A faith that serves and not divides

A Hindu priest and a Muslim social worker have come together to promote harmony during times of polarisation and communal discord.

           Mujtaba Hasan Askari with Rangarajan

They are two of a kind. And yet they are poles apart. Their faith, culture, attire and calling differ. But what bonds them is their outlook and perspective of life. A Hindu priest and a Muslim social worker have struck the right chemistry to work together for fostering love and brotherhood. At a time when polarisation on religious lines is taking place, the duo seem to be out on mission impossible.

C.S. Rangarajan, chief priest of Chilkur Balaji temple and Mujtaba Hasan Askari of Helping Hand Foundation (HHF), are working silently and ceaselessly to give communal harmony a chance. They are doing their best to promote shared values and uphold the doctrine of 'unity in diversity' through well thought out programmes. It's heartening to see the two making efforts to restore peaceful co-existence. "Our aim is to ensure that human values are placed above religion and faith. Humanity is the biggest religion", they say.

Both batchmates of College of Engineering, Osmania University, Rangarajan and Askari quit their lucrative jobs at the peak of their career to bring social change in the society. While the former turned to spirituality and became chief priest of Chilkur Balaji temple, the latter founded the NGO, Helping Hand Foundation to serve the people in their own way. What brought them together is a Dalit woman, Kamlamma, who sells flowers at the Chilkur temple. In 2018 she tied rakhi to Rangarajan and he learnt later that she was deaf.

Rangarajan felt it was now his bounden duty to help out the woman. A social reformer, he wants to purge the society of caste based prejudices. Without losing time, he took the poor lady to the  Gandhi Hospital where the ENT surgeon diagnosed her with profound hearing loss and recommended a hearing aid which was very expensive. When this story appeared in a local newspaper, Askari got in touch with Rangarajan and informed him that his NGO was ready to pick up the bill. The hearing aid costing Rs. 55,000 finally restored the hearing of Kamalamma.

"It is a divine intervention that brought us together. God operates through human beings", says Rangarajan.

The Good Samaritans did not stop at that but kept meeting regularly to exchange ideas and do something positive for the society caught in the whirlpool of political turmoil and religious polarisation.

Last year one Lucas from Lalaguda approached Rangarajan in Chilkur and explained his inability to support his daughter's education at St Francis College, Begumpet. The priest immediately contacted Askari and the latter arranged money from the HHF. The interesting aspect was a Muslim NGO reaching out to help a Christian girl on the recommendation of a Hindu priest. Since then the duo are working closely to promote inter faith dialogue. A few month ago, Rangarajan even visited the Masjid-e-Ishaq in the old city where HHF runs a primary health care centre. He addressed the community on the need of communal harmony. For them humanity is an integral part of religion while religion is a private thing.

Rangarajan and Askari plan to promote communal harmony in a visible way through social work and dialogue. In the coming days they intend to conduct health camps by Muslim doctors in some temples and by Hindu physicians  in a few mosques. The idea is to make a difference with the work they do.

J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in Deccan Chronicle

Dated January 23,2020