Denied land or burial, Jalandhar village Christian family keeps body in mortuary
With no dedicated graveyard for the Christian community, a family in Jalandhar’s Rampur Lallian village has been denied burial of their 64-year-old member, who breathed his last on April 1
Jalandhar: With no dedicated graveyard for the Christian community, a family in Jalandhar’s Rampur Lallian village has been denied burial of their 64-year-old member, who breathed his last on April 1.
The Christian family has kept the body of Makhan Ram at a mortuary in Jalandhar hospital and is waiting for the district administration to intervene and allow them to perform his last rites as per their rituals. The family has contacted the district administration and has also written to the state minority commission to direct the village panchayat to allot land for burial.
Makhan’s son-in-law Parveen said the family converted to Christianity almost 20 years ago and their generations have been residing in Rampur Lallian village for the past several decades. “The family wanted to perform Makhan’s burial as per Christian rituals, but the village panchayat denied us space in the village cremation ground. The panchayat is forcing us to cremate the body, which is not acceptable to us,” Parveen said, adding 20-25 Christian families are residing in the village.
Tarsem Peter, activist of the Pendu Mazdoor Union, said this is not the first time that such a situation arose. There is a conflict whenever a person of a particular community dies. “Earlier, families of Gurdial, a resident of the same village, and Surinder of Marnaian village of Hoshiarpur, both Christians, were left with no option but to cremate the bodies,” he said.
“This is a serious issue and the government should provide land to the community to perform last rites for their loved ones,” he added.
Village sarpanch Dharminder Kumar said not only the panchayat but the entire village is objecting to providing land for the burial. “Earlier too, people of the Christian community came to us seeking land for burial, but had to cremated the body. Even one of my close relatives cremated the body of their family member despite following Christianity,” the sarpanch said, adding “why would I and the panchayat go against the village?”
Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM Jalandhar-II) Balbir Raj said the matter is in the district administration’s notice and the block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) concerned has been directed to resolve the issue.
BDPO Rajinderjit Kaur Bains said she has directed the village panchayat to allot the land for burial. “The panchayat secretary and patwari are stationed at the village to demarcate the land for burial,” she said.
