The other side of India

[kenchabhai]

I don't know what this pic tries to prove? Poverty has been India's bane for centuries

Tsunami victims being cremated.


Appears to be a naked ascetic or beggar. Beggars are common, naked beggars or ascetics are not.


THIS IS AFRICA.


To be honest I feel this picture proves a positive point. A Hindu is supposed to see God in all beings.

A Naga Sadhu. They come out only during Kumbha melas otherwise they live in forests or mountains practicing asceticism.

Very few of the akharas/schools of Naga Sadhus are respected. Aka some could be impostors too, basically in it for smoking hashish and earning some money.

Many are able to perform impossible feats and some can perform very potent black magic.

Holy Hindu Sadhu

A digambar Jain ascetic. They are not Hindus. They basically live a life of celibacy & asceticism. They also live naked, on sattvik food.

Naga Sadhus as mentioned earlier they are given first preference of bath during Kumbha Mela which happens every 6 years. Interestingly after the Naga Sadhus it is the turn of Udasis, followers of Guru Nanak's son, Baba Sri Chand.

 

[DarkStar]

?



Naga Sadhus again. Some more trivia on them. They practice a unique fire penance. During Kumba Mela's hot summer months, they light fires around themselves, and sit still for many dies... and then bath and cover themselves with the ashes of those fires...
Aghoris on the other hand sometimes use ashes of the dead as the ones used on 1 of the Jyotirlinga.

Many Nagas and Aghoris live in crematoriums or cemetries like Lord Siva as they consider these places to be least disturbing.



?? No idea where this pic came from ??



?? what is so wrong here??



Now this is a revolting site, but dead corpses are never immersed in river. As per Hinduism, dead are usually cremated and only ashes of the dead are immersed.. So not sure of these pics...



Only in Uttarakhand

Wood is an expensive commodity, and not everyone can afford enough for a proper cremation. It is common knowledge that half burnt corpses are regularly flung into the Ganges and other rivers.

 

[Destructlord]

OMG im still in the shock since when i saw the pictures! (I mean the dogs, They were feeding on a dead person flesh!).

 

[Destructlord]

However, I havent seen anything strange about ceremonies. I have seen them on a movie "Scream of the Ants" or something!

 

[kenchabhai]

Wood is an expensive commodity, and not everyone can afford enough for a proper cremation. It is common knowledge that half burnt corpses are regularly flung into the Ganges and other rivers.

Wood used for cremation is available very cheaply. And in any case most charities provide wood free of cost for poor and needy people. EDIT: There are free electric crematoriums too.

THe corpse takes atleast 12-18 hours to burn, one has to return the next evening to collect ashes. There are govt. offices in most crematoriums to issue death certificates and ensure proper compliance.

The ashes so collected are most often immersed in a holy river like Ganga or Yamuna alongwith some puja.

Very few people actually die in and around holy towns btw. I have never seen half-burnt corpses being flung into any river.

PS: It is the damn pundits who charge the most money while performing annual ancestor worship in Haridwar.

 

[kenchabhai]

The slum life of Calcutta

Yes people in India poor so? the guy in the middle photo is a charsi IMO

No probs buddy!

you posted some tame pics of Khajurao.
Try grabbing some pics of the animal sacrifices of the Kamakhya temple.
Bhairon temple in Delhi serves alcohol as prasad. You will not believe the amount of liquor is offered to Bhairon God there.

Hindu Gods indufged in you know what...

they are not Hindu Gods.


I think this fact is self-contradictory. It proves all are from God, second God is formless so does it matter where one came from?

 

[DarkStar]

Pollution on the Ganges
Being the most sacred river in India does not prevent the Ganges from being also the most polluted. The amount of human pollutants in the Ganges is scary to me, and scarier still watching how the river is treated. Yet many goes through their daily life using the water of the Ganges to bathe and to do their laundry. It is curious to me that it is acceptable to do your laundry on a sacred river, but that's how it is.

