British man loses right to
Hindu cremation
May 8, 2009
LONDON, England A Hindu man in Britain lost his court battle Friday for the legal right
to be cremated in a traditional Hindu open-air funeral pyre. Most Hindus believe open-air
burning is the spiritually appropriate way to release a soul from the body.
Davender Ghai, 70, a world-renowned charity advocate in Britain, argued the practice is
already legal under British law, but he sought clarification in order to hold such cremations
in the future.
Ghai tested the law in 2006 when he lit the funeral pyre of a man in the northern English
county of Northumberland. He was never prosecuted, but the city council in Newcastle,
where Ghai lives, promptly ruled funeral pyres illegal.
Ghai, currently in India receiving medical treatment for what a spokesman described as
debilitating high blood pressure and diabetes, said in a statement that he was saddened by
Friday's verdict and will appeal. He has said he hopes for a traditional cremation when he
dies.
"I shall appeal until the very end, in the faith that my dying wish will not go unheard," said
Ghai. "A matter of such magnitude deserves to be heard by the highest courts in our land
and I shall not tire until all legal avenues are exhausted."
Current British law forbids cremation anywhere but in a crematorium. But Ghai points to
findings by Judge Andrew Collins when, in 2007, he determined Ghai's case was important
enough to go to trial. Collins said case law indicates that "burning of dead bodies in the
open is not necessarily unlawful" and that the point is arguable in court.
Opponents say open-air cremation is unsanitary and hazardous to health and the
environment. Calculations based on U.N. estimates of mortality rates suggest that in India
alone, 50 million trees are cut down each year to create funeral pyres, generating more than
8 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Ghai has said he believes the practice is a religious right for Hindus, who consider open-air
cremations essential to the peace of the soul. Such cremations are sanctioned by Hindu
scriptures, according to the Hindu Council UK, which supports Ghai's case. It says ancient
Hindu rites stipulate that the body be cremated by means of a wood-fueled fire in an open-
air facility exposed to daylight.

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