‘No Hindu should return without help’ – Covid aid has no religion for these Lucknow masjids
It was towards the end of March, just as the second wave of Covid-19 was taking hold over India, that the managing committees of two Lucknow mosques – Jama Masjid, Lalbagh, and Jama Masjid, Kapurthala – convened a meeting.
Members of the committees had spoken to doctors about the emerging situation, and they wanted to pitch in. A decision was taken: From the first week of April, the masjids would help people with oxygen cylinders and concentrators, and other things they may need amid the pandemic. All their efforts, it was decided, would keep one key calculation in mind.
As much as 71 per cent (2011 Census) of the population in Lucknow is Hindu, and under no circumstances was the mosques’ aid to be restricted to Muslims. This has been the masjids’ mantra since then. Over the past two months, the masjids claim to have helped over 600 families in the city, over 50 per cent of whom were Hindus….
