PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE – FROM AYODHYA TO AJMER

Abstract

"The peace pilgrimage was planned from Ayodhya and was to end in Ajmer for symbolic reasons. Ayodhya is, on one hand, a Hindu holy city as well as a city of composite culture. In Ayodhya there are religious places of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Jains. It is as much city of temples as city of Sufi mausoleums and mosques. Historically it has had large Muslim population. Some Muslims believe two prophets Hazrat Shish and Hazrat Nuh are buried there. The Naugazi qabar (a very long shaped grave) is said to be of Hazrat Nuh, the 2nd major prophet in Qur’an. Ajmer is a Muslim holy city where there is mausoleum of famous sufi saint of Indian subcontinent Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti. But Ajmer is also a city of composite culture as there are holy places belonging to Sikhs, Hindus (Pushkar) and Parsis. Even otherwise the Dargah of Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti is visited by members of all religious communities, not only Muslims. The Karvan-e-Aman could not start from Ayodhya as 6th December the administration feared law and order situation might develop so our peace pilgrims started individually from there and decided to enter Ayodhya on return in the form of procession and have function there. In Lucknow three functions were held – candle march in which some 500 peace loving citizens participated, a seminar of peace in the press club and ghazal singing for peace by Srinivas, a noted ghazal singer. Among participants were Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and others."(PG 2)