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Indian ‘fasting to death’ custom faces court test

When 80-year-old Indian widow Kanwri Devi Surana suffered a mild heart attack last year, she pledged to fast herself to death in a religious practice known as “santhara”.
Her distraught family says she gave up food and then water, and passed away in Kolkata 62 days after making her vow.
“It was very distressing for us,” her granddaughter-in-law Ankur Surana, a fashion designer, told AFP. “She said god had come to her in a dream and told her to do this.”
Santhara, a custom in India’s minority Jain religion, is now at the heart of a court case that pits some modern attitudes against a tradition that has been likened to assisted suicide.
Lawyer Nikhil Soni approached the high court in the northern state of Rajasthan calling for a ban on santhara in 2006, describing the practice as unconstitutional and immoral.
Although fasting is a part of Indian culture, made famous by independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, who took up hunger strikes in protest against British rule, laws do not permit euthanasia or suicide.
But santhara has evaded legal intervention so far for being a religious custom dating back thousands of years.
Jains practise a strict pacifist creed, eating only selected vegetables, and taking care not to harm any living creatures.
Some wear masks across their mouths to avoid accidentally inhaling insects, and among devout Jains taking up santhara is held in high esteem.

18:45 | |

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