Jalaun,UP— India is a land where rituals and traditions define life cycle. Traditions, may or may not have the sanctity of the religion but have been revered by the people. One such tradition , which has become an inherent part of the society is the tradition of Death Feast. The terhavi bhoj, also known by the name of triyodashi bhoj, because it is organised on the 13th day of the death of a person . This involves feeding the relatives and acquaintances of the deceased, Interestingly, although death of anyone is marked by grief and sorrow, the menu of the feast or the Death Supper also includes sweets and desserts.
The members of rural households mostly belonging to SC/ST/OBC category can't depend on their small landholding for survival, they eke out a living by working as daily-wagers, barely able to earn Rs 5,000-10,000. While the bill for organising such an event runs into tens of thousands and can even breach the 1 lakh mark as some people also arrange for musical programs in such events, additionally, offlate the trend of organising events in a guest house or lawn has caught up,further escalating the budget. Bundelkhand is one of the most backward region of the country, reeling in poverty and therefore the huge amount can drastically disrupt the financial structure of the families by pushing people into the debt trap . A group of social activists felt the need to sensitise the masses against this tradition, which has been ingrained as an "indispensable" custom.
It was in 2011 that Manoj Gautam a 50-year-old social activist, who has been associated with parties like BSP and served as its state in-charge for Bihar embarked on a journey to launch a campaign against the practice, which he thinks is a brahminical custom. His biggest inspiration for this comes from the 22 Vows of Dr Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Ambedkar's 6th vow reads “ I shall not perform Shraddha nor shall I give pind." . So When on 9th August, 2011, his father died he eschewed all the brahminical practices of Shraddha ,pind and the Mrityu Bhoj.
His team works informally without any office or registration. The members primarily work in Jalaun district but sensitise the people in neighbouring districts also when they go there. His home situated in Mijhauna village of Jalaun district serves as the meeting point of the members. We reach his village, located 40 kilometers away from the district headquarters. We are welcomed by his team members and his supporters. His team members primarily belongs to Manoj's own Jatav community . “Apart from Jatavs , we also have members from other communities like maurya, nishad, badhai, ahir etc. we motivate people from all castes belonging to the marginalised sections i.e. SC/ST/OBC categories." says Manoj adding that these practices have a major bearing on the finances of these sections because of weak financial status, further, he explains that as the the upper-castes people are in commanding position , they are quite unlikely to get persuaded by us and it is the other way round in that case.
which areas do these members operate in...? is it in Jalaun district itself or beyond? do they do any other kind of activities?
Brij kumar Bhaskar, an activist volunteering for the cause says " when we get the news of someone's death we reach at the cremation site and after the funeral is over, we approach the family members of the deceased. We convince them that if you don't perform the mrityubhoj , the money saved can be used for some other purpose." He adds that when his mother died in 2013, he too gave same arguments to convince his family members.
Alternative ways to mourn the dead: A Ray of Hope? Social Pressure trumps financial prudence?
Some people also use it as an opportunity to help the needy. Lalu Singh Shakya from the teetra village in the district is a contractor, he distributed 11 cycles to girls in village when his wife died in 2022 . " I don't get the time to volunteer for the cause but some of my relatives work with Mr Gautam, they convinced me to drop the idea of performing triyodashi, so i decided to skip the event and instead spend that money to procure bicycles for poor girls." Shakya adds that his decision had generated rancour amongst the relatives despite initially acquiescing in.
Prabal Kumar Baudh, a Shiksha Mitra says that the society mounts pressure on the family of the dead for triyodashi bhoj. He cites a recent case in Sikri village in the district, where a 40-year-old man doing petty jobs to eke out a living having three children died, there was a lot of pressure on the family members to arrange feast, but the family resisted the pressure. " The poor financial condition of the family made it easier to convince them" believes baudh.
However, most of the people succumb to the social pressure and arrange the feast despite financial constraints. Manoj Gautam adds that long standing superstitious beliefs also play a role in the persistence of such practices. People believe that if they don't perform mrityubhoj on the thirteenth day of the death, the departed soul won't attain salvation or peace. Some argue that the dead will not go to heaven. if we don't feed the relatives.
He points that because of these beliefs it becomes quite difficult to convince people adding that on several occasions he failed to convince his own relatives. " We have been successful in influencing more than 500 people, but sometimes fail to convince our own relative. Gautam says that prodding by relatives also adds to social pressure. Mentioning about a case in his relations he says " There was a death in our relations near Madhogarh in Jalaun. We went there and had initially convinced them to skip the triyodashi ceremony. But some relatives prodded them to organise the bhoj and even offered them money on credit for this purpose. The family members succumbed to the pressure and accepted money from them to organize the feast. After some months the relatives who lent the money began asking for it; consequently they had to sell their plot in Jalaun to pay for it.
Geeta Gautam, wife of Manoj Gautam says she tries to motivate the women against it but is instead told by them that " we have also eaten at someone else's place so we are bound to invite others at our home for the feast in case of death". Gita is not the only women who supports her husband. Meena Devi, wife of Prabal Kumar Baudh , has studied till 12th and ensures that she reaches out to maximum women in and outside her community. Meena apprises us with some facts which were unknown hitherto " The widows of younger age are made to sit on a gunny bag for 12 days after a ceremonial bath. Her husband Prabal Baudh explains that is quite prevalent among the upper-castes and less among the marginalised communities." We reached out to more people in the area but could not get the details.
