Highlights:
• Two hindu sisters have donated four bighas of land (about 20,400 sq ft) for an Idgah.
• The Idgah is located in Bailjudi village near a bridge over the river Dhela.
• Around 20,000 Muslims performed namaz during Eid celebrations this week.
Two hindu sisters have donated four bighas of land (about 20,400 sq ft) for an Idgah in Uttrakhand’s Rudrapur. It was their late fathers’s last wish to donate the land.
Wish of late Lala Brijnandan Prasad Rastogi
The Idgah is located in Bailjudi village near a bridge over the river Dhela.The committee already holds around four acres of land there and around 20,000 Muslims performed namaz during Eid celebrations this week.The sisters’ father, the late Lala Brijnandan Prasad Rastogi, owned land adjacent to the Idgah site and was well known to respect all religions. He wished to donate land and help foster a strong relationship between the Hindu and Muslim but died in 2003 before he could do so.
When the land transferred
Before his death he distributed his land between his son and daughters; the land he wished to donate was part of his daughters. On May 1, 19 years after their father passed, the two arrived in Jaspur and contacted the Kashipur Idgah committee head to transfer the land after due process by revenue officials.
“We did nothing, only donated the land according to our father’s wish. He was a big-hearted man and used to respect all religions. He also used to donate some amount to the Idgah committee every year for arrangements for performing namaz,” Saroj Rastogi, 62, said. She further stated, “Though land rates are skyrocketing these days and location of land could have fetched a good price for us but after all, it was a matter of our father’s wish. So we donated the land, respecting our father’s wish and good-hearted gesture.” “We (the sisters) were discussing for a long time how to fulfil our father’s wish. When both finally decided on a date and arrived in Kashipur”, she added.
Both the sister’s wish
Both sisters and their families wished to install a stone slab on the boundary wall in the name of Lala ji for donating the land so a stone slab is installed , according to their wish.
“It is a great example of showing respect to other religions. Our community will never forget the Rastogi family’s contribution. It will strengthen the communal harmony between the two religious’ communities,” said RD Khan, a social activist of Kashipur.
