” he said. Satnam’s brother Monu Singh, a village panch, said since government land cannot be allotted for religious construction, the family decided to donate its own land. “The entire village, irrespective of religion, is contributing to the mosque’s construction,” he said.Former sarpanch and local BJP leader Ajaib Singh recalled that Muslims and Sikhs had contributed when the temple was built, just as all communities had supported the construction of the gurdwara. “This is how we live. We will contribute till the last brick is laid,” he said.Gursewak Kumar from the Brahmin community said the village’s unity was a matter of pride. Masjid committee president Kala Khan thanked the villagers for their support. “People of all communities live here in harmony. We expect to complete construction by February,” he said, adding that around Rs 3.5 lakh has already been collected.Punjab Shahi Imam Maulana Usman Ludhianvi, who laid the foundation stone, said Punjab has long been known for such examples of communal harmony.
