A group of Hindu activists belonging to the Sangh Parivar disrupted the cremation of Subarna Digal, an 83-year-old Dalit because he was Christian.
The group also forced his relatives to flee their village. News of the incident has raised concerns among Christians in Kandhamal district in Orissa of their safety.
Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Raphael Cheenath said: “No villager should have been denied the last rites on any account. The dead man had expressed a ‘desire for baptism’ and was willing to accept the Christian faith on his own volition. The group should have been sensitive to this, but unfortunately, the activists acted in an inhumane way by showing disrespect to the dead.”
Subarna Digal, who was born into a Hindu family, had recently converted to Christianity and had started Bible classes in order to be baptized. However, he died before he could be baptized and his relatives took his body to the cremation ground. On their way, they were stopped by activists. The group forced Subarna’s relatives to leave the village saying he had contaminated the family because of his contact with Christians.
The family was forced to cremate Subarna’s body near a mountain away from the village. The group has even prevented Christian families from drawing water from the wells in the village.
