Kalyan: It’s worship unusual at Durgadi Fort

This is one mandirmasjid dispute where the fight seems to be restricted to the courtroom Outside it everyone wishes the status quo continues Atop Kalyanrsquos historic Durgadi Fort for the last 50 years Hindus have been celebrating Navratri at the Durgadevi temple and just behind it Muslims have been offering Eid prayers on the cityrsquos only Eidgah ground Both approach the administration for permission every timeOn December 10 a civil judge senior division Kalyan rejected the claim of the MajliseMushawarat Trust over the fort bringing an abrupt end to a 48yearold case The judge ruled that the entire site belonged to the state government This sudden order saw the communal temperature shoot up Some Hindu litigants celebrated on the streets while on social media young Muslims pledged to ldquorecoverrdquo the siteThe historic Durgadi fort houses Durgadevi temple and the cityrsquos only Eidgah groundThe police however managed to control the celebrations before they got out of hand On their part Trust members took to local TV channels to reassure the community that nothing had changed and they would once again approach the administration on Eid for permission to hold prayersLife returns to normalEight days after the order life seemed to have returned to normal Indeed some Muslims living in the vicinity of Durgadi Fort said they were hearing of the court order for the first time from this reporter In a temple located deep inside the bylanes dotted with mosques and graveyards near the fort Ram Singh Payaasi has just wrapped up the special annual Ram puja that spans an entire week ldquoYou should have come an hour back to see the rush of devoteesrsquorsquo says the 69yearoldDr Girish Latke left chairman Shahu Shikshan Sanstha and businessman and educationist Saad Kazi hope Kalyanrsquos tradition of harmonious coexistence continuesFor the 30 years he has been a pujari in the Juna Thakurdwar Shri Ram Mandir succeeding his father Payaasi has never faced any friction with his Muslim neighbours ldquoAll credit goes to the elders among themrdquo he says Litigation over ownership of the Fort can be traced back to 1976 when the Trust challenged the state governmentrsquos 1974 decision to hand it over to the Kalyan municipal council The same move was made by the government in 1967 but had to be given up in 1969 due to opposition by local MuslimsThe suit was originally filed against the Collector of Thane the Kalyan Municipal Council and the State Later Hindu residents in their individual capacity became defendants too claiming ownership over the land on behalf of their communityFor 48 years no effective hearing took place as the matter went from the Thane court to the Kalyan court and interim applications were filed It was only in November this year that the court suo moto asked the Trust to prove that they had approached the court in time On December 10 the court rejected their claim saying it was timebarredLast week eminent citizens of all faiths gathered to honour Kazimdashwho can trace nine generations of his family in Kalyanmdashwith the Kalyan Bhushan awardAn unusually effective police response the orderrsquos silence on the right to worship by either community and the fact that Eid is a good three months away are not the only reasons behind Kalyanrsquos tensionfree atmospherePerhaps the most important reason is the longstanding mutual respect between the two faiths in a city which can boast of a legacy inherited equally from Arab merchants Marathas Mughals the Adil Shahi dynasty and Chhatrapati ShivajiMuslims make up 25 per cent of the population here with Konkani Muslims among Kalyanrsquos original residents Just five days after the Durgadi Fort order was flashed in the media eminent citizens of all faiths gathered to honour businessman and educationist Saad Kazi who can trace nine generations of his family in Kalyan Fluent in Marathi and Urdu the 75yearold claims among his close friends Kalyankars from every communityWhile Kazi has childhood memories of roaming around a dilapidated masjid atop the fort another Kalyankar Professor Moin Don recalls studying in those ruins That masjid and a well near it are mentioned in the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency Thana 1872 which also records that after the Marathas conquered the Fort in 1760 a small temple was built there While the masjid no longer exists that small temple is now the Durgadevi templeDinesh ShetyeldquoThe Kalyan Municipal Council played a pivotal role in transforming the masjid into a templerdquo alleges Faisal Kazi lawyer for the MajliseMushawarat Trust that went to court in 1976 Pointing out that the merits of their claim were not looked at advocate Kazi rued that ldquoa 48yearold matter has been given short shrift and rejected on a technicalityrdquo As Kazi prepares to appeal some among the Hindu side feel the matter should not be pursued furtherldquoThe courtrsquos decision has not changed anything on the ground That Shivaji Maharajrsquos fort had an Eidgah ground is a reality that nobody can denyrdquo points out litigant Dinesh Shetye who deplored the triumphant celebrations by some litigants that followed the orderShetye whose family has been living in Kalyan for 100 years remembers an occasion when Eid and Navratri coincided and he then a young Shiv Sena member celebrating Navratri at the Durgadevi temple offered a flower to Sabir Shaikh for long the Muslim face of Bal Thackerayrsquos party whorsquod come for Eid prayersShetye now with Sena UBT makes Ganpati idols as a hobby and has fond memories of the way his construction supervisor Usman Pathan would enthusiastically buy clay for the idols prepare it for moulding dry the idols and then guard them every nightWhat lies aheadDoes this tradition hold among the youth That question worries Dr Girish Latke chairman Shahu Shikshan Sanstha that runs many colleges The NCC he feels may not be enough to keep students busy specially those hailing from farmersrsquo families facing issues of survival However of the five Hindu collegians this reporter met at a local NGOrsquos office only one spoke of how her siblings had been influenced by the BJPrsquos DJled yatras and campaign against meat consumption in her basti All five have Muslim friends who were welcome in their homes and with whom they visited temples mosques and churches Significantly their parents all hail from BiharIt appears that Kalyanrsquos original harmonious spirit has embraced even those who came from outside and chose to settle here The question that worries many Kalyankars now is Will the new Maharashtra government which has been declared the owner of the fort adhere to this spiritWhile Vishwanath Bhoir the Shinde Sena MLA who was reelected may have spent part of his MLA fund on the maintenance of the Eidgah ground on the Fort will this generosity of spirit be shown by the Devendra Fadnavisled government That concern makes a challenge to the court order necessary say Muslims Once the matter is sub judice status quo will prevail