While history has turned out to be a source of confrontation in some parts of the country, with the Taj Mahal and the Gyanvapi mosque once again in the news for the wrong reasons, history is building bonds between communities in Kolkata.
A social experiment called ‘Know Your Neighbourhood’ or KYN, which began in 2016, has returned after a pandemic-forced gap of two years, and is once again using history — through neighbourhood walks — to dispel apprehensions and promote communal harmony in West Bengal.
The next walk is in June, and the one held most recently — on April 23, during Ramzan — had led to the 1784-built Niyamatullah Ghat Masjid in north Kolkata. The mosque visit was held under what KYN organisers call Dosti-ki-Iftar, which has Muslims and non-Muslims breaking bread together, and saw about 150 participants, several of them non-Muslim women who were allowed into its premises for the first time.
“The idea came to me in 2015, when communal violence was taking place in parts of West Bengal — in Barasat, in Naihati. Rumours were being spread and there were cases of lynching. That’s when we realised that there was inadequate information and adequate misinformation about Muslims. KYN is an attempt to bridge the gap between communities using dialogue as a tool,” Sabir Ahamed, national research coordinator with the Pratichi Trust, and the convenor of KYN, told The Hindu.
“Neighbourhood walks in an important tool of dialogue because even though we share the same geography and live in the same city, we do not go to each other’s neighbourhoods or bother to find out about each other’s customs. Hatred breeds in this atmosphere of ignorance. Today, KYN has become a popular campaign, aiming to tackle religious prejudices and dismantle stereotypes,” Mr. Ahamed said.
The initiative, according to him, has succeeded in breaking new ground. During one of the walks, non-Muslim women climbed to the top of a minaret of the famous Nakhoda mosque for a majestic view of old Kolkata. Participants also discovered that water from the Hooghly river is used for ablutions before the offering of prayers at the mosque.
“Many young people admitted — after our events — that they harboured hatred because of misinformation and that they had changed their minds. A young lady told us that she never got into a cab if she found the driver to be a Muslim. Many students often refuse field surveys in Kidderpore (a locality with a large population of Muslims) because they fear something might happen to them, many believe that all you see in Muslim neighbourhoods is green flags — we need these ideas to change,” Mr. Ahamed said.
“That’s why we would like to work with colleges and univarsities to bring about a lasting change in the way we know each other. We are working with Presidency University and other colleges,” he said.
Samata Biswas, who teaches English at the Sanskrit College and University, said of her experience at recent walks in Kidderpore and in Taltala: “They reminded us of the confluence of faiths, cultures and people that has created modern Calcutta. From the Tamil church at Kidderpore to the historic Calcutta Madrassa which is older than both Presidency and my own institution — this aspect of Bengal’s history is often forgotten, the one that has Anglo-Indians, Jews, Parsis, Muslims, Tamils and Afghans living and working together in Calcutta.”
She added: “The trip to Baker Hostel, where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a resident, reminded me of the shared history of the two Bengals and Calcutta’s contribution to Bangladesh’s Liberation War. These are stories we seldom hear — stories that remind us that Calcutta is not merely for and by the Bengali bhadralok (elite), and that it has accommodated multiple cultures, institutions, cuisines and religious beliefs.”
