It is not only the religious minorities like Christians and Kirants who face ordeals while trying to bury their dead. [break]
Other communities also face problems, thanks to a succession of blinkered governments that even as Nepal’s population rises by leaps and bounds, have given no thought to the management of the growing number of deaths.
About three years ago, Kathmandu Valley’s Newar community faced the threat of having their cremation ground at Swayambhu forcibly taken away from them by the “land mafia”.
“The mafia were eying the three ropani of land we had there for their construction projects and kept up attacks for several months,” says Sainju.
“They even broke the structures made in the crematorium and tried to arm-twist us into moving to a different area.
We had to seek the help of the local guthis and political parties to hold them off. Having faced last-rite troubles ourselves, we empathise with the plights of others.”
Nepal’s small Baha’i community remains one of the worst sufferers.
The Baha’i faith, that preaches all humanity is one race and would one day unite in one global society, was founded by Baha’u’llah in Persia in the 19th century.
Nepal first heard of the Baha’i faith through the biographical records of Jaya Prithvi Narayan Singh, the humanitarian raja of Bajhang, who met members of the community during his visit to Europe and the US.
Nepal’s first known Baha’i visitors started coming in the 1950s from India and the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Nepal was elected in Kathmandu city in 1961.
Today, according to Larry Robertson, chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Baha’is, Nepal, there are nearly 7,000-8,000 Baha’is in Nepal with Morang and Kanchanpur having the largest concentration.
“According to Baha’u’llah’s laws, Baha’is must bury their dead,” says Robertson. “And that too in a site which has to be within one hour’s travelling distance from the place of the death.
” Nepal’s Baha’is acquired their graveyard site in 1997 when eminent Nepali journalist and Magsaysay recipient Bharat Dutt Koirala’s father-in-law, who was from Iran, died.
“He was a Baha’i and we were scrambling to find a plot of land when someone offered Koirala a sandy, infertile place in a desolate area surrounded by rice fields,” Robertson says.
“Since then, Baha’is have been using that plot as their cemetery.”
However, as development overtook the area and houses started coming up, the Baha’is began to be increasingly threatened by the members of the new colony there.
“Last year, when we took the body of a Baha’i there for burial, the locals warned us that the burial was going to be the last and they would not allow any more. We are now working on asking the government to recognize by law the burial rights of Baha’is, just like Christians and Kirants.
Also, we are trying to win over the local community.”
The small, threatened community has begun to run classes for children, “junior youths” -- adolescents between the difficult years of 11-14 - and even study circles for adults to spread awareness about who human beings are, the purpose behind their creation and their relationship with God.
Even the Muslim community of Nepal, who have their own official burial site at Swayambhu, lament at its inadequacy and the “heedlessness” of the government.
“Originally, Muslims had their burial land in the entire area stretching from Ghantaghar to Bhadrakali,” says Mohammad Nizamuddin, senior vice-president of Muslim Sangh Nepal, that is close to the Nepali Congress.
“However, due to the extension of the durbar and palace officials feeling the corteges would clash with the motorcade of the king, made us swap the land for a plot in Swayambhu.
The new plot we got was only about one-fifth of the one we had earlier.
Besides, the allocation was made more than 100 years ago. Since then, the population has been increasing and one small graveyard is no longer adequate.”
During the last census of 2001, Nizamuddin says Muslims accounted for 4.27 percent of the total population -- meaning about nine lakh.
Today, the community estimates there are about 24-30 lakh Muslims.
“The Swayambhu cemetery is bursting apart,” he says.
“Old graves have to be dug up to accommodate new bodies and sometimes there are several bodies piled up on top of one another. We have asked the government several times to allot us a new plot.
But governments have just one agenda -- to hang on to power and make as much money as possible.”
Christians, who have been facing a vilification campaign alleging they are trying to grab Hindu land, say they are ready to conduct burials in any land allotted to them by the state.
However, the state has to do that first. Many Christians, especially Catholics, say they have adopted cremation. But even cremations are difficult for Christians.
“In a country where land is premium and even the living have no land, we have been cremating our dead in keeping with the practice adopted worldwide,” says Anthony Sharma, Nepal’s first Catholic bishop.
“However, few Christians want to take their dead to the Arya Ghat (cremation ground) at the Pashupatinath temple because of the caste discriminations.
Christian bodies are regarded as low castes.”
All the religious minorities are keenly waiting for the new census, to start from June 17.
To be undertaken after a decade, the 2011 census is expected to throw up lots of surprises, especially about Nepal’s religious profile with the Himalayan nation having become secular in 2006.
In the past, non-Hindus were afraid to talk openly about their faith, fearing persecution.
But now, with the new changes ushered in by the pro-democracy movement of 2006, they are expected to speak freely and change Nepal’s religion graph considerably.
If the census findings show that the religious minorities of yesteryear have gained in number today, their stature will grow as well with the government being forced to consider them as stakeholders who have to be included during discussions on state policies.
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