![]() ![]() The current crisis in Delhi and elsewhere in India, where a wave of Covid-19 has exploded like a bomb, has catalysed the country’s deep sense of malaise. Indians are angry – not just at their own government, but at the international community, for ignoring them in their time of need. ![]() Makeshift crematoriums are now being built in car parks and parks across the capital, and trees are being cut down for fuel, meaning the scars on the city are now physical, as well. To have to, as I’m reading about, fight with fellow mourners for firewood or space. ![]() It is unimaginable to be forced to rush through the moments of saying goodbye and letting go. Which is why the photographs of corpses wrapped in white cloth and lined up outside crematoriums, under the scorching April sun, is for me perhaps the most potent of all the images bleeding out of Delhi. It can take an hour or more for the body to burn and for their soul to be released, and it shouldn’t be rushed. The open cremation needs fuel, it needs space, but most of all it needs time. It is raw, primal and earthy – but it is above all, deeply soulful. As you watch the fire burn and with bits of ash flying high and all around, you grieve and reflect, but as it grounds down and the deceased returns to the earth, you pass over into acceptance. Ghee is scattered around the structure to help the flames along. A pyre is built around it, with wood stacked in a triangular tunnel to allow the fire to breathe. The body is placed onto a cement platform. His team has had to forgo the exhaustive rituals Hindus believe release the soul from the cycle of rebirth.Watching a Hindu cremation, in which the body is burned on an open funeral pyre, is a profoundly confronting experience. Covid-19 victims are cremated at Seemapuri crematorium in New Delhi. “Day in and day out, we are surrounded by the smell of burning flesh, and the sounds of crying families,” Jeet said. Most don’t dare remove their masks for fear of getting infected. Team members limit their water breaks, even as temperatures soar to more than 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Together, the team builds funeral pyres, cremates the bodies, and then clears the area to start the process all over again. If we are to die, we will die.”ĭressed in protective gear, volunteers toil in the scorching heat, sometimes up to 20 hours a day, according to Jeet. “Of course we are scared, but it would be a letdown to our nation if we didn’t step up. “We are aware of the risk that comes with doing this work,” he said. He has, as a result, had to rely on other members of the public to help with the cremations.ĭownload the NBC News app for breaking news and politics Several senior volunteers in his group tested positive during the most recent wave, according to Jeet. Other religions, including Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism, account for about 4 percent of the population and have a variety of funeral rites. Hindus are usually cremated, while Muslims and Christians traditionally opt for burials. ![]() Nearly 80 percent of India’s population is Hindu, according to the most recent census, about 14 percent Muslim, and just over 2 percent Christian. New Delhi’s main Muslim graveyard for victims of Covid-19 is also running out of space, resulting in some Muslims having to cremate their loved ones, Reuters reported. Parking lots in New Delhi are now also being converted to accommodate the rising number of bodies.Īnd it’s not just India’s crematoriums that are overwhelmed. While there are no official figures to demonstrate how many bodies have been cremated across the country, photos and video of smoldering funeral pyres in India’s makeshift crematoriums have come to symbolize the country’s Covid-19 crisis. Now, in the throes of a devastating second wave, it is conducting more than 120 cremations daily, he said. Then, the organization cremated about 10 bodies a day. ![]()
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