Ali Khamenei funeral: Why this Karnataka village has sent 100 mourners to Iran

The state funeral of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli strike on February 28 earlier this year, has drawn millions of mourners.

On July 9, Khamenei, after four months, will be laid to rest near the shrine of Imam Reza in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran. The ceremony is a massive display of national mourning that commenced on July 4.

Among millions at his funeral in Tehran, there was a crowd of nearly 100 mourners from Karnataka's Alipura village, deeply drawn by personal connection to Khamenei. That brings us to the question: Why has this Karnataka village sent 100 mourners to his funeral, and what is Khamenei's connection to the village?

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Here's a breakdown.

About 100 Kannadigas attend Khamenei’s funeral

100 people from Alipura, a small village in Karnataka, have quietly attended one of Iran's biggest public gatherings in decades.

Several of them are residents of Alipura village, located in Chikkaballapur district. The village reportedly has a deep affinity towards Khamenei, turning the state settlement into an unlikely symbol of India's connection with the late Iranian leader.

Syed Hakim Raza, president of the Indo-Iran Chamber of Commerce and Industries, told The Hindu that most of these Kannadigas are already living in Iran as religious scholars, medical students, doctors and businesspersons.

Others have flown from Bengaluru to Tehran via Mumbai aboard a chartered Iran Air flight on Sunday (July 5) to be part of the mourning, Raza told the publication.

Faizan Raza, a resident of Alipura, asserted: "He (Khamenei) was loved more than our father; this martyrdom has shaken our hearts and our souls. It is a must to attend the farewell. So, I travelled from Alipura," the report noted.

Khamenei's Karnataka's connection

The emotional connection between the Muslim-majority village of Alipur and Khamenei dates back to 1981-82, when he visited the village. Khamenei's connection to Karnataka through Alipur is little-known.

During the 1980s, he visited the village, where Shias make up nearly the entire population. The bond was cemented when Khamenei himself inaugurated the 'Imam Khomeini Hospital,' which was constructed with assistance from the Iranian government.

Therefore, to almost everyone in the village, he was not just a political figure but a “Religious Guru", who made the historic visit to their streets.

Shafeeq Abidi, a local resident, said, “He is our spiritual guide and a beacon of light for our community. The hospital he gave us is a symbol of his love for this village. Today, there isn’t a single house in Alipur that hasn’t lit a lamp in his memory. We feel as though we have lost the head of our own family," News18 quoted him as saying.

Since then, the village has maintained strong, cultural and emotional ties with Iran, with many medical institutions set up with support from Iranian agencies, according to reports.

The historic Kashmir & UP ties 

Khamenei’s Kashmir connection dates back to his visit in late 1980 or early 1981, where he reportedly addressed gatherings in Srinagar. According to then Kashmiri activist Qalbi Hussain Rizvi, the visit occurred at a time of sectarian tension in the Valley.

Rizvi, in his memoirs, wrote that the most defining moment of Khamenei’s visit was his participation in Sunni Friday prayers in Srinagar. He stood alongside Mirwaiz Maulawi Farouq at a Sunni mosque and delivered a 15-minute speech.

Rizvi further added that Khamenei’s gesture helped soften long-standing hostilities between Shias and Sunnis in the Valley.

"Until that day, Shias and Sunnis had intense discords; if a Shia visited a Sunni mosque, they would even cleanse the mosque, saying that a heretic had entered and thus defiled the mosque. But after the Leader’s speech, it was common for Shias to pray at Sunni mosques and would pray before Sunni prayer leaders with no fear. Sunnis would pray at Shia mosques, too. This unity was an outcome of that 15-minute speech made by Ayatollah Khamenei,” Rizvi's memoir states, the Indian Express reported.

Though Khamenei had no direct Indian ancestry, his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the man who led Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, drew inspiration from the spiritual path of his grandfather, Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi.

Ahmad’s move from India to Iran would go on to leave a lasting impact on Iranian politics and religion. Khomeini later became the country’s first Supreme Leader, turning Iran into a theocratic state.

According to BBC journalist Baqer Moin, Ahmad took on the name ‘Hindi’ to reflect his Indian roots.

Ahmad left Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki in 1830. His father, Din Ali Shah, had earlier travelled from central Iran to India during the 1700s.

Born around 1800, Ahmad grew up near Barabanki, about 30 kilometres from Lucknow, at a time when British control in India was growing after the decline of the Mughal Empire.

He was one of several scholars who believed that Islam needed a revival and that Muslims should reclaim their space in society.

With inputs from agencies