am Hindu," quips nine-year-old Sikander Kathat, swinging between the chairs on which his parents are sitting at their dhaba in Beawar, 50 kilometres from Ajmer. "Ask him if he can read the namaaz," says his father Mithu Kathat, a tad flustered.
The child, a student of standard two, nods a `yes`. His mother Shanti Devi smiles and adds, "Only recently, we got him circumcised.
He is Muslim. Aren`t you?" Sikander just tilts his head in a half nod.
Sikander is one among the 10-lakh strong community of Cheetah-Kathat-Mehrat - spread over the four districts of Ajmer, Bhilwara, Pali and Rajsamand in Rajasthan - who are in a unique predicament over their religious identity. Descendants of the Chauhan rulers, the community took to Islam about 700 years ago, and adopted only the three practices of dafan, khatna and zabiha (burial, circumcision and eating halal) from the religion.
The rest of their lifestyle - names, marriage rituals, dressing styles - continued to be the same as Hindus. So even though Shanti and Mithu call themselves Muslim they retain their Hindu names, and at their wedding a decade ago, took the pheras (circling the fire).
Shanti still likes to wear the ghaghra-choli, and her son Sikander`s `school name` is Hitesh. Explains Maulana Qasim Rasul Falahi, 34, a member of the Cheetah Kathat Mahasabha, a pressure group for the community, "The Cheetah-Kathats used to stay in the jungles, which meant that until two decades ago, despite being Muslims, we didn`t even know how to offer namaaz or celebrate
Only the Hindus never give an identity crisis to anyone.. LOL... if anything they will get a complex for having one avtaar less and will absorb all gods.
money in vatican pouring into conversions.... but our tirumala money which is next to vatican will not indluge in such things... folks pour their jewellery into the hundi there...they adorn the Tirupati god with jewels but will never use their money to convert... the Hindu religion teaches how to keep the faith and relenquish......they do sell the jewellery from time to time and feed poor by the millions there but the money there will never be used to change the faith.... faith is what u have left when ur bereft of all other things including the bare necessities....
:), but does not matter u have the name u have the blessing. LOL
Just like they deck up the lovely Mary in a saree here in India..... indianizing the lovely Mary... if Krsna was made to wear a robe the ISKONITES would go mad... they know him by his yellow vastra, flute, and his peacock feather, nothing else will do!
| NIFTY 
