Members of the Muslim community helped in performing the last rites of their Hindu neighbour in South Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday afternoon.
As soon as the news of the death of 103-year-old Uma Devi spread, Muslim neighbours from Pargochi village came together to help in performing her last rites.
Amid rains and massive thunderstorm, locals arranged firewood and other necessary things for her last rites. Local women too joined their Hindu counterparts in the mourning and to express condolences to the family.
“We have been living together for ages, and nothing will break this bond of Muslim-Hindu unity in Kashmir, politics is not as strong as our love, Kashmir is incomplete without them”, Arshid Ahmed Shah, a local resident said to The Kashmiriyat.
The elderly woman passed away on Thursday morning. She was called ‘Uma Kaken’ as a mark of respect by the local Muslims, who used to visit her in large numbers and seek her blessings too.
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The Hindu family also thanked their Muslim counterparts for helping them in performing the last rites of the deceased.
It is this reality of coming together in death, the final act of life, that is a sign of true love that runs through the very veins of Kashmir.
It cannot be erased by politics, history, religion or the whims of powerful men and agencies.
The reality of ‘Kashmiriyat’ is the very essence of Kashmir and does not emerge in just singular isolated events but makes up the society in its entirety.
What it means to be a Kashmiri was visible after the death of Ram Nath Tickoo, his legacy as a teacher extending beyond his death too, and the collective mourning his demise initiated.
It is now again seen, in the lending of a supportive shoulder of neighbour to neighbour, in Uma Kaken’s death.