Common Social Responsibility Author: Dr. K. S. Kang

 

Collective Social Responsibility

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

Rabia was blind by birth and she used to visit a shrine few kilometres away from her village regularly every month in the hope of getting her vision back even though she also knew that she was not going to get back her vision but she used to get inner peace and content beyond description at this holy place. That fateful day too she visited the shrine in company of her fellow villagers mostly belonging to the majority and dominant community of the village. While she was on the visit to this holy shrine the situation in village worsened when army soldiers in their heavy three ton trucks came into villages to evacuate the people belonging to minority community from the village so that they can be safely transported to the refugee camp at the international boarder and from there they can proceed to a newly created state on the basis of their religion.

When Rabia returned back to the village after paying homage to the holy shrine she found her locality and the street completely deserted and not a single men of her community could be seen in the village. She was disheartened thinking that her own people had deserted her as if she did not exist for them just because she was blind. Even the people of her community had taken the cattle along with them and left her perhaps they considered her to be totally worthless as they can get milk or work from cattle but what can they get from a blind man. Seeing her dejected and lonely Sardar Tara Singh and his wife Manu took Rabia into their house as Manu convinced Tara and it would be a noble kind human gesture to look after an visually invalid human being as people even keep pets and then she was a human being after all. Initially villagers had discussed the option of taking her safely to the refugee camp or even up to international boarder from where she can be handed over to the soldiers of neighbouring country. But seeing her blindness they felt that she would be unable to find her family in a totally strange land so they decided to keep her in the village. She became responsibility of not only Tara’s family but of entire village.

When Rabia was young she was treated as daughter of the village, then as the time passed and old generation left for their heavenly abode she was considered as the sister of the village and then in her advanced age she was treated as aunt and even grandaunt of the entire community. As she belonged to different faith so villagers, including the family of Tara Singh looked after her special needs particularly during the holy month of Ramadan when she used to observe fasts for a month. During this time they used to cook meals for her before sunrise and after sunset and even sent her dates and the dish of sweet vermicilli on the day of Eid. Last night she breathed her last and as per her last wish she had Kalma in her hand, in the last moments of her life, and head in the lap of her nephews and grandnephews of the village. As there was no muslim in the village so there was no question of being a graveyard in the village but Tara’s son Jagan respecting her muslim origin decided to bury her in one corner of his ancestral field as after all Rabia had been a member of their family and entire village community and so it was the Common Social Responsibility of taking care of her mortal remains too in the same way as they had looked after her fully well when she was alive.