For Hariom Panchal, a retired school teacher from the Mijhauna village not arranging death feast after the death of his daughter-in-law not only irked his relatives but also some of the " Hindutva suporters" on social media. We visited his home in the village. Showing us the photo of his daughter-in-law, he says " She succumbed to an undetected diabetes after it damaged her internal organs . After her death we decided to skip the rituals as we had done the same in 2022, when my son died and early this year when my uncle died. The opposition to this came from several quarters, our in-laws i.e. the parents of the deceased daughter in-law insisted on organising the triyodashi bhoj . Panchal further reveals that this was also opposed by some people on social media when he announced the decision in a whatsapp group consisting of his caste members. Panchal showed us a whatsapp screenshot in which a member wrote " mrityubhoj is a ceremony through which members of a family and relationship assemble at a place, today they are opposing mrityub hoj tomorrow they will oppose wedding feast or any other Sanatan ceremony through which family and society gets strengthened."
Certainly, skipping the post-death feast has its benefits in terms of monetary savings, which fends off financial burdens to a large extent . However resisting the societal pressure is not an easy task. Therefore to make the campaign more sustainable Gautam ensures every year that the people who don't concede to societal optics are recognised. "We organise a programme every October to felicitate such people. . When asked about the significance of the month- October he explains " it was on 14th October in 1956 that Babasaheb took 22 vows and of them the sixth vow, I shall not perform 'Shraddha' nor shall I give 'pind-dan'. is the guiding principle of our campaign, therefore we organise the programme every year on a Sunday following 14th October; this year we organised the programme on 27th since on 20th October- the first Sunday after 14th our guests were not available.
On 27th October the program Jan Chetna Baudhdha Sammelan had former minister Sri Ram Pal and Deepraj Gurjar, District President of Samajwadi Party as its Chairman and was chaired by former MLC Tilak Chandra Ahirwar. Notably, Ahirwar has been instrumental in popularising the campaign in neighbouring district of Jhansi, where recently members of Maurya and Yadav community banned the 13th day post-death ritual in their community, before this members of the Ahirwar community had banned the death feast.
Campaign against the mrityubhoj is not only confined to Bundelkhand but has also reached eastern Uttar Pradesh, We spoke to Professor Vikram , a lecturer at Allahabad University he says " This practice is against the basic tenets of Indian constitution and is unscientific in nature. the 43-year-old lecturer, who teaches Medieval history belongs to Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh and observes that " People in eastern UP are warming up to the idea of defying the age-old practice of mrityubhoj , particularly the people from communities like Chamar, Maurya, Yadav etc. They have found alternate ways of mourning the dead, the family members of the deceased may donate study material to the needy.
This he says has kindled hope in the region, which like Bundelkhand is also a backward and impoverished region.
The neighboring state of Rajasthan has rode roughshod over the legal provisions like Rajasthan Prevention of Mrityubhoj Act, enacted in 1960, which aims at curbing the practice due to wasteful expenditure. Rajasthan became the first state in the country to ban this practice way back in 1960 through the Rajasthan Prevention of Mrityubhoj Act, 1960, making it an offence punishable with a fine of Rs 1000 or a one-year sentence or both speaking to us Khimaram salvi a social activist from Jodhpur district of the state says that people even go to the extent of printing invitation card for the ceremony, which is also known as mausar in the state. He says the practice has its roots in a folkfore in which the son of a departed king organised feast every 12 days in memory of his father to buff out the negative image of the latter.
The social pressure of the custom can be guaged from the fact that according to a report published in Times of India in 2019, a panchayat in the village of Ajmer district of the state imposed boycott of the family, apart from imposing a fine of Rs 11,000 for not holding the mausar post the death of Munna Lal, head of the family. The panchayat also threatened to blacken the face of women of the family if they did not feed people of the community in 44 villages with death-supper At some occasions the mausar ceremony also involves marriage of a child. Madan Salvi Ojaswi,who works as administrative officer in labour court of Jodhpur says that the village representatives like Sarpanch, patwari have been made responsible under section 5 of the Rajasthan Prevention of Mrityubhoj Act . They are suppose to stop such events and inform the local administration about such things, but sadly they are in most cases conniving with the offenders or tend to gloss over.
In mewar region of the state, the tradition of pathwari is also common which involves transporting the bones and ashes of the deceased to Ganga river in Haridwar and back to Pathwari . Expenditure in such ceremonies can run into several lakhs. It is prevalent in all the communities of the region. Rajasthan is a perfect example of how cultural belief system trumps over law. However activists like salvi are striving to steer the head winds of tradition and culture. "I have prevented death feast in more than 50 families" says salvi.
He says he will take his campaign to higher gear once he retires from the government job in the next two years.
Incidentally, Rajasthan Police came under attack of netizens when the twitter handle of the police urged the people to not practice death feast as it is against the law. The netizens protested against the “Anti-Hindu” post of the state Police. But is the practice in consonance with the sacred texts of Hindus?
It is believed that this practice has religious origins. But if we examine, we find that the practice of Mrityu bhoj derives from Rig Veda. According to learned seers and experts of Hindu religion the ancient text of Hindu religion has the provision of feeding brahmins on the 12th day of the death but there is no provision of feeding the relatives on any day after the death. So essentially the practice of Mrityubhoj is a tradition and not a ritual. Therefore many people organise the meal on the 13th day of the death without the involvement of brahmin priests . But does that justify the Bhoj just because it is conducted without the presence of any brahmins?
Vinod Acharya, a Budhdhist monk dressed in pant-shirt differs " The purpose of the campaign is to sensitise the people against useless brahminical and superstitious practices and at the same time to avoid heaping unnecessary monetary burden on the family members of the deceased. So "shraddh " which has been categorically forbidden in the 22 vows of Dr Ambedkar should be avoided even if there is no brahmin involved.
Clearly, the campaign against mrityubhoj may be driven by rationality and financial prudence, but it still is still against the normative horizons of society. It needs to be seen if such small efforts move the needle in the right direction and consequently serve to alleviate the social, financial problems especially in the rural parts of India.
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