She wasn't Hindu after marrying a Muslim, says temple head who denied shradh ritual for dead woman
New Delhi, Aug 9: A Muslim husband wants to perform a ritual for his dead Hindu wife and a temple society in a New Delhi Bengali-dominated neighbourhood has not allowed because they believe the woman was no longer a Hindu after her marriage even as she hadn't given up her faith.
Imtiazur Rahman, who is based in Kolkata, lost her wife Nivedita Ghatak in the capital after she suffered from multi-organ failure last week -- 20 years after the couple married in accordance with the Special Marriages Act that allows inter-faith wedding of couples irrespective of their individual faith.
Ghatak was cremated as per Hindu rites at Delhi's Nigam Bodh Ghat but the family could not perform shradh -- a set of Hindu rituals performed for the deceased.
Rahman, who works as assistant commissioner, commercial taxes in the West Bengal government, said he had booked an August 12 slot at Kali Mandir Society in the Bengali-dominated Chittaranjan Park after paying Rs 1,300 for the ceremony on Aug 6. But he was later told by the temple society that his booking has been cancelled "for obvious reasons".
Ashitava Bhowmik, the president of the temple society, told IANS that Rahman's request could not be taken up for "more than one reason".
He alleged that Rahman "concealed his identity" and made the booking in his daughter Ihini Ambreen's
name "which doesn't sound like Arabic or Muslim".
Bhowmik said "we got to know about his religious identity when a priest got suspicious and asked him about gotra" -- the lineage which forms an important factor in determining Hindu ancestry.
"Obviously, he had no answers. Muslims don't follow gotra system. His wife can no longer be considered a Hindu after marrying the Muslim because a woman adopts the surname and belief system of her in-laws and becomes a part of that society," Bhowmik told IANS.
Unapologetically, he said, "It was done in keeping with and respecting the Hindu traditions and rites."
Asked since it was the last wish of the woman, who followed the Hindu belief system, Bhowmik said "who knows the man has some ulterior motive and could bring in 50-100 of his relatives inside the temple and start praying Namaz" there.
"What will we do in that case? Should we allow that?" he asked.
Being probed further that it was only the temple society's hypothetical fear, Bhowmik said if Rahman was too keen on performing the ritual of his wife he should do that at his home.
"Why insist on a temple in Delhi? Why doesn't he do it at his home in Kolkata?"
But Rahman countered the allegations saying faith was a personal matter for him and it had never hurt his relationship with his "practising Hindu wife" as she would perform any ritual the way she wanted and he would do it his way.
"This time I wanted to do it her way because she would have wanted to me do it like that. But am not being allowed." He has not been able to hold the shradh ritual till now.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
