Madras high court directs government to construct common burial grounds – Times of India

CHENNAI: Decrying casteism even in burial grounds, Madras high court has directed the state government to consider constructing common burial ground in every village without any distinction on the basis of caste.
“Every citizen should be entitled to use the common burial/cremation grounds with all connected facilities and amenities attached thereto, without being discriminated or segregated,” Justice R Mahadevan said.
The court passed the order on a plea moved by B Kalaiselvi and Mala Rajaram, seeking a direction to the Kallakurichi collector to allocate a permanent place for a burial ground for Arunthathiyar community in their village. They alleged that at present people belonging to the community had to bury their dead on the banks of a waterbody.
Disposing of the plea, Justice Mahadevan said: “Right from the beginning of the introduction of the caste system, the social interaction between different castes and classes of society have always been in such a way that the different castes in the hierarchy of system do not interact with each other from birth to death.”
With respect to the right of cremation or burial after death, the same turned on the existence or ownership of lands by the said class or caste. The economic and social status of the respective caste/class also decided whether they had ownership of lands which could be used for cremation/burial, the judge added.
“It is indeed an undeniable fact that there have been several instances where Dalits, Arundathiyars and several others perceived to be members of the lowest in the hierarchy of the caste system, do not have lands where they can cremate or bury the dead bodies of their community people, and still worse cases, where they could not even carry the dead bodies across certain lands belonging to the people of the so-called higher castes,” Justice Mahadevan said.