India’s cremations are breaking sacred rules about the burning of bodies

Bodies burning next to one another in COVID-ravaged India is more than just a gruesome sight – it is also breaking sacred rules.

“It is absolute carnage and more of a world war-like situation where you see dead bodies everywhere.”

Those are the words of Tahir Ibn Manzoor, a journalist working in New Delhi, the epicentre of the worst COVID-19 outbreak the world has ever seen.

Speaking with news.com.au, Tahir said he had never seen anything like the scenes unfolding around him.

“It is a warlike situation where you see bodies piled up. Some are rotting with their relatives and family members waiting for hours in the crematorium grounds which are usually cramped for space with furnaces burning round the clock.”

He said makeshift crematoriums are popping up everywhere as the city tries to keep pace with the number of corpses arriving for cremation every day.

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Relatives carry bodies at a crematorium in New Delhi. Picture: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

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The bodies, he says, are “on the roadside, pavements, in cars, ambulances and under the sweltering sun”.

Cremations now breaking sacred rules

The images of rows of burning pyres are now synonymous with India’s struggle, but they are more than just a gruesome sight. The way cremations are being carried out right now is breaking sacred rules.

Journalist Aarti Betigeri wrote for the Lowy Institute this week that the problem with trying to dispose of so many bodies is that it takes away the most important elements of cremation – time and space.

“The open cremation needs fuel, it needs space, but most of all it needs time,” she wrote.

“It can take an hour or more for the body to burn and for their soul to be released, and it shouldn’t be rushed.

“Which is why the photographs of corpses wrapped in white cloth and lined up outside crematoriums, under the scorching April sun, is for me perhaps the most potent of all the images bleeding out of Delhi.

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Bodies need space for the fire to breathe at cremation. Picture: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

“It is unimaginable to be forced to rush through the moments of saying goodbye and letting go. To have to, as I’m reading about, fight with fellow mourners for firewood or space. “Makeshift crematoriums are now being built in car parks and parks across the capital, and trees are being cut down for fuel, meaning the scars on the city are now physical, as well.”

Tahir told news.com.au bodies “are queued up”.

“If one crematorium was receiving 20 bodies now the same receive more than 100 bodies. So, the overwhelming of crematoriums had also piled up miseries for their relatives and family members. There are too many corpses.”

‘I am no longer scared of death’

A crematorium worker recently opened up about the process in an interview with VICE.

Ashu Rai, 20, said he now accepts death after dealing with so many dead bodies.

“I don’t feel anything when I see a dead body,” he said. “Maybe I don’t want to feel anything. I drink two bottles of beer every day before coming to work.”

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The remains of funeral pyres in New Delhi. Picture: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

He said workers were given masks and personal protective equipment but “we don’t wear it”. “We work in a furnace; we won’t be able to breathe in that suit.”

On COVID-19, he said: “After I started working here, I stopped being scared of death. Death is a part of life and it is nothing to be afraid of and this is why I am not scared of corona.”

The bodies will continue coming in after India’s coronavirus caseload nears 20 million.

The south Asian country’s cases have soared by around eight million since the end of March and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under growing pressure to take decisive action to reverse the surge.

Clinics in capital New Delhi have also sent urgent appeals for help.

“Oxygen is a basic requirement of a hospital and a consistent supply has not been assured. We are constantly firefighting,” the head of the Madhukar Rainbow Children’s Hospital Dr Dinesh Kumar Chirla told the Indian Express daily.

PM bans flights from India amid infection fears

Australia banned flights from India last week amid rising coronavirus case numbers and fears of infection breaching hotel quarantine.

A man adjusts the funeral pyre at a cremation ground in New Delhi on May 2. Picture: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

Anybody caught trying to enter Australia from a third country faces a hefty fine and jail time.

Former Australian cricket star Michael Slater is the latest high-profile individual to express his concerns about the new rules.

Slater, who was a commentator with the Indian Premier League but escaped from India for the Maldives earlier this week, said the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has blood on his hands.

“If our Government cared for the safety of Aussies they would allow us to get home. It’s a disgrace,” Slater tweeted.

“Blood on your hands PM. How dare you treat us like this. How about you sort out quarantine system.

“I had government permission to work on the IPL but I now have government neglect.”