Saviour Of the Dead: Burying the Bodies India Forgets
By
Swaminathan Natarajan & Khadeeja Arif
BBC
World Service
13 March
2020
Mohammad
Shareef began burying bodies after his son's death
------
Mohammad
Shareef never got to bury his son. Instead, he has spent the last 27 years
burying the unclaimed sons and daughters of thousands of other families.
It took a
month for police to tell Mr Shareef that his son had died, and even then, they
couldn't tell him where, or how.
All Mr
Shareef knows is that his son, Mohammad Rais, was one of almost 2,000 people
killed in the Hindu-Muslim riots which engulfed India following the destruction
of a mosque on a disputed religious site in 1992.
Mr Shareef
doesn't even know where the 25-year-old was buried.
"Police
told me his body had decomposed," Mr Shareef recalled, almost three
decades on. "We didn't see his body. We only got his clothes."
But a few
months later, he would witness something which would change his life forever.
"One
day I saw police officers throwing a body into a river. I was horrified,"
Mr Shareef says.
Along with
the horror, came a realisation.
"I
think my son's body might have been thrown into a river, just like other such
dead bodies. That day I said to myself, from today I am the guardian of
abandoned dead bodies and I will give them a proper funeral."
Mohammad
Shareef with his wife
Image
Source, Mohd Shabbir
------
Mr Shareef
says his wife Bibi never recovered from the death of their son
Unclaimed
bodies pile up in India for a host of reasons: they could be people who lost
their lives in road and rail accidents, or people who died far from home -
pilgrims, migrants, old people abandoned by their children.
Some
impoverished patients die in hospital with no-one to take care of the funeral.
But what to
do with the bodies? Back in 1992, many districts in India didn't have a
mortuary facility. It was fairly common practice to dispose of unclaimed bodies
quickly.
Burial was
the preferred method, but in some places in north India they dumped unclaimed
human remains into rivers to save money, time and effort.
Mr
Shareef's family have long suspected that Rais' body ended up in the Gomti
river. It flows past Sultanpur, the city where the young man had been working
as a chemist in December 1992 - the month when Hindu fundamentalists tore down
the 16th Century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Mr Shareef's home, 65km (40 miles)
away.
Rais went
missing amid the bloodshed which followed.
"After
my son disappeared, I searched for him everywhere for a month, like a mad
man," his father says. "I didn't find him anywhere. I even went to
Sultanpur to look for him."
Then came
the news they had been dreading: their beloved son was dead. Mr Sharif and his
wife Bibi were traumatised. His wife still struggles with periods of depression
to this day.
The pain is
aggravated by the fact they were not able to give their son a proper burial. It
is a pain no one else should go through, Mr Shareef says.
"I
decided that in my district, I wouldn't let any unidentified body be thrown
away into a river," he says.
Mohammad
Shareef levelling a grave
Image
Source, Mohd Shabir
------
Shareef
says he takes care of the unknown dead persons as he would a family member
In India's
caste-bound Hindu society, those who were at the bottom were historically
forced to do the job of burial and cremations - and then treated as
"untouchables" as a result.
But Mr
Shareef - a bicycle mechanic by trade - was not to be deterred. He told the
police about his desire to take up a task shunned by everyone else.
"When
I got the first call, my heart was pounding. After the post-mortem, the police
asked me to take away the body. I clearly remember that person's neck was
slashed."
Soon, his
workload started to increase. He even bought a four-wheeled cart to transport
the dead.
Predictably
his family members, friends and neighbours were taken aback. Even as a Muslim,
Mr Sharif began to experience the same social exclusion as his Hindu
colleagues.
"No-one
in my family was happy at that time. They said, 'you have gone mad'.
"Some
people were afraid of me. They thought they would get infected with germs if
they made physical contact with me."
Yet Mr
Shareef was resolute in his conviction. He had skipped family weddings,
festivals and even prayers for the sake of unknown people. It gave him peace
and solace: performing last rights is a moment to remember his son.
"It
helped me to deal with the pain of my son's death. I think about him all the
time. I miss him."
A
funeral pyre along the river Ganges in Varanasi
Image
Source, Getty Images
-------
In the
Hindu caste system, those who are relegated to the bottom of the pyramid are
forced to assist with cremations and burials
It is not
an easy job. Police often struggle to identify the body, which means they may
have been dead for some time. Often it is not the bodies, Mr Shareef says, but
the smell which is most off-putting.
"Whenever
I see a badly mutilated or decomposed body it is difficult to sleep. I have
nightmares and resort to sleeping tablets," he explains.
"Sometimes
police officials come with me to the cemetery but even they stand far
away."
All the
same, he always takes the time to ensure the person is given the proper
treatment, usually bathing the body.
If he
realises the dead person is Muslim, he wraps the body in a sheet of cloth and
recites the final prayers. If the body belongs to a Hindu, he takes it to be
cremated.
No-one know
exactly how many bodies Mr Shareef has buried. The head of Ayodhya district
administration, Anuj Kumar Jha, told the BBC that they don't have full records
of the bodies handed over to Mr Shareef.
"Our
rough estimate is we would have given about 2,500 bodies to him," he said.
Mr Shareef's family say he has given last rites to more than 5,500 people.
Yet for
years, he toiled without any financial support. To this day, he works in his
bicycle shop, earning the equivalent of about $3 a day.
Mohammad
Shareef repairing a cycle wheel
Image
Source, Shabir
-----
Mr Shareef
continues to run his roadside cycle repair shop to provide for himself and his
wife
But things
are changing. He has been recognised for his dedication. The government has
given him one of India's highest civilian awards, while local shop owners now
also help cover his expenses. At the age of 80, he is now able to have two paid
assistants who are sharing his burden.
"Both
Hindus and Muslims help me. People give me food and warm blankets. Recently I
had to have an eye operation - a stranger called me and gave me 20,000 rupees
[$290]."
But
retirement is not something he is willing to consider. Neither his two
surviving sons nor grandchildren want to follow in his footsteps, and he is
acutely aware of what will happen if he stops doing this work.
"If I
am not there, police will throw the bodies into rivers as they did
before."
For a man
who some call the "saviour of the dead" that would be unbearable.
"I
will continue doing this till my last breath," he says.
Source:
Saviour of The Dead: Burying the
Bodies India Forgets
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/saviour-dead-burying-india/d/130707
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