By Purushottam Nayak
Nabarangpur, March 15, 2025: Christian families have become Hindus to facilitate the burial of a relative in an eastern Indian village.
Only three of the 30 families in Siunaguda, a village in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district, are Christian, belonging to the “Brothers in Assembly,” a Pentecostal sect.
After a 70-year-old Christian died on March 3, the Hindus insisted that his relatives and other Christians re-convert to Hinduism if they wanted to use the village burial ground.
The deceased, Kesab Santa, and his family had become Christians five years ago.
Santa’s elder son Turpu Santa said his father died due to age-related illness and they had no other choice but become Hindus to bury the deceased.
“We have every right as citizens of India to bury our loved ones in our own land,” he told Matters India.
“India, which is known for religious tolerance and hospitality, has lost its secular image because of some people who have no respect for other religions,” he lamented.
Pastor Benjamin Upasi, who heads the sect in the Umerkote block, is upset about his people’s decision to reconvert. “Respecting the dead is a moral obligation for the living,” he told Matters India.
Burying the dead, he added, brings peace of mind to the bereaved, allowing them to remember their loved ones with dignity.
The village is some 550 km southwest of Bhubaneswar, the state capital.
Burying Christians has become problematic in Chhattisgarh, Odisha’s northwestern neighbor.
On January 27, the Supreme Court gave the government of Chhattisgarh a two-month deadline to demarcate exclusive burial sites for Christians to prevent disputes over burial grounds in the state.
The directive came after Ramesh Baghel, a Christian, sought justice from the apex court to bury his father, a pastor, in his native village when local authorities, including the regional court, rejected his plea.
Throughout Chhattisgarh, village authorities have reportedly persecuted Christians by denying them the right to Christian burial. In many instances, these denials have led to violence.
The Chhattisgarh case has stirred a nationwide debate and raised a fundamental issue of whether the right to burial falls under the ambit of constitutional rights. Ultimately, due to the Supreme Court’s split verdict, Baghel could bury his father in a Christian cemetery, but more than 45 km from his village.
The pastor died on January 7 and his son filed a petition to bury his father on January 11 in the regional court after opposition from the villagers and the local authorities. The regional court dismissed his appeal.
On January 17, he went to the Supreme Court’s two-judge bench, which delivered the split verdict ten days later.
Despite their disagreement, the judges chose issued a consensual direction allowing the burial at a designated Christian burial site. The larger question of burial rights, however, remains unresolved.