Last rites of old man not allowed by tribal villagers because of religious issues
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, July 3: Last rites of an old tribal man name Dama Jakaka(65) from Gajigaon village, hardly 10 kilometres from the district headquarters, could not be performed due to some villagers raising objections regarding the use of the village graveyard.
He had been ill for a few months and passed away at around 7 AM last Thursday.
The family tried to perform his last rites at the local crematorium.
A dispute arose over the last rites of Dama when some villagers belonging to non-converted tribal community raised objections regarding the use of their crematorium, which delayed the last rites for about 28 hours. Later, after the intervention of the district administration, police and local social workers, as an alternative, the last rites were performed in the agricultural field belonging to the deceased person.
The local Sarpanch Ranjit Huika said that as Dama got converted to Christianity seven to eight years back and his family members were not observing any tribal traditional events, the villagers were opposing Dama’s last rites in the village graveyard as per Christian tradition. According to the local tradition, if someone dies in the village, cooking is not done until the last rites of the deceased are performed.
Meanwhile, the delay in the last rites also affected the normal life in the village.
