Kondotty Nercha: A festival of harmony amid attempts to divide
MALAPPURAM: 'It's our festival and we celebrate it together.'
The words by Ramesan, a resident of Kondotty, aptly sum up the feelings that people of the town in Malappuram attach to Kondotty Nercha. Celebrated in the memory of the late Sufi saint Muhammad Shah, the first Kondotty Thangal, Kondotty Nercha is a festival in which people of all faiths take part.
The celebrations, centred around Shah's Mughal-style tomb (Qubba), are returning after a 14-year gap caused by a family dispute over the sthananeeyan (spiritual head). For the residents, its timing could not have been better what with efforts being made from various quarters to create division in society.
For them, the Nercha is not just a ritual, but also an agricultural festival with ceremonies held in the fields after harvest, and sale of crops carried out during the week-long celebrations. Moreover, the Nercha is also a confluence of various art forms, such as pooram kali, chavittukali, cheenimuttu and the like.
'In the past, this was also a market for residents to buy household items. In our childhood, our parents would buy things like knives, mats and other items from this market,' said Abdurahman, another Kondotty resident.
The Nercha officially commences with the hoisting of a white flag in the town. Later, cannons kept in the AR camp nearby are brought to the Nercha field.
The story goes that around 200 years ago, the then local kings, with the support of the Zamorin, fought Muhammad Shah. After losing the war, the Zamorin lost the cannons. These later became part of the Nercha.
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