Full up: India’s Muslims, Christians fight for burial rights
NEW DELHI — India’s teeming cities, where even the living jostle for space, are running out of room for the dead. India’s Hindus cremate their loved ones, but the country’s Muslim and Christian minorities usually choose burial — and they fear the practice is under threat. About 185 million Indians belong to the two faiths, with census figures recording 13 percent of the population as Muslim and two percent as Christian. Finding land for burials in urban areas is the primary problem, religious leaders say, as India’s cities become ever more congested and every piece of earth is fiercely fought over. “Go anywhere in India and see the graveyards, they are all full,” said Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, chairman of the All India Imam Organization in New Delhi. “The government has been overlooking this issue for decades.” Ilyasi said the lack of burial space is not just a problem in major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata but has spread to many small towns. Muslims bury the dead as fast as possible, and disapprove of cremation as they believe there will be a physical resurrection on the Day of Judgment. To meet their needs, increasing numbers of Muslims are joining together to buy small pieces of wasteland to convert into “Kabristans” — Muslim graveyards. Mohammed Arif, a resident of Noida on the outskirts of Delhi, purchased a government-registered plot along with his siblings and cousin in 2008. “When my nephew died in a car crash, we struggled to get space in a graveyard in Delhi to bury him,” said Arif. “We want to avoid such a crisis in future.” Source: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100616com3.html |
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