India: Pastor’s son fights for Christians’ right to bury dead

NEW DELHI — Ramesh Baghel has change into the face of a battle for securing dignity in loss of life for Christians throughout Chhattisgarh state as he prepares a brand new petition to the Supreme Courtroom of India. 

Greater than two-and-a-half months after the Supreme Courtroom ordered the Chhattisgarh authorities to “demarcate exclusive sites as graveyards for burial of Christians throughout the state,” officers have taken no publicly recognized motion to implement the directive. The court-imposed deadline of March 27 handed with out compliance.

“This isn’t just about my father anymore. It is about the dignity and rights of every Christian in Chhattisgarh,” Baghel instructed Morning Star Information. “Our community continues to face the same challenges with nowhere to bury our dead with respect. I’m approaching the Supreme Court again because we need a resolution that honors both the court’s directive and our faith.”

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Baghel, who fought a three-week authorized battle to bury his father, Pastor Subhash Baghel, mentioned he is consulting with native attorneys earlier than approaching a Supreme Courtroom legal professional in Delhi.

The case highlights rising considerations about non secular freedom in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, the place Christians face rising hostility, social boycotts and denial of fundamental rights — together with the correct to a dignified burial based on their religion.

“The state’s inaction speaks volumes,” mentioned Pastor Salim Hakku, an space Christian chief. “Christians in Chhattisgarh are asking for nothing more than dignity in death, a right the Supreme Court has recognized but local authorities continue to deny. This is not just bureaucratic delay; it reflects a systematic attempt to marginalize our community.”

Father denied burial

Pastor Subhash Baghel died on Jan. 7 at Baliram Kashyap Memorial Authorities Medical School hospital in Jagdalpur, 186 miles south of Raipur in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar District.

When Ramesh Baghel tried to bury his father within the village graveyard in Chhindwada the place the our bodies of his different Christian relations had been interred, he met fierce opposition from a section of villagers.

That night, members of the Sarva Adivasi Samaj, together with native members of the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP), went to Baghel’s residence and introduced their determination to ban the burial within the village. When police arrived, slightly than mediating the dispute, they aligned with these opposing the burial.

“What surprised me most was the police’s stance,” Baghel mentioned. “Our own Mahar community had no issue with the burial after I explained to them that we’ve been burying our Christian dead in the designated area for decades. But after the Sarva Adivasi Samaj spoke with the authorities, the police themselves became the main obstacle.”

Regardless of being a Scheduled Caste household in a tribal village with constitutional protections, they discovered themselves deserted by the very officers who ought to have protected their rights, he mentioned.

“That’s when I realized I had no choice but to seek justice through the courts,” Baghel mentioned.

Although no less than 20 Christians had been buried in a specifically designated space inside the village graveyard for the reason that mid Nineteen Eighties — together with Pastor Baghel’s father in 2007, sister in 2015 and two different kin in 2013 — the village council immediately claimed no Christian burial floor existed.

Chhindwada village has roughly 6,450 residents, about 6,000 belonging to dominant tribal communities and 450 from the Mahar group, a scheduled caste group, based on police data from Bastar. Among the many Mahar group, about 100 people, together with the Baghels, transformed to Christianity a few years in the past.

Authorized battles

After native authorities failed to answer his pleas, Baghel filed a petition within the Chhattisgarh Excessive Courtroom on Jan. 8 requesting permission for his father to be buried within the village graveyard.

Throughout the temporary pendency of the petition, the village council (gram panchayat) issued a certificates claiming there was no graveyard for the Christian group anyplace inside its jurisdiction. Based mostly on this certificates, and citing considerations about potential “unrest and disharmony,” the Chhattisgarh Excessive Courtroom rejected Baghel’s petition on Jan. 9.

The courtroom directed him to bury his father at a Christian cemetery about 25 miles away in Karkapal. It additionally closed the choice of burying Pastor Baghel’s physique on the household’s personal non-public land — a stark departure from earlier circumstances the place the identical courtroom had permitted Christian burials on non-public property.

With all different choices exhausted, Baghel approached the Supreme Courtroom of India.

Cut up determination

After practically three weeks of preserving his father’s physique in a hospital mortuary, on Jan. 27 Ramesh Baghel acquired the Supreme Courtroom’s verdict: a break up determination (1 to 1) that successfully prevented him from burying his father within the village.

Justice B.V. Nagarathna’s opinion supported Baghel’s proper to bury the physique of their village. She famous that the state’s place violated Articles 21 and 14 of the Indian Structure, representing “hostile discrimination” that “betrays the sublime principle of secularism.” Nagarathna exercised powers underneath Article 142 and directed that burial be carried out on Baghel’s non-public property.

Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, nonetheless, cited public order considerations, arguing that the appellant didn’t have a basic proper to decide on the burial place. Sharma additionally contended that “the process of earmarking designated areas for every community is not perfect,” and opted to uphold the Excessive Courtroom’s order directing burial on the cemetery in Karkapal.

Because it was a break up verdict and Pastor Baghel’s physique had been within the mortuary for nearly 20 days, the bench agreed to let Sharma’s opinion stand, directing the burial on the Christian cemetery 25 miles away.

Importantly, the courtroom issued a selected directive to the state: “The respondent-State and its local authorities are directed to demarcate exclusive sites as graveyards for burial of Christians throughout the state in accordance with law. This direction is being issued in order to avoid controversies such as in the instant case. The said exercise shall be carried out within a period of two months from today.”

