Christian man’s body awaits India’s top court nod for burial
Locals, authorities in Chhattisgarh state refused to allow burial at village burial ground or ancestral land
Updated: January 22, 2025 12:14 PM GMT
India’s top court has kept pending its order on a Christian man’s appeal for burying his father in their village in central Indian Chhattisgarh state amid increasing anti-Christian hostility in the area.
The Supreme Court heard Ramesh Baghel’s appeal from Chhindawada village in the Bastar district on Jan. 22, the second day. But it did not issue an order on the case.
However, the court asserted that the right of decent burial to the dead must be paramount.
“I am hopeful that the top court will grant us the required relief,” Baghel told UCA News.
He said he expect the court to decide on the case “in a day or two.”
Earlier on Jan. 20, the court had expressed its surprise and sorrow over the plight of Baghel, who approached it after villagers and local administration denied his father’s burial in their ancestral land.
“Why should a person who has lived in a particular village not be buried in that village? The body has been lying in the morgue since January 7. Sorry to say that a man has to come to the Supreme Court for his father’s burial,” the court observed on Jan. 20.
The court noted that neither the village administration, the state government, nor the high court could resolve this problem.
“We are surprised by the high court’s remark that there will be a law and order problem [if the burial is allowed]. We are pained to see that a person is unable to bury his father,” said the two-judge bench.
‘Discrimination against Christians’
Baghel’s appeal challenged Bilaspur High Court’s order, which dismissed his petition seeking permission to bury his father, Subhash Baghel. The 65-year-old man died on Jan. 7 due to prolonged illness.
“We are happy that the Supreme Court has given us real hope in today’s hearing,” Baghel said, “still, we have to wait for another two days to get a final order.”
Baghel told UCA News on Jan. 20 that after the villagers opposed, he approached local police and civil authorities, including the district collector, the district’s top government official. “But no one could help us. Then we approached the Bilaspur High Court,” he said.
The state’s top court, in its Jan. 9 order, denied permission and directed him to take the body to a cemetery 40 kilometers away for burial to avoid a “law and order problem” in the village.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, a top attorney of the federal government who appeared for the Chhattisgarh government, said the burial ground in the village was not meant for Christians but for Hindu Indigenous people.
The court then asked the reasons for denying permission to bury the dead in their private land.
“Once you bury or cremate someone in a private land, the character of land changes. It will become a sacred place, and it also has health issues. That is not permitted in private lands,” Mehta said.
Colin Gonsalves, who appeared for the petitioner, said that the father of the deceased was buried in the village burial ground. “But at the time, the family had not converted” to Christianity.
Anti-Christian campaign
“The police and local administration are hand in glove with local villagers, who are against Christians,” an upset Baghel said.
Some 310 Christians in the village have been facing social boycotts for two years.
“Anyone who dares to offer work to Christians is made to pay a fine of 5,000 rupees [$57.92],” he said.
“I had a grocery shop which is closed now as villagers were prevented from purchasing from me,” he said, adding, “Our life is miserable. Still, we continue to sustain our faith.”
Local villagers are under the influence of right-wing Hindu groups, who want to clear villages of Christian presence in their effort to build a Hindu theocratic nation, a protestant pastor working in the area told UCA News on Jan. 20
Baghel, a Protestant Christian from a socially poor Dalit caste, said he would follow whatever order comes from the top court as “it is the last avenue for justice.”
Christians witnessed increasing discrimination and persecution for their faith in Chhattisgarh, where the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) runs the government.
Chhattisgarh recorded 165 incidents of targeted attacks against Christians in 2024, which is the second highest number of persecution against Christians in any Indian state, according to the latest report released by the United Christian Forum (UCF).
The forum’s latest report said the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 209 incidents of violence against Christians.
Christians make up less than 2 percent of Chhattisgarh’s 30 million people.
