Children 'buried alive' in India

passingby

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Indian police have charged 80 people for burying children alive in an ancient Hindu ceremony known as "the festival of pits."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapc...eut/index.html

crvlvr

We learn something new everyday. Reading the article, it looks like this is some kind of vow that the parent's take to be blessed with a child. I agree, putting the child though the trauma (however trivial) does not seem fair. If the parents took a vow, then they should fulfil it. May be they should be buried alive instead of the kids?

readmymind

the internet sure makes the world a smaller place. reading of rituals, that may have roots that stretch back for generations, is very interesting and something that would most likely not be possible without the WorldWideWeb.

i'm glad that this story does not seem to be grusome as the title leads one to believe. while i believe that everything is right for it's place and time, i still have a very tender spot in my heart for children.

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temp

Another sensationalist gem from the Western media about how barbaric and horrible Indian civilization in general is. I haven't seen one story in their media ever about any positive aspects of any non-Western culture, let alone Indian.

Yes yes we get it. Everything good and saintly is Western. Western media is good entertainment if you're masochistic or a fantasy-loving Westerner, but otherwise quite worthless. Yup, Iraq had nuclear weapons.

This in itself isn't bad, but atleast they shouldn't claim to be fair and balanced and international, but be forthright about just being a Western version of Al-Jazeera.

steven_ber

It was the top story on the front page of the Asian Age today, and that’s an Indian newspaper, I doubt it got a mention in the British newspapers.

Don't be so sensitive, there's good, bad, weird and strange in all religions, or why would we bother travelling.

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ddevadatta

To me this is an another example of how we get defensive. The western media is an easy target to blame! The real issue, it seems to me, is whether or not such a ritual is true. If so, then to "blame the western media and the west" line simply doesn't work.

The simple fact is that people in the West don't bury live children. This is a plea for us to take responsibility for actions WE do. I speak now as an Indian expat. I agree with steven bar but would go further. Temp seems to be sensitive over the wrong issue: the media. Let's be more sensitive about putting stop to such a barbaric ritual, by any standards. Reminds me of the anti-colonial rhetoric of African and Asian nations of decades gone by and ignoring that we are now resposible for ourselves!!!

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temp

devdatta, seems like police arrested 80 people who were trying to do this. so it's being "put an end to". frankly, I don't see what the bfd is with this "ritual". It's just pure sensationalism so that westerners with their empty sad lives can feel good about themselves for a moment. I don't think babies are going to undergo any trauma here. All it's going to be for them is about a minute of darkness and being covered, big deal.

even with all these "barbaric" rituals, somehow I think kids in India are happier and more loved than in the West. And their general method of bringing kids up is basically flawed. But of course you won't ever see a story about the state of the Western society's general mental health in their media, which imo is abysmal.

But yes, you're right that all this constant finger pointing and deriding is giving us many opportunities to better ourselves, always a good thing. while the west remains in their glasshouse complacently full of themselves & how perfect they, their religion, their societies, their culture are, acc to their media. Like I said, it's but a human trait to do this (the indian media is just as bad when it goes nationalistically bananas but at least it doesn't pretend it's "international"), but it's amusing to see them from our perspective, just like Al-Jazeera, but even more so because they really think they're coming off as balanced (never ever with non-Western countries) and altruistic (as the sole representatives of Freedom on Earth, we gotta free these poor iraqis from themselves). laugh on!

Kguinn

Wow, I don't quite know what to say... I'm guessing that, being Canadian, I'm part of that nebulous mass you call "the west." I can't personally condemn this ritual of child burial because I don't feel it's my place, being not part of the same culture. However, I notice that it wasn't the West arresting these people, but Indian police officers, so I can only guess that for the majority of Indians, this ritual is seen as abhorrent and irresponsible. "Authorities have been trying for years to stop it," according to that article - Indian authorities.

So please don't blame the west for this sensationalism and backlash against the "Festival of Pits," because there's plenty of local condemnation of it, too.

As for the comment about western mental health and the happiness of children here, I don't doubt that there are many very happy children in India. Nor do I doubt that there are very many happy children in North America. Of course, different cultures have different definitions for happiness. If I, a westerner can accept cultural differences, despite being, apparently "complacently full of" myself. And for the record, North Americans are kept pretty well informed of our shortcomings. Obesity, depression, teenage suicide rates, drug abuse, and other symptoms of our "abysmal" health are all over the news.

temp

kguinn, true. but i don't recall ever seeing a story on Western media which has international pretensions that painted anything positive about any other culture. I don't recall ever seeing a positive news story about India in such media that wasn't patronizing and didn't treat the news item as such a quaint curiosity (living with parents: how cute, quaint & of course, backward, sexually conservative: how curious, incomprehensible & of course, backward & 3rd world). Self-aggrandizement and self-righteousness is natural (American self-righteousness is of course insufferably amplified these days by their bloated proportion of wealth & power), but I'm just mentioning that's it's just quite amusing for non-Westerners to see it, especially while they prance about pretending to be "global" and "international". Even Al-Jazeera doesn't do that. That's just too much to bear rofl.

Kguinn

I've found that in many cases the opposite is true - we hear a lot of great things about other cultures, but not the unpleasant things. This is why when people arrive in places like South and South East Asia they are so shocked by things like poverty and violence.

For an India specific example, we hear a lot more about Gandhi, the brilliance of Hindu religion and ahimsa than we do about communal violence. And a lot more about the Taj Mahal than about the slums. I know this is just trading one kind of ignorance for another, but believe me, from someone who gets a lot of exposure to western media (I live in the midst of it), the majority doesn't focus on the ugly side of Eastern cultures.

I do agree that the media is flawed, but it isn't just western media that distorts thing. That's why I'm glad we have internet forums like these to actually discuss issues and get information straight rather than filtered through corporate biases.

temp

really? I guess the "international" versions of western media show something different from what western domestic audiences are fed. in india, there are rarely any negative stories about the west (all those things you mention), everything's just hunky dory there, while the rest of the world (the barbaric non-West) is a depressed, sad place wracked with violence from Sudan to Columbia. I was referring to the international version. if you say you're fed with a false positive image of the rest of the world, that's news to me. especially since i've never know any westerner who didn't already know about poverty & violence in 3rd world india.

Kguinn

Well, i knew there was poverty and violence, just as there is anywhere, but we tend to focus on our own poverty and violence.

temp

[quote=steven_ber]It was the top story on the front page of the Asian Age today, and that’s an Indian newspaper, I doubt it got a mention in the British newspapers.
stevenber: the story is a reuters story.

temp

yes kquinn, I agree with you. Hail the West, the Omniscient, Most Magnificent, the All-Forgiving! Even if it makes unsuspecting babies go through barbaric & horrifying circumcision.

sudheer poppa

Its now morning in India, and time Indian members wake up and bring some perspective...

This used to happen in a place in Tamil Nadu for ages. Then last time it happened, one minister in the state government was the chief guest. So it got media coverage and then bought in lot of interest + criticism from the opposition parties, human rights guys .... etc. Finally the state chief minister banned the event (that is the fine and stuff mentioned in the web page).

That village and people their have grown up to this since ages. This ritual (as are most local festivals) is an important part of their life, now the world has come to see their way of life and want to change it and give their opinion on it based of an brief report.

Yes my heart goes for the children, but I do not think that quote of them being "drugged" and being "as young as less than a year", is factual.

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