Iftar parties are very much the flavor of this month. In the month of Ramzan, the fast is broken with a light meal known as Iftar. A dictionary of Islam says that 'Iftar is very much a social event, involving family and community members. It is also common for people to invite and share food with those less fortunate.' In the bigger cities of North India, Iftar parties have another flavor altogether. They are not hosted by those who are fasting, but by leaders of political parties who lavish Iftar parties not primarily for those observing the fast but for others of their own ilk. The Iftar party has become an occasion for photo ops and political power play. It is also an occasion to display new and emerging political alignments.
An Iftar party with a difference, however, was organized this week in a little known village, Jaula, in Muzaffarnagar District. Jaula was one of the places which hosted camps for communal riot victims in 2012 when more than 50,000 people - men, women, old people, children - escaped with their lives and the clothes on their backs from merciless attacks on their homes and persons by frenzied mobs, many of whose members had grown up with them in their own and neighbouring villages. Those who found shelter in small and large camps that were set up mostly by members of their own community lived for months in a strange limbo in which the immediate past did not bear thinking about, the present was full of fear of foreboding, and the future was reduced to a succession of days and nights of unbearable heat, dust, flies and bloodthirsty mosquitoes; of drenching black, monsoon clouds which mocked makeshift shelters of plastic; of bone-chilling cold and bitter winds. Children and old people fell ill. Many died.
The families who took shelter in the Jaula camp had escaped from the badly affected villages of Lak and Bawri in the neighbouring district of Shamli. All of them were landless labourers. The men were construction workers, tailors, carpenters, barbers and itinerant salesmen, while the women did a little embroidery and stitching and looked after cows and buffaloes. Theirs was the only camp was saved from the bulldozers that so were sent so callously to destroy other camps whose inhuman conditions were earning a bad name for the State Government. There were a few Communist activists in Jaula village and the CPI(M) leaders who visited it regularly ensured that the Jaula camp did not face ruthless eviction. They also worked tirelessly to process the applications of the inmates and most of them received compensation from the Government.
The CPI(M) also gave a call for collection of funds all over the country and several lakhs were collected. It was decided to build a small colony for 62 families with this money. Friendly villagers in Jaula helped to procure land at very reasonable rates and each family was given materials to build houses that suited their needs. Entire families including very small children worked tirelessly to build their homes and, in 2013, Ekta Colony was established.
It was here that the Iftar party was held for all the families on Wednesday, July 15. Party workers in the village and in the district of Muzaffarnagar collected money to pay for fruits, snacks and biryani and dozens of men, women and children collected on a long, flat roof. It was the first time that women were breaking the fast along with men and being served by others. It is always their task to prepare the Iftar and serve it to the male members of their families, and then break their own fast a little later. It was an exciting and happy time for them and they sat in long rows in front of heaped plates. As soon as it was 7:26 pm, they were able to eat their fill without having to serve anyone else first! Like poor women everywhere, they were careful to save several items from their plates and tie them up in their
dupattas for the smaller children who were at home, or for the young men who had not yet returned from work.
They seemed to have deliberately pushed memories of the past into dark, less-visited corners of their minds. Mundane things like lack of piped water and electricity and bricked lanes were their new concerns. They were happy to show off the toilets that every single family had constructed in their brand new homes. Of course, if these homes could be plastered, they said, as they left the roof to go to their prayers, then things would be even better.
(Subhashini Ali is former MP, former Member of the National Commission for Women and Vice President of the All India Democratic Women's Association.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.