There are several ghats in Varanasi where cremation is conducted. The biggest cremation ghat is Manikarnika. Often the cremation is not complete and yet the partially burnt corpses are sent into the Varanasi. It is therefore not surprising to find unburnt or half-burnt corpses floating on the Ganges. And then, there are people who work as scavengers to retrieve valuables from the mud of the Ganges. These could be those of the deceased that were not consumed by the fire of the cremation.


Along the banks of the Ganges River, Varanasi | AsiaExplorers

 

[DarkStar]

InfoChange India News & Features development news India - Hell flows along the River Ganga

Along with an estimated daily load of 1.5 billion litres of untreated sewage, the Ganga ferries thousands of half-burnt corpses that are put into the river to ensure spiritual rebirth. The result is deeply ironical: the ancient symbol of purity has become a great open sewer along much of its length. When the 15 th-century poet Kabir wrote of the Ganga, ``hell flows along that river, with rotten men and beasts”, few would have believed that his impious lament would one day be true.

“The harsh truth is,” laments Jaiswal, “that though the campaign has succeeded in garnering the vital support of local communities who live along the river, the concerned government agencies have looked the other way.” But under this growing apathy and the pressures of burgeoning population, the Ganga’s incredible cleansing capacity seems to be giving up. Today, in the basin of a half-billion souls, purification and pollution swim together in unholy wedlock.

While inability to afford the cremation expenses accounts for one-third of the floating corpses, another one-third is entirely due to the strong belief that immersing the dead brings moksha or salvation. Ironically, the remaining one-third is composed of those unclaimed bodies that the police conveniently dump into the river. It is an unbelievable commentary on the manner in which dead humans and the living river gets treated.

 

[DarkStar]

Hindu funerary practices require that human remains are disposed of in a river, preferably the Ganges. Although the body should ideally be burned, many people cannot afford enough wood for a full cremation, the report's authors claim.


Simply smoking the pelvis in women and the torso in men is sometimes enough. And many complete corpses are thrown into the Ganges.

"There are a whole range of public health concerns over Ganges pollution," lead author Professor Alan Colchester, of the University of Kent, told the BBC News website.

"But amongst all the recognition of potential problems, I don't think anyone has thought about the very rare but very important risk posed by the corpse of someone who has died from a version of CJD."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Human remains link' to BSE cases

 

[DarkStar]

next time keep ur eyes open, but i guess you won't see the floating corpses, sure as you never see the poor peole of delhi.

 

[kenchabhai]

Pollution on the Ganges
Being the most sacred river in India does not prevent the Ganges from being also the most polluted. The amount of human pollutants in the Ganges is scary to me, and scarier still watching how the river is treated. Yet many goes through their daily life using the water of the Ganges to bathe and to do their laundry. It is curious to me that it is acceptable to do your laundry on a sacred river, but that's how it is.

Exactly, it is confusing to me to. How can a river as scared as Ganga be so cruelly treated by Hindus.

There are several ghats in Varanasi where cremation is conducted. The biggest cremation ghat is Manikarnika.

It is perhaps the most beautiful ghat.

Often the cremation is not complete and yet the partially burnt corpses are sent into the Varanasi. It is therefore not surprising to find unburnt or half-burnt corpses floating on the Ganges.

the amount of deaths taking place in Kashi/Benares/Varanasi is abysmally low, I find it hard to believe that unburnt corpses are found floating. I have never seen any. The blogger must have seen something else.

And then, there are people who work as scavengers to retrieve valuables from the mud of the Ganges. These could be those of the deceased that were not consumed by the fire of the cremation.

Usually people throw Gold, and other valuables which these divers/scavengers retrieve. They mostly work as boatsman.

Along the banks of the Ganges River, Varanasi | AsiaExplorers

some pics detailing the dirty ganges from your source

 

[dbc]

Look at the Indians ganging up LOLZ Wow, we have quite a lot of them on PDF. Goes to show how lenient this forum is towards the Indians.

Maximus please present a balanced view of Hinduism and India. No religion or country is perfect. You have shown us the bad, now show us the good. By continuing in this vain you have only suceeded in hurting and offending people.

