Padane village in Kasaragod, in the Kerala-Karnataka border, has raised the bar for religious harmony. A temple in the village recently demolished its compound wall - just to make some space for a Muslim community meeting.
The village was in the news just a few months ago for all the wrong reasons. 12 of the 21 missing Malayalees who went to Syria - allegedly to join the Islamic State - were from Padane. But the residents of this village have maintained that there is no religious extremism in their homes.
And to prove the point, the Hindu community unanimously agreed to demolish a temple wall to provide space for a Jamaat-e-Islami meeting.
The Muslim organisation was planning the meeting for February 18 and 19 at a ground in the village. A temple is situated next to it, and since the ground wasn’t large enough for the event, the group approached the committee that runs the temple.
Basheer Shivapuram, the local secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami told The News Minute, “We gave a written letter to the committee, and they readily agreed to demolish the compound wall.”
“Though the function was only two days long, we used their compound for almost one week, which was right in front of the temple. This shows our brotherhood and love between the communities,” Basheer said.
He said that the main stage where the event took place was in front of the temple. “Apart from that, our exhibition hall and book stalls were also in the temple compound,” he added.
Suresh Mampady, the secretary of the temple committee said, “When they requested, neither the temple committee nor the Hindu community here had a second thought. We agreed. We find this as a ritual to maintain religious harmony in our village.”
He also added that the temple committee is happy that they were a part of the event, and said that they were willing to extend any help to other religious communities in future too.