UK court to decide on allowing Hindu-style funeral pyres

Prasun Sonwalkar

London, Mar 23 (PTI) A top British court will begin a
landmark judicial review Tuesday on allowing funeral pyres
according to Hindu rites in Britain.

The review by the Royal Courts of Justice has been
brought by Davender Kumar Ghai, founder of the Anglo-Asian
Friendship Society, who has been campaigning for a change of
British laws to allow open-air cremation conforming to Hindu
rites.

Currently, open air funeral pyres are not allowed, and
many families in Britain take bodies of their deceased
relatives to India for cremation according to Hindu rites.
Open-air funerals in Britain are illegal since 1930.

The judicial review hearing is scheduled over three
days from Tuesday.

Newcastle-based Ghai, 70, who is in poor health, said:
"I have lived my entire life by the Hindu scriptures. I now
yearn to die by them and I do not believe that natural
cremation grounds — as long as they were discreet, designated
sites far from urban and residential areas — would offend
public decency.

"My loyalty is to Britain’s values of fairness,
tolerance and freedom. If I cannot die as a true Hindu, it
will mean those values have died too."

In an earlier legal hearing on the issue in March
2007, Justice Andrew Collins said the judicial review was of
"considerable importance" and a full hearing in the High Court
was "in the public interest".

A British Ministry of Justice spokesperson said:
"There are inevitably competing views on the appropriate
arrangements for disposing of bodies stemming from different
views about religion, morals and decency.

"The current law requires that cremations must take
place in a crematorium and open air funeral pyres are not
allowed. The government considers that this requirement is
justified, taking into account the complex social and
political issues raised".

In July 2006, Ghai organised a funeral pyre in a
remote field in Northumberland of Rajpal Mehat, 31, an illegal
Indian immigrant.

The act was against the law but the Crown Prosecution
Service decided not to bring charges. PTI