When a group of villagers came to Dharamvir Gandhi in 2014 seeking funds for a Dalit cremation ground, the then MP from Patiala refused. Instead he promised the villagers funds if they agreed to building a common cremation ground. “They went away quite unhappy but I would not budge,” he says.
The idea met with some resistance but soon many warmed up. The result is that now nearly 142 panchayats in Patiala district have a common cremation ground. “Sikh religion teaches us langar, sangat, and pangat (the tradition of eating and sitting together). Today at least this is practised in the final rites,” he adds.
These Punjab villages are still an exception, and in most states in the country burying or cremating the dead is a constant source of friction between Dalits and so-called upper castes. Last week, the body of a 26-year-old woman from the Nat community was removed from the pyre just minutes before it was lit. The land belonged to the gram sabha but upper caste Thakurs in Kakarpura village, 20km from Uttar Pradesh’s Agra city, forced the husband to take the body 4km away to another cremation ground. A video of the incident went viral forcing the local authorities allot the gram sabha land to the Nat community.
This story is from the August 12, 2020 edition of The Times of India Delhi.
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This story is from the August 12, 2020 edition of The Times of India Delhi.
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