Raisen, a small town near Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, has kept alive a unique, ancient tradition of the holy month of Ramzan. In this small town that is about 45 km from here, the Ramzan fast by the Muslims starts and ends with the sound of cannon. The Muslims in Raisen finishes their Sehri (an Islamic term referring to the meal consumed early in the morning by Muslims before fasting) and do Iftar (breakfast) only after hearing the echoes of cannon fired from the top of Raisen fort.
Earlier, during Nawabi era canon used to fire in Bhopal and Sehore also for sehri and iftar but with the passing time the tradition came to an end in Bhopal and Sehore, but Raisen kept up the tradition and is still maintaining it.
Raisen Shahar Qazi Zaheer-udddin while talking to The Pioneer said, “Earlier the cannon sued to be bigger but now small cannon is used so that no harm is caused to the fort. The place of cannon fire is also shifted from fort and is now fired from other place.” The tradition was started by the Begums of Bhopal during the erstwhile Nawabi era in eighteenth century. In those times cannon of the Army used to fire under supervision of Shahar Qazi.
In the current scenario, Collector Raisen issues license for the cannon fire during the month of Ramzan. The license is issued for cannon and its ammo for a month. Expenses of about Rs 40,000 comes over it, of them a marginal sum of Rs 5,000 is provided by the municipality rest is collected by donations from the community.
The responsibility of firing cannon for the whole month lies on one Sakhawat Ullah who also keeps watch over the cannon. His mode of working is that as soon as he gets signal from the mosque that it is time to end Sehri or to Iftar he immediately fires the cannon. Elderly locals say that earlier the sound of cannon used to get heard at very faraway places but with the increasing sound pollution in the modern time it is now heard only in limited area. But still the people of Raisen and nearby villages wait to hear the sound of cannon to begin and end their fast.