This clear, time-bound order from India’s highest courtroom was meant to forestall future burial disputes and shield the rights of Christian minorities in Chhattisgarh.

Midnight burial

Following the Supreme Courtroom’s Jan. 27 order, native administration officers and police mobilized instantly to make sure a swift burial. Witnesses report that police used an earth-moving machine to dig the grave and organized two buses to move Pastor Baghel’s physique, relations, and some pals to the cemetery in Karkapal, 25 miles away.

“We were left with no alternative but to bury our father at midnight,” Baghel mentioned. “The officials insisted it happen immediately, despite our requests to wait until morning when family and friends and community members could gather, and we could perform proper Christian burial rites.”

The Rev. Bhupendra Khora, who carried out the final rites together with one other Christian chief, described how authorities decided to finish the burial as rapidly as potential.

“We pleaded with the police and administration, explaining that Christians do not perform burials after sundown, but nobody listened,” Pastor Khora instructed Morning Star Information. “They would have simply dumped the body and covered it with earth if we hadn’t insisted on performing proper Christian burial rituals. Even in this difficult moment, we had to fight for the minimal dignity of a proper religious service.”

Christian leaders consider authorities rushed the burial to forestall any additional authorized challenges earlier than group members may strategy the Supreme Courtroom once more.

The hasty midnight interment violated Christian customs and denied Pastor Baghel the respectful farewell his a long time of service deserved, based on these current on the burial.

“My father dedicated 33 years of his life as a pastor, yet we couldn’t even give him a dignified farewell according to our tradition,” mentioned Baghel.

Village divided

Regardless of the village council’s declare that no Christian burial floor existed in Chhindwada, native media have documented a number of graves within the village crematorium courting again to the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s bearing cross marks on their headstones.

When confronted with this proof, officers reportedly dismissed the importance of the crosses, claiming “tribals adopt all kinds of cultures.”

The burial dispute at Chhindwada displays broader discrimination in opposition to Christians within the area. On Feb. 7, 2024 — simply over two months after the BJP received state meeting elections in Chhattisgarh — the Chhindwada village council handed a 13-point decision that explicitly prohibited Christians from being buried within the village crematorium.

The fifth level of this decision particularly states that those that have “converted their culture, rites and rituals away from the village’s traditional methods, such as Christians and others, will not be permitted to bury their dead in the village graveyard.”

The identical decision imposed a complete social and financial boycott of Christians. In keeping with Baghel and different Christian residents, they’re denied entry to authorities ration outlets and can’t rent laborers. Christian store house owners are prohibited from working companies within the village, and any violation leads to a nice of 5,051 rupees (about $60 USD).

“This resolution didn’t just target our burial rights — it declared us outsiders in our own village,” Baghel instructed Morning Star Information. “What hurts most is seeing elderly neighbors who want to offer condolences but stand at a distance, afraid of being fined. They’ve weaponized community bonds that took generations to build.”

The division within the village was evident throughout Pastor Baghel’s memorial service on Jan. 29. Whereas Christians from the village and neighboring areas gathered at Baghel’s dwelling, Hindu and different tribal neighbors had been notably absent.

Christians throughout Bastar face harassment regardless of the area’s 90-year historical past of Christianity, which started when the primary church was in-built Jagdalpur in 1933. The 2011 census counts Christians as 1.98% (27,951 individuals) of Bastar District’s inhabitants, with a better focus of 9.44% in Jagdalpur metropolis.

Reviews from media and advocacy teams in February 2023 documented how mobs vandalized church buildings, ransacked practically 100 properties, and compelled greater than 1,000 Christians from many villages in Kanker, Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts to flee after violent threats.

The Chhattisgarh Excessive Courtroom has repeatedly intervened in related circumstances all through the area. In April 2024, the courtroom needed to order authorities to permit a Christian girl’s burial on family-owned land in Arracote village after native opposition. Simply days earlier than Pastor Baghel’s loss of life, a tribal village headman and his relations assaulted Kunika Kashyap, a pregnant Christian girl in Bade Bodal village, inflicting her to undergo a miscarriage. The assault occurred when the headman suspected she would possibly pray with a sick relative.

The hostility has intensified in current months. In December, right-wing teams together with the Sarva Adivasi Samaj and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) held a press convention in Jagdalpur the place they introduced plans to marketing campaign in opposition to alleged unlawful church buildings in Bastar, threatening to demolish them and change them with Hanuman temples. Christian leaders allege that tribal youth have been mobilized to forestall conversions of their villages and block pastors from visiting.

The Supreme Courtroom directed the state to designate Christian burial grounds particularly to handle this systemic situation, however as deadlines go with out motion, Christians all through Chhattisgarh proceed to face uncertainty about their most elementary non secular rights.

“Can Christians in Chhattisgarh live with dignity and die with dignity?” Baghel requested. “The Supreme Court recognized our rights on paper, but until those rights become reality on the ground, I cannot rest. This is no longer my personal battle — it’s about justice for an entire community.”

Christian assist group Open Doorways ranks India eleventh on its 2025 World Watch Listing of nations the place Christians face essentially the most extreme persecution. India stood at thirty first place in 2013 however has steadily fallen within the rankings since Narendra Modi got here to energy as prime minister.

Non secular rights advocates level to the hostile tone of the Nationwide Democratic Alliance authorities, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP), which they are saying has emboldened Hindu extremists in India since Modi took energy in Could 2014.

This text was initially printed at Morning Star Information