A Muslim League leader from Kerala’s Kasaragod district performed the Hindu last rites of a 64-year-old former RSS worker who died of oral cancer after being abandoned by his family, in an act that drew widespread attention on social media after photographs of the ceremony went viral.
Irfana Iqbal, development chairperson of the Kasaragod district panchayat and member from the Manjeshwar division, lit the funeral pyre of Narayanan Thottathodi at the Cherugoli public crematorium in Uppala on June 27 — the same day Muslims across India observed Muharram.
Narayanan, a native of Chigurupade in the Meenja gram panchayat in Manjeshwar taluk, had died on June 23 at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, after nearly a month of treatment for advanced oral cancer. Following his death, his two wives, children, and sister all refused to claim his body. His family submitted written consent authorising Irfana to take custody of the body and arrange the funeral.
How Irfana Came to Know Him
The story began about a month before Narayanan’s death. He was found lying in a near-death condition on the veranda of an abandoned shop in Chigurupade. Meenja panchayat’s Chigurupade ward member Sherif Chinal alerted Irfana, who runs the Sheikh Zayed Old Age Home at Uppala and the associated Sheikh Zayed Foundation.
When Irfana arrived, she found a man so weakened by untreated illness that his ribs were visible through his skin. He told her he had not eaten for seven days. Residents confirmed this. Due to the advanced state of his oral cancer, the odour from his untreated condition had kept people away.
Irfana informed the district collector and district medical officer and arranged for Narayanan to be shifted to hospital, providing him with primary care in the interim. He died there five weeks later, with no family member present.
The Funeral
After completing the formalities with the Medical College superintendent, Irfana arranged for Narayanan’s body to be brought by ambulance to Uppala. She performed the last rites standing in the place of a daughter, lighting the funeral pyre according to Hindu customs. Seva Bharati volunteer Raghu and social workers Riyas Pilathara and Mehmood Kaikamba were also present.
Irfana chose to proceed with the cremation on Muharram, a day of religious observance for Muslims. She said the timing was deliberate. “When I brought him from the street last month, I had promised the local people that Narayanetta would be lodged at my old age home. I could not abandon him in death,” she said.
In a Facebook post following the cremation, Irfana wrote: “No close relatives came. I performed Narayanettan’s last rites as a daughter. Humanity is above religion and politics.”
She also said: “He was not supposed to die at this age. No one bothered to take care of him.”
A Wider Context
The Sheikh Zayed Old Age Home currently shelters around 50 abandoned elderly people across communities. Irfana said she hoped the incident would draw attention to the scale of elderly abandonment and that she intended to continue extending support to those left without family care.
The visuals of Irfana — wearing a purdah — performing Hindu funeral rituals at the crematorium circulated rapidly on social media, drawing both appreciation and political commentary in Kerala.
