Ever since the release of the film 'The Kerala Story', social media has been abuzz with stories of communal harmony and unity from the state of Kerala. This is our initiative to highlight some of these stories.
There are hundreds of stories that show the communal harmony in the state of Kerala. One among them is from Muthuvallur Panchayath in Malappuram district where Pathakad Juma Masjid Mahallu committee provided land, free of cost, to construct a path way to a dalit colony and Kozhikodan Muchithadam Bhagavathi Temple in October 2020. The land around the temple and colony was owned by the mosque. When the temple committee approached the mosque, they had a meeting and readily agreed to provide land.
The path to the temple is 115 meters long and more than a meter wide. Initially, the mosque decided to hand over the land to the temple committee. But the Muthuvallur panchayath President, Ahammed Saghir, who is also a ward member of the area, promised the temple committee that he can pass funds to construct stairs to the temple through the land donated by the mosque. So the Mahallu committee handed over the land to the panchayat and later steps were constructed to the temple and the nearby colony.
"Temple is more than 45 years old. It was trouble climbing the hill to reach the colony and the temple. The Mahallu committee readily agreed when we approached them. Another two families who owned land nearby gave around four feet of land to connect the mosque's land to the main road. Mosque's donation was huge; it's more than 100 meters long. We are very much grateful to all," said the priest of the temple Babu Chelloth Unniyathan while speaking to TNM in 2020.
The Mahallau committee wanted to help them immediately when the temple authorities reached out to them. “But since the land was owned by the mosque and there were regulations against providing certain kinds of land to others, we had to check that. Later, we clarified that and the land could be handed over. That is how we decided to donate it," Shihab, Mahallu committee secretary told TNM.