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The COVID disaster is changing the way India treats its dead

Danish Siddiqui / Reuters For the past few weeks, the world has watched in horror as the coronavirus rages across India. With hospitals running out of beds, oxygen, and medication, the average daily death toll was 3,000. Many claim that the number could be an undercount; Crematoria and cemeteries have run out of space. The majority of the Indian population are Hindus who prefer cremation as a means of disposing of the body. But the Muslim population, who make up almost 15 percent, is in favor of burying their dead. In general, the tradition is that the body should be cremated or buried as soon as possible – within 24 hours for Hindus, Jains and Muslims and within three days for Sikhs. This need for quick disposal has also contributed to the current crisis. Hundreds of families want their loved one’s bodies to be taken care of as soon as possible, but there is a shortage of people who can perform the funerals and final rites. This has created a situation where people pay bribes to get space or an oven for cremation. There have also been reports of physical fighting and intimidation. As a scientist interested in how Asian societies tell stories about the afterlife and prepare the deceased for it, I argue that the coronavirus crisis is an unprecedented cultural catastrophe that has forced Indian culture to challenge the ways and means Way it deals with its dead. Workers build cremation platforms in Amritsar. Narinder Nanu / AFP via Getty Many Americans think of cremation in an enclosed, mechanized building, but most Indian crematoriums, known as “Shmashana” in Hindi, are open-air spaces with dozens of stationary platforms on which a body can sit Wooden pyre to be burned. Hindu and Sikhs dispose of the remaining ashes in a river. Many Shmashana are therefore built near the banks of a river for easy access, but many wealthy families often travel to a holy city on the banks of the Ganges, such as Hardiwar or Benares, to perform the final rituals. Jains – who have traditionally considered human impact on the environment – bury the ashes to return the body to the earth and to ensure that they do not contribute to the pollution of the rivers. The workers who practice Shmashana are often of the Dom ethnic group and have been doing this work for generations; They are a lower caste and are later perceived as polluted for their intimate work with corpses. The act of cremation has not always been undisputed. In the 19th century, British colonial officials viewed Indian cremation practice as barbaric and unsanitary. But because of its prevalence, they couldn’t ban it. However, Indians living in Great Britain, South Africa and Trinidad often had to fight for the right to cremate the dead according to religious rituals because they mistakenly and often racially believed that the cremation was primitive, alien and polluting. The earliest writings on Indian burial rituals are found in the Rig Veda – a Hindu religious scripture that was written orally thousands of years ago, possibly as early as 2000 BC. Traditionally recited by a priest or adult man, Agni, the Vedic god of fire, urges “to carry this man into the world of those who have done good deeds”. Relatives perform the final rites before a cremation in Allahabad. Sanjay Kanojia / AFP via Getty From the perspective of Hindu, Jain, and Sikh rituals, the act of cremation is viewed as a sacrifice, the ultimate breaking of the body-mind connections so that it can potentially be reborn. The body is traditionally bathed, anointed and carefully wrapped in white cloth at home and then ceremoniously carried in procession by the local community to the cremation sites. While Hindus and Sikhs often adorn the body with flowers, Jains eschew natural flowers for concerns of inadvertently destroying the lives of insects that might be hidden in their petals. In all of these beliefs, a priest or male family member recites prayers. It is traditionally the eldest son of the deceased who lights the pyre; Women do not go to the cremation site. After the ceremony, the mourners return home to bathe and remove what they believe to be unfavorable energy that surrounds the cremation site. Various post-mortem rituals take place in the communities, including scriptural recitations and symbolic meals. In some Hindu communities, the sons or male members of the household will shave their heads as a token of their death. During this 10 to 13 day mourning period, the family recites scriptures and prayers in honor of their deceased loved one. The death wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the transformation to these long-established religious rituals. Temporary crematoria are being built in the parking lots of hospitals and in city parks. Young women may be the only ones available to light the pyre that was previously prohibited. Quarantined families are forced to use WhatsApp and other video software to visually identify the body and recite digital burial rites. Media reports suggested that in some cases crematorium workers were asked to read prayers traditionally reserved for Brahmin priests or people from a higher caste. The Muslim graves are gradually running out of space and are tearing open parking spaces to bury more bodies. While other important rituals like marriage and baptism may take on a new look in response to cultural change, social media conversation, or economic opportunity, burial rituals are slowly changing. Historian Thomas Laqueur has written about what he calls “the work of the dead” – the way in which the bodies of the deceased participate in the social worlds and political realities of the living. In India’s coronavirus pandemic, the dead herald the health crisis the country believed it had conquered. As recently as April 18, 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was holding overcrowded political rallies and his government allowed the massive Kumbh Mela Hindu pilgrimage festival to continue a year earlier in response to favorable predictions from astrologers. Authorities did not begin to act until the deaths could no longer be ignored. But even then, the Indian government seemed more concerned about removing social media posts that were critical to how it worked. India is one of the world’s largest vaccine-making nations, and yet it has not been able to make or even buy the vaccines it needs to protect its The Dead have important stories to tell of neglect, mismanagement, or even our global interdependence – if we want to listen. Natasha Mikles is a lecturer in philosophy at Texas State University. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox daily. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside delves deeper into the stories that matter to you. Learn more.