The British Way with Corpses Is Best
TIMESONLINE: Open-air funeral pyres are a tradition too far

It seems ironic that Davender Ghai, the 70-year-old Hindu campaigning to be allowed to conduct open-air cremations, is also founder of a charity called the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society. In pushing for something that most Britons would find abhorrent, he is surely doing for Anglo-Asian relations what Timmy Mallett has done for music.

There are many ludicrous aspects to his position, not least his claim that open funeral pyres are “central to our religions” and that he has the support of many “prominent figures in India”. If the belief really was “central”, it would have become an issue some time ago, but Hindus and Sikhs in Britain have been using traditional crematoriums without complaint for decades. >>> Sathnam Sanghera | Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Hindu Elder Goes to High Court for Right to Open-air Cremation
THE GUARDIAN: Davender Ghai, 70, says he is being discriminated against on grounds of race and religion

Davender Ghai, centre, arriving at court. Photo courtesy of The Guardian
An elderly Hindu man will today ask the high court for the right to have an open-air cremation , claiming that to deny him such a ritual "will enslave his soul in endless earthly entrapment".

Davender Ghai, 70, is challenging Newcastle city council's decision to refuse him an open-air cremation when he dies. He claims that this refusal discriminates against him on the grounds of race and religion, contrary to equality and race relation laws. If successful, say his lawyers, the case could set a precedent for designated natural cremation sites around the country.

They also described today's review as "the most controversial religious freedom case in British legal history".

The local authority argues that open-air funeral pyres are outlawed by the 1902 Cremation Act. In 2006, it blocked his attempt to establish Britain's first approved site for burning bodies outdoors. Ghai, however, claims to have tested the law in July 2006, when he lit the funeral pyre of Rajpal Mehat in Northumberland.

In a witness statement to be read out in court today, Ghai says he is asking for equality not exemption.

"Local authorities routinely ­provide separate Muslim and Jewish burial grounds and out-of-hours registration and immediate or weekend burials. Hindus should cremate before the following sunset, too, and yet we, along with the general public, wait for up to a week.

"No one expects Hindus to marry in a church so why are Hindu funerals shoehorned through chapels of rest designed like Anglican churches?" >>> Riazat Butt, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Tuesday, March 24, 2009