 

[kenchabhai]

Hindu funerary practices require that human remains are disposed of in a river, preferably the Ganges. Although the body should ideally be burned, many people cannot afford enough wood for a full cremation, the report's authors claim.


Simply smoking the pelvis in women and the torso in men is sometimes enough. And many complete corpses are thrown into the Ganges.

"There are a whole range of public health concerns over Ganges pollution," lead author Professor Alan Colchester, of the University of Kent, told the BBC News website.

"But amongst all the recognition of potential problems, I don't think anyone has thought about the very rare but very important risk posed by the corpse of someone who has died from a version of CJD."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Human remains link' to BSE cases

FROM YOUR SOURCE

But the theory has been greeted with scepticism by several experts on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).

Nearly 50% came from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where gathering large bones and carcasses from the countryside and from rivers is an established local trade.

Dr David Brown of the University of Bath, an expert in prion diseases, told the BBC News website: "It's certainly a possibility that you can't rule out completely, but I would say that on a scale of probability, it would be down at the low end."

Professor Susarla Shankar, head of neurology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, India, said he thought the theory would not stand up to scientific scrutiny.

 

[kenchabhai]

next time keep ur eyes open, but i guess you won't see the floating corpses,

The corpses as per your source were recovered from the Kanpur stretch. Now you know nothing about Kanpur my dear Pakistani friend living in Belgium away from the horrors of Indian subcontinent.

sure as you never see the poor peole of delhi.

Poor in Delhi are aplenty make no mistake about that. I didn't say they are no poor in Delhi did I ?
The ones defecating along the sides of the roads leading to temples and mandirs, blessing people who gave them a rupee or morsel of food are non-existent.

To sum up, the ones living in abject penury with no food eat are not found in Delhi.

PS: I challenge you to give a rupee coin to a beggar in Delhi, 1 in 2 chances he will throw it back at you.

 

[kenchabhai]

InfoChange India News & Features development news India - Hell flows along the River Ganga

Along with an estimated daily load of 1.5 billion litres of untreated sewage, the Ganga ferries thousands of half-burnt corpses that are put into the river to ensure spiritual rebirth. The result is deeply ironical: the ancient symbol of purity has become a great open sewer along much of its length. When the 15 th-century poet Kabir wrote of the Ganga, ``hell flows along that river, with rotten men and beasts”, few would have believed that his impious lament would one day be true.

“The harsh truth is,” laments Jaiswal, “that though the campaign has succeeded in garnering the vital support of local communities who live along the river, the concerned government agencies have looked the other way.” But under this growing apathy and the pressures of burgeoning population, the Ganga’s incredible cleansing capacity seems to be giving up. Today, in the basin of a half-billion souls, purification and pollution swim together in unholy wedlock.

While inability to afford the cremation expenses accounts for one-third of the floating corpses, another one-third is entirely due to the strong belief that immersing the dead brings moksha or salvation. Ironically, the remaining one-third is composed of those unclaimed bodies that the police conveniently dump into the river. It is an unbelievable commentary on the manner in which dead humans and the living river gets treated.

FROM YOUR 2004 SOURCE

On April 19, the eve of Sattu Amavasya, a bathing festival, volunteers from Eco-Friends fished 60 floating corpses out of the 10-kilometre stretch of the River Ganga in Kanpur.

Let us examine the claims and causes
1. 1/3rd due to inability to afford cremation expenses. Firewood and community crematoriums are dime a dozen. This is highly unlikely IMO.
2. 1/3rd due to belief that they will be granted moksha. Umm. that is why so many people immerse ashes in Ganges. But not burning a body and according it improper rituals is a greater sin IMO
3. Police dumping unclaimed bodies. Very likely

Some more groups I would like to add are
1. Suicide victims
2. Babies, pregnant women etc.
3. Area around Kanpur-Sitapur is prone to flooding, many drown there. This 2008 monsoon at least a 120 people drowned in Sitapur.
4. Murder-Homicide victims. It is not for nothing that UP is called the wild wild west of India.