Hindus Demand to Allow Open Air Cremation in UK

The Hindu community in UK has got the right to seek a judicial review of a city council’s refusal to allow open air cremation. The move may get community the rights to stage outdoor cremation on funeral pyre.

The first approved site to perform 4,000 year old spiritual
ceremony in northeast England has been temporarily blocked in
2006 after Newcastle City Council, a local authority refused
to allow open air cremation as it regards the rite against cremation
laws prevailing in the country.

The authority has been asked to change its decision by Davendar
Kumar Ghai, a 68 year old Hindu who is in poor health ad wishes
to cremated on an open air pyre after his death.

The judicial review will be led by specialist human rights barristers
Ramby de Mello and Tony Mum. However, no date has been decided
yet.
As per the authority, the open air cremations fall outside the
1902 Act, which regulates what happen inside a crematorium.
Open air funeral will be an offence only if it leads to public
nuisance, which would be avoided as the sites would be located
in far off places.

There are around 559,000 Hindus in UK and a majority of them
are likely to prefer an open air cremation which Hindus regard
necessary for successful liberation of soul.
At present, Ghai is serving as founder and president of the Anglo-
Asian Friendship Society.

The ailing man came into the news last
July for having arranged the first open air ritual at an undisclosed
venue in UK since the Home Office allowed the open cremation
of a Nepalese princess, Sumshere Jung.