[Dialogue] News From India

[Jack Gilles]

Dear Colleagues,

Thought you all might be interested in this report sent to us by our friend 
in India, Marguerite Theophil.

Jack & Judy Gilles

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We read so much about religious and communal animosity in India, and yet 
there is also so much like this that goes relatively ureported or unread....

CUDDALORE, INDIA DECEMBER 29
Rahmatullah is a tired man. He and his nephew have just returned to their
masjid after burying an unknown Christian man, identifiable by the black
thread with the little cross around the neck. They had not forgotten to put
a makeshift bamboo cross on the burial mound. He now needs to take the
infant daughter of Shivakumar, both staying in the masjid, to the doctor.
``Maaf karna, kaam bahut pada hai. Hamara president Younus saab se baath
keejiye,''  ["Please excuse me, there is so much work. Our president, Mr.
Younus will speak with you"] he says in Hindi, before going out.

In Cuddalore, the second hardest-hit town in Tamil Nadu when the killer
waves came, a masjid [mosque] and the local jamaat [congregation or
association] have emerged as the rallying point for thousands of
fisherfolk---almost all of them Hindus and Christians. There are hardly any
Muslim fishermen in Cuddalore, and most of the local Muslims are either
traders (which explains the Hindi) or have NRI sons in the Gulf. There have
been no Muslim casualties.

``We came to know when people came running to the masjid, minutes after it
happened. We decided to do what we could do,'' says Mohammed Younus,
president of the United Islamic Jamaat. ``Isme kya badi bath hai?'' ["why is

that such a big thing?"] he asks.

The administration is grateful. Says District Collector Gagandeep Singh
Bedi: ``They have been doing wonderful work, I was with them the whole last
night.'' Once th e relief and rescue work is over, Bedi plans to write to
the state government about their work.

Within minutes of the tsunami striking Pudukuppam, Samayarpettah, Chinnoor
and other little villages along the Cuddalore coast on Sunday morning,
Younus had summoned his flock. Within half an hour, his men had left their
shops and homes for the beaches in their goods vans, cars, two-wheelers and
cycles, picking up and rushing the injured to hospitals.

By noon the Jamaat on its own had organised milk for a few hundred babies,
and food for over 3,000 survivors. By evening, about 3,000 Muslim men were
tending to over 10,000 Hindus and Chri stians in makeshift camps in the
local schools.

A few hundred of the survivors were invited to stay in the masjid, where
they still stay. Many more are in the Jamaat's school, and dozens occupy its

office building.

For the last three days, the Jamaat has employed 24 cooks working round the
clock to feed about 9,000-odd survivors. Some in the relief camps and others
in the five battered villages. The administration provides the rice and
milk, and the Jamaat buys the vegetables and
everything else on its own. There are about 20,000 men under the Jamaat, and
the huge community kitchens that it had been using for its frequent
community feasts were immediately turned into relief kitchens.

As the bodies began piling up, Younus asked his men not to hesitate. And,
for the last three days, they have been doing what might be unthinkable for
many Muslims: carrying bodies on their own shoulders and cremating them.
``To the possible extent, we have been making sure that the Hindu bodies are
burnt, and Christians are buried. They should not feel offended in death,''
Younus reasons.

Younus sa ys he hadn't slept or eaten well after the tragedy stuck. He has
been running around five villages guiding his men, looking after the
survivors, making things work.

It was only when the Army moved in yesterday to Pudukuppam, which suffered
the heaviest toll, that the Jamaat withdrew from that village. But for the
other four, it is still the only solace. ``It's
all God's will. Inshallah [God willing], they will all begin life well in a
few weeks,'' he says.

Younus says none of his over 3,000 men will leave until the survivors are
back on their feet. ``We will continue to raise money to feed them for as
long as they need. They are welcome to be with us as long as they want,''
Younus says.
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