Amish Tripathi and the dignity of the dead

Apparently upset at videos and visuals of dead bodies piling up at crematoriums in India and TV channels in India and abroad showing the video clips, Amish Tripathi this week raised the issue of ‘dignity of the dead’ . By camping at crematoriums, Indian media were guilty of disturbing the journey of the soul, he suggested and invited strong indignation.

His social media post immediately triggered outrage. If dead bodies of celebrities and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee could be telecast, if dead bodies from Godhra train burning could be made a spectacle of and when funerals of martyrs from Pulwama were televised and politicised, people asked, were the journey of their souls disturbed.

This is what Tripathi posted, “Dharmic religious groups (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh) are perhaps the only groups to continue to practice cremations (besides other rituals) for departed souls. These are deeply sacred, and not subjects for media broadcasts.”

“Do report on the tragedy and hold govts to account, but please don't make a media circus of this. Dharmic religions believe in reincarnation. Our rituals for our ancestors are to help their souls on their journey. This, we believe, is among our primary duties to our ancestors. Those doing it in Covid times are already traumatised that we can't do all the rituals we must do. To video record these rituals, & broadcast them to societies that haven't practiced cremations for centuries & have no understanding of it, is rude, uncalled-for & insulting the sacred.”

“Once again, cover the pandemic, criticise the govts, but you don't have to disturb the journey of the souls of our ancestors to get media content. This is just an humble request to the media as a practising Dharmic. There is a reason why श्राद्ध continues to be a most important ritual across India.”

Tripathi’s gratuitous advice outraged many. While a few, very few, comments triggered by his post were supportive of him and abusive towards the media, most of the comments ridiculed him. Here are a few of them:

· Just keep quiet and enjoy London while we In India will want the facts (even if they are inconvenient) to be reported! Jay Ambadi

· It's OK to broadcast journey of the souls of celebrities? Can we save this crap for later. Dr Nilima Srivastava

· What’s Dharmic about being burned in parking lots and empty parks? What’s sacred about being cremated with kerosene, five to a pyre? Vidya Heble

· All these are excuses to prevent dear leaders from being held accountable. Will the departed soul find it easy to journey on when it finds that it has been lost due to mismanagement. will the soul be OK if it has been thrust out of the body which could not breathe? Honey George

· You still haven't given one reason why it's uncalled for or rude. Tourists specifically go to Kashi to see the cremation ghats. Never heard this argument then. Now 20-30 bodies are being cremated together in Delhi with families not even knowing who's who. That is uncalled for! Shantanu

· Dad’s friend’s father-in-law was cremated along with 36 other people. The relatives watched the cremation from outside, having no clue where their loved one’s body was. And the ‘right’ is talking about the dignity of the dead. What a joke. Sonal Hyat

· I am a Jain and media is not making a circus...or disturbing the dead... the soul has already departed... the only one who gets disturbed is the govt as their abject failure is presented to the world... Sanjiv Jhaveri

· When they were alive you could not give them the very basic need of life - oxygen. And now you want to secure their onward journey?! The Govt might have given you a plush assignment in London, but don't use your Dharmic knowledge to defend them. Muralidharan

· I was reading somewhere that this is going to be the govt line now. Showing pics of crematoriums will be taken as anti-Hindu. What can one say about a govt that always hides behind religion to save its backside which seems to be perpetually on fire? GC