One such shocking incident to come out of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, for example, has seen Subhash Baghel’s body lie in the mortuary for 12 days because of a controversy over his burial site. Tensions emerged when some villagers barred his family from burying him in the village burial ground because they had turned Christian.
Now, a plea has been filed by Subhash’s son, Ramesh Baghel, before the Supreme Court, permitting his father to be laid in rest along with his ancestors. Justices BV Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma were anguished during a hearing over this situation. “Why should he have to come to the Supreme Court for burial? It is heartbreaking to see this much suffering for a family to perform the burial,” Justice Nagarathna told the court.
This, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, has brought an emotional aspect into the legal discussion in the case. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, who appeared for the petitioner, told the bench that the denial of burial is actually because of the religious conversion of the family.
Mehta warned that the incident could inflame tensions between tribal Hindus and tribal Christians, setting the incident in the context of a wider movement. He underlined the fact that there were burial grounds for non-Christian tribals: “There is a Christian burial ground just 20 km away, yet this is a Hindu tribal site.”
Mehta, when asked about the possibility of burial on private lands, replied that it would alter the character of the land and create health hazards. Gonsalves replied that the family of Subhash had been buried there for generations and that the earlier graves had crosses on them showing that they, too, were Christians.
The Solicitor General gave an offer of state assistance to relocate the body to a Christian burial site, but Gonsalves firmly declined the proposal, saying, “I don’t want to be treated like an untouchable because I converted.”
The court asked why objections had cropped up now when other members of the family had been buried there without any objection. Gonsalves said the villagers appeared determined to create a precedent to keep converts out of the village, which would create a serious threat to communal harmony.
Mehta asked for time to make a more fulsome argument as the justices pressed for the urgency of a resolution. The Supreme Court will revisit the case Wednesday as the body has been in the morgue for an extended period that raises very serious concerns about dignity and respect.
