{"id":303686,"date":"2010-02-10T17:08:36","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T22:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reuters.com\/faithworld\/?p=11773"},"modified":"2010-02-10T17:08:36","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T22:08:36","slug":"hindu-wins-battle-for-funeral-pyre-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/303686","title":{"rendered":"Hindu wins battle for funeral pyre in Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Davender<\/p>\n

Davender Ghai outside of Britain's High Court in London, 18 Jan 2010\/Toby Melville<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A devout Hindu declared himself “overjoyed” on Wednesday after winning a court fight to be allowed to be cremated in Britain on an open-air funeral pyre.<\/p>\n

Spiritual healer Davender Ghai, 71, was granted his last wish by the Court of Appeal which ruled the controversial ceremony could be carried out without a change in the law, which prohibits the burning of human remains anywhere outside a crematorium.<\/p>\n

But the judges ruled in his favour only after Ghai agreed that the pyre would be surrounded by walls and a roof with an opening, the Press Association domestic news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Ghai believes that a pyre is essential to “a good death” and for the release of his spirit into the afterlife.\u00a0 He wants a permit for an open-air cremation site in a remote part of Northumberland in northern England.<\/p>\n

\"Davender<\/a><\/p>\n

Davender Ghai near a traditional Hindu funeral pyre in Northumberland, northeast England, 12 July 2006\/Phil Noble<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read Stefano Ambrogi’s full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Europeans discussing restrictions on certain traditions such as the wearing of Muslim face veils, do you think this Hindu tradition is acceptable in a western society?<\/p>\n

Does it stop short of some red line that the Muslim veil crosses? Does it make a difference that a Hindu is seeking respect for a religious tradition rather than a Muslim?<\/p>\n

Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davender Ghai outside of Britain's High Court in London, 18 Jan 2010\/Toby Melville A devout Hindu declared himself “overjoyed” on Wednesday after winning a court fight to be allowed to be cremated in Britain on an open-air funeral pyre. Spiritual healer Davender Ghai, 71, was granted his last wish by the Court of Appeal which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4076,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}