Two incidents in Kerala have highlighted bonds of care and neighbourly support across religious communities, after Muslim families and a mosque helped Hindu women receive their final rites, The News Minute reported.
In Wayanad, two Muslim brothers performed the last rites of an 86-year-old Hindu woman they had regarded as their mother. In another incident in Malappuram, a mosque provided its premises for the funeral preparations of a Hindu woman whose rented home lacked the necessary space and facilities.
‘She is my mother’
Kalyani Amma, who died on November 7 in Vaduvanchal, Wayanad, had no children or surviving relatives. For 51-year-old Razak and his younger brother Sulaiman, however, she was family.
“She is not ‘like my mother’; she is my mother,” Razak told The News Minute.
Kalyani Amma had worked several jobs, including cleaning at a private bank, and also kept cattle. Razak said he had helped her sell milk during his childhood and began looking after her as she grew older. He had been caring for her for around 25 years.
Their families celebrated festivals such as Onam and Vishu together. Razak said even after his children married and moved away, returning home to celebrate festivals with Kalyani Amma remained important to them.
Razak’s wife, Rukia, also considered her a mother. “She gave me the wedding dress for my marriage. Since then, she has also been my Amma,” she said.
A few days before her death, Kalyani Amma asked Razak and Sulaiman to perform her last rites, as she considered them her sons. The brothers fulfilled her wish and performed the funeral according to Hindu customs.
Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan praised the brothers, writing on X: “A mother’s love does not check religion. A son’s duty does not ask about caste. And grief, like love, belongs to all of us equally.”
He described the gesture as an example of the Kerala he knew and believed in, adding that love and compassion brought people together beyond religious and caste differences.
Mosque provides space for Hindu woman’s funeral preparations
Around 115 kilometres away, in Pallikkara, Malappuram, the Khadeeja Mosque opened its premises for the funeral preparations of 52-year-old Premalatha, who died of cancer on November 10 while undergoing treatment at Thrissur Medical College, The News Minute reported.
Premalatha had lived in a rented house next to the mosque for around 18 years. Since the house was too small to accommodate the preparations required before cremation, her body was brought to the mosque.
Suhara Mampad, an Indian Union Muslim League leader and Premalatha’s neighbour, said the mosque had provided facilities for bathing deceased people since the COVID-19 pandemic.
She explained that bodies of people from the surrounding neighbourhood were regularly brought there for bathing and other funeral preparations.
“There is nothing unusual about this. The only thing that is happening for the first time is that the body of a woman belonging to another religious community is being bathed there,” she said.
After the preparations, Premalatha’s body was taken back to her home, where people gathered to pay their last respects. Her funeral was subsequently held at the crematorium in Ponnani.
