Official Video - Funeral Pyre Campaign Part 1
Campaign for Natural Cremation: faith, freedom & choice
Click here for press reaction to the High Court ruling
On 8th May 2009, Justice Cranston in the High Court refused Baba Ghai's judicial review and last wish to be cremated on an open air funeral pyre, in a Hindu 'sacrament of fire' . Baba Ghai was granted permission to argue this "matter of life and death" in the Court of Appeal and is determined to pursue his claim as far the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The case is already cited in the Law Reports and analysts predict it will become the most significant religious freedom challenge in British legal history. Baba Ghai argues ‘natural cremation' is already lawful - and tested the law in July 2006 by lighting the funeral pyre of Mr Rajpal Mehat in Northumberland (see below).
On behalf of Secretary of State Jack Straw, the Mnistry of Justice objected to Baba Ghai's claims in court, arguing natural Hindu cremations are "abhorrent" - despite approval from independent wildlife preservation & bereavement charities, who submitted evidence that natural cremation sites were viable and could be managed according to acceptable standards of public heatlh & decency. Viscount Davenport is amongst other prominent figures supporting the campaign.
Britain’s Hindu umbrella organisations, collectively representing over 90% of the 559,000 Hindus in Britain, are united in support of Baba Ghai’s review. The Hindu Council UK initially opposed the prospect of ‘pyres in fields’ – but sympathy for Baba Ghai’s own circumstances and statements by ‘Hindu Pope’ Shankaracharya Dibyanand and Professor H.R. Sharma of Banaras Hindu University led them to also join in support and state that, “Hindus who wish to follow the ancient Hindu scriptures and wish to have open air funerals should be honoured.”
A corpus of Sikh temples also support Baba Ghai on the principle of freedom of choice and the President of the ‘Sikh Parliament’ at the Golden Temple, Amritsar has personally urged the Indian Prime Minister to lobby on behalf of British Sikhs interests.
Courtesy of Black Dog Websites
Mainstream Britain is gradually rejecting conveyor-belt, one-size-fits-all funerals and searching for services that are more meaningful.
Just as 200 green woodland burial sites now operate in the UK, hundreds of people from the wider public have considered natural cremation and contacted us with their interest. Approved natural cremation sites in rural pastures would offer courtesy and privacy to mourning families without ever affecting the feelings or sensibilities of others.
Furthermore, natural cremation will save grieving families from the spiralling expense (a rising average of £2000) of gas cremations, as funeral directors are pledging to provide natural cremation services for a maximum of £500. An AAFS Bereavement Trust Fund will pay funeral costs for all qualifying concessionaries, irrespective of faith or ethnic origin.
Click here to watch TV News coverage of the High Court hearing
We want to enforce the law, not change or disrespect it. Parliament and courts of law have scrutinized the subject for over a century, each verdict affirming freedom of choice. (see Legal Rights)
We want equality, not exceptions. No one expects Hindus to marry in a church – so why are Hindu funerals shoehorned through Chapels of Rest designed like Anglican churches?
Click on logos to read letters
Nor do we seek exemptions from environmental and public safety responsibilities. Natural cremation can be absolutely safe and responsible - and above all, a truly relevant bereavement public service befitting a free and civilised nation. Natural cremation sites are available to 33% of the world’s population - including Australia, the US and a quarter ofthe entire Commonwealth, including 12 countries with strong religious or cultural aversions to cremation.
The judicial review is led by renowned human rights barristers Ramby de Mello and Tony Muman; Richard Drabble QC, Prof Satvinder Juss and Eric Fripp represent intereving parties.
~ 'Pyres are lawful if they
do not cause a public nuisance'
:R v Price (1894)
~ 'The 1902 Cremation Act does not prohibit pyres'
:R v Byers (1907)
~ 'Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion'
:Article 9, Human Rights Act 1998
~ Justice Sir Andrew Collins agrees natural cremation is, "not necessarily unlawful," and the judicial review is, “of some considerable importance.”
In Nov 2004 the CPS did not prosecute after the natural cremation of Elsie Wrigglesworth, near Leeds.
Pakistan ~ In Nov 2005, Baba Ghai personally concluded negotiations with the Government of Pakistan to estblished the first state-funded Hindu cremation site anywhere in the Islamic world.
Baba Ghai and AAFS (Pakistan) General Secretary Dr Munawar Chand lobbied Rana Ijaz Ahmed Khan (Government's Law & Human Rights Advisor, right) - urging the government to
protect religious minority rights. Many Hindus and Sikhs were compelled to bury their loved ones according to Islamic practice in the absence of allocated grounds.
Natural cremation grounds opened on Lahore's Bund Road (near Abu Sabu Interchange) in 2006 and also prompted Afghanistan to reopen cremation grounds after years of Taliban prohibition.
Click here to read further details.
Greece legalised cremation in March 2006 after sustained lobbying by AAFS (Greece) Representative Mr Maghar Gandhi. Soon after, Baba Ghai and Operational Manager Kusam Vedhara met Christian and Muslim communities in Nepal to inspect burial provisions for minorities in the then Hindu Kingdom.
~ Environment Agency stated cattle pyres during the 2001 Foot & Mouth crisis caused “no significant harm."
~Dr Ivan Vince (ASK Consultants) is eminent in the field and confirms pyres satisfy environmental standards.
Click here for a
BBC Look North interview.
The Death & Afterlife of Rajpal Mehat
In December 2005, a huddle ofpolice officers and passers-by stood, watching a drowning man scream for help in Grand Union Canal (Southall, Middlesex). Nor then did anyone from the local community come forward to identify him or report him missing. Finally, 6 months of forensic analysis enabled Metropolitan Police to retrieve a number from the man’s water-damaged mobile phone.
~ Renowned Vedic scholar Prof.H R Sharma of Banaras Hindu University confirms Hindu cremation is a ritual invocation of Agni, the Lord of Consecrated Fire - and not merely 'disposal of remains'
~ Fusion of sacred heat, mantras and ritual offerings sanctifies the body & liberates the soul. Crematoria reduce this ritual science to tokenism.
~ Cost-saving efforts are leading to multiple cremations in Britain, causing ashes to intermingle and endanger the ritual purity of the sacrament.
Click here for TV news
coverage
Their call was answered by Baba Ghai. It transpired the man once attended an AAFS advice surgery and our records revealed he was Rajpal Mehat, a Sikh and the only son of (Late) Amarjit Singh. After the Coroner refused permission to fly Rajpal back home, Baba Ghai travelled to India to personally console his distraught mother and sister. Devestated by their loss and and anxious that Rajpal had not yet received religious last rites, they pleaded for help to arrange a funeral to ensure peace for Rajpal's soul.
Baba Ghai agreed and, on 12th July 2006, lit the first open air funeral pyre in Britain since the cremation of a Nepalese Princess in Woking in 1932. His mother used to dream about him, asking for help, which only ceased after the cremation.
Northumbria Police permitted the cremation to take place on private farmland in Northumberland. Soon afterwards, however, they stated that offences "may" have been committed under the cremation laws but the CPS declined to bring any charges.
