Last year when tragedy struck during Chhath at Adalat Ghat, much to the surprise of Kishori Das, a social activist and member of the Peoples’ Union of Civil Liberty (PUCL), most of those who were engaged in the rescue work were Muslims from Sabzibagh and adjoining localities. They took the injured to the nearby Patna Medical College and Hospital and the dead to its morgue. As the local administration was caught unprepared, it was largely the volunteers who swung into action. In the absence of ambulance they used private vehicles, two-wheelers and even rickshaws to take the victims to hospital. As most of them were tiny tots, they were carried in laps for treatment. Some could be saved, others not.

“As my wife was observing Chhath I was very much present on the banks of the Ganga on that fateful evening. As I am familiar with the area I was aware that many of those who offered a helping hand in the hour of crisis were Muslims,” recalled Das.

Most of the survivors were in such a state of shock that they were not in a position to undertake rescue work. The youths from the vicinity of the accident site did a yeoman’s service, he added.

The November 19, 2012, tragedy on the Chhath evening confirmed that the bond of humanity is much stronger than the so-called Hindu-Muslim divide. Those who rushed to the spot were not asked by anyone to do so. The reaction was spontaneous.

“I, along with my friends Mohammad Raja and Afzal, ran towards the Ganga the moment I heard news of the tragedy. Though I do not know how to swim — my friends do know — I plunged into the rescue work. It was dark as after the collapse of the bamboo bridge, the power supply snapped,” said Mohammad Irfan, a young man of Chik Tola near Bengali Akhara, who owns a CD shop.

This mishap apart, the festival of Chhath provides an opportunity to bring Hindus and Muslims a bit closer.

Chhath is somewhat different from several other Hindu festivals. It represents the composite culture of society in Bihar. Though the devotees offer arghya to the Sun god and observe fast, idols are not worshipped. However, of late people have started making idols of Sun god too.

Unlike other festivals there is no scope of fun and celebration in Chhath. Devotees, often women, fast. Dressed in unstitched clothes, they crawl all the way to the Ganga or any other river or pond to bathe and offer puja, both at the time of sunset and sunrise. The four-day festival starts with ‘Nahay Khay’, on the fourth day after Diwali, and ends on the morning of the seventh.

As Chhath is serious business, it is performed with devotion and dedication. The preparations start weeks before the four-day long festival actually begins. Roads, houses, riverbanks and ponds are cleaned and lit up. Even Muslims lend a helping hand in community service.

“As most Hindus are engaged in observing Chhath, or helping their family members in performing it, a sizeable number of auto-drivers, and even rickshaw-wallahs, who ferry the devotees to the river banks or ponds are Muslims,” said Khalid Imam of Chewara block of Sheikhpura district.

Call it the impact of acculturation, or by any other name, some Muslim women also perform fast on this occasion, as they too consider it auspicious. “In interior villages, some Muslim women do observe Chhath after the ‘mannit’ is fulfilled, for example, the birth of a son etc. But most Muslims resist such practices,” said Akhlaque Ahmed Khan, a college teacher in Jehanabad, who originally hails from Dumaria block of Gaya district.

Sociologists are of the view that women-folk in particular have carried some rituals and customs along with them even after their conversion to Islam several generations back. Besides, in families where there have been inter-religion marriages, Chhath is performed with full sanctity.

Chhath has been identified as a Bihari ritual more than a religious event. Biharis living all over the world observe them. Non-resident Biharis living in the United States, Europe, Australia etc take Gangajal in bottles to perform Chhath in bathing tubs at their respective homes.

It is in the last couple of decades that this festival had crossed the state boundary to reach as far as Mumbai — even at the cost of Biharis being threatened, beaten up and humiliated by the supporters of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and Shiv Sena. The advent of television had helped Chhath become a sort of national festival from being just a state-level affair.

In fact there are two types of Chhath. One is Kartik Chhath, which is performed in the month of Kartik (October-November). Most upper caste people perform it now as economically too it suits them. But the weaker sections of the society usually prefer Chaitra Chhath, which falls in the early summer month of Chaitra — usually April.

“There is a blind faith among the people of Bihar and adjoining districts of the state that a person would suffer from leprosy or leucoderma if he or she commits any wrong during these two Chhaths. That is why the crime rate is generally down during these days. At least the blind faith has something good to offer,” said Prabhat Kumar Shandilya, an activist and keen observer of sociology.

Shandilya has an interesting story to narrate. He said that BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani, who was leading a Rath Yatra, was arrested on October 23, 1990, on the first day of the four-day Chhath festival. This was a tactical move of the then Lalu Prasad government as it was aware that during Chhath people normally do not indulge in strong protests and violence. The move paid.