Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin gives fillip to Clean India campaign through Mohurrum sermon

After he has wiped his hands with a tissue paper or finished eating a chocolate, Abbas Ali Arif, resident of Mazgaon, keeps the tissue or chocolate wrapper in his pocket. If that's not possible, he keeps it in his hands till he finds a garbage bin to throw it.

Part of Swach Bharat Abhiyan campaign, for Arif not littering and keeping his surroundings clean is his religion of sorts, especially after his community leader emphasized the importance of cleanliness.

While the relatively well-to-do Dawoodi Bohras have always tried to keep up with the spirit of cleanliness, the recent emphasis on it by Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, leader of the million-strong community, during the Mohurrum sermons this Sunday, has given the movement further impetus.

The spiritual leader had also given the community a call to participate in Modi's Clean India campaign. Dawoodi Bohras swept the streets of Bori Mohally in Bhendi Bazaar.

"It's not that emphasis on cleanliness is something new to the community. It's been there since the times of the current Syedna's grandfather's time. It's only that now it's being taken up in a bigger way. While we always keep dustbins at community gatherings, we now tell our people to wrap food in plastic bags to keep mosquitoes too away," said Mustansir Challawala, resident of Nagpada.

He added, "We will formulate some plan of action to take this up in a bigger way. We will put up posters and banners too. The idea is that both mother nature and mother India should be clean."

The message, say community members, is not restricted to physical cleanliness. "Actually it's a chain. Cleanliness of heart, mind, body surroundings and neighborhood. We are supposed to be clean in our acts too. So while we are supposed to be ambitious, we shouldn't be taking some dirty way to progress," said Muffazal Shakir, resident of Mazgaon.