Where death blurs the line of faith: The Patrokhola burial ground in Moulvibazar
In the Patrokhola Tea Garden (similar to a few burial grounds in other tea gardens in Moulvibazar), graves belonging to people from different religions rest by each other
Philimon Biswas, Sree Shorgyo Raju Kumar Gour and Morhuma Amina Begum. Three different names belonging to individuals from three different faiths, yet all of them are resting in peace in the same graveyard.
At the Patrokhola burial ground in Kamalganj Upazila of Moulvibazar district, one can witness the rare sight of Hindu, Christian and Muslim graves laying side by side. It is built on nearly 50 acres of land donated by the National Tea Centre.
The flat, wide road that leads from Sreemongol Sadar to Patrokhola burial ground is mostly empty, with acres of tea gardens on one side. The short, thick tea bushes with green leaves made a lovely scene on the Spring day that we visited it. On the other side was the burial ground which looked like a large, barren field from a distance.
Up close, however, we could see a few large trees. There was a tiny temple-like structure under a banyan tree. Idols of different deities in shades of red, blue, pink and orange were left there. They looked new and untouched.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The burial ground has no visible walls or boundaries that separate the graves from each other. The Muslim graves are at the beginning, a red-roofed shamshan ghar (and a few graves) lay in the middle and the Christian cemetery is at the end.
Only after entering the place, and perhaps after reading a few of the headstones, will one understand that indeed, the graves belong to people from different religions. On their headstones, it was written that Philimon passed away in 2009 and Raju Kumar Gour on a Monday at 8 pm in the year 2016. According to Amina Begum's headstone, she died in July 2022 at dawn.
Locals told us this may be rare elsewhere in the world, but here, in the Patrokhola Tea Garden, it is something many of them have grown up seeing. One elderly person informed us there are a few other burial grounds like this in other tea gardens in Moulvibazar.
Five to 10 minutes away from the graveyard is the Patrokhola Tea Garden Jame Mosque, whose Imam Md Abdul Aziz spoke to us briefly. I was hesitant about entering the mosque but he assured me it was fine; it was just the courtyard and not the real mosque.
Abdul Aziz has been the Imam here for the last 22 years. Previously it was his father. He thinks the graveyard has been functioning since 1962.
Was everything this smooth from the beginning? "In Islam, we say 'lakum deenukum wa liya deen' – for you is your religion, and for me is mine. Putting the three religions under one roof has only one message: we are brothers and there is absolute harmony among us."
He further said local authorities play no role in its maintenance and the mosque committee maintains the graveyard at its own cost. Similarly, the local temple is in charge of the shamshan ghat and the local church looks after the Christian section of the graveyard.
At the Patrokhola Cha Bagan Durga Mandir, we met Nitai Chasha, a driver in his mid-40s, at the tea garden. His position, an important one in the area, required others to call him 'Sir.'
He would be a reliable source of information, we were told, as his mother and younger sister were cremated at the Patrokhola graveyard.
As we sat at the temple courtyard, shielding ourselves from the blazing sun, he told us the graveyard had been established during the British period. "Before the National Tea Company, the tea gardens belonged to Adamji. I was born here, and I grew up here. I never saw anyone objecting to the graveyard, everyone is content with the way things are."
Nitai said there could be around 700 to 800 Muslim graves and six to seven Christian graves.
From the mosque, we were followed by a gang of curious locals, mostly young men. One of them, Ian Biswas, a student at a local college, said his grandmother would be able to talk about the graveyard's history. The priest had gone out for some work and Ian's grandmother refused to talk to reporters, so Ian agreed to talk to us.
Ian invited us into the Patrokhola Church, which was basically a wide room with a cement floor. The 'stage' part was raised a few inches from the floor. "My family has been living here for more than 60 years. I heard from my parents that nobody objected when the graveyard was proposed," he said, adding, "my paternal grandparents are buried here as well."
However, he along with some of his young friends said their wish is for the graveyard to be a bit more well maintained. "If the area was made cleaner, and perhaps more organised, it would have looked better."
We also spoke to Liton Gonjo who works at the Patrokhola Tea Garden. He is also a social worker. "My dadu bhai [paternal grandfather] Mona Gonjo was a tea garden worker. He died in 1976 and was cremated here [at the burial ground]. His wife, my dadi Padma Mani, died in 2005 and she too was cremated here."
Liton was around 10 years old when his grandmother passed away from old age complications but he remembers the cremation was done peacefully, with no objections whatsoever from other religious communities.
In the evening when we started for Sreemongol, the temperature had gone down and a chill was setting in the tea gardens. The cold air, darkness and death seemed to blur every boundary in the Patrokhola burial ground.
