Hindu wins right to traditional cremation in Britain

2010/02/10

LONDON: An elderly Hindu man on Wednesday won the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre in Britain, after a ruling by the Court of Appeal in London.
Davender Ghai, who moved to Britain from Kenya in 1958 and is the founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society, was refused a permit for an open-air cremation site in Northumberland, northeast England, in 2006.

The 71-year-old lost a challenge to the decision at the High Court in London last May, but that ruling was overturned by Wednesday’s appeal court verdict.

Ghai welcomed the ruling, although he said his court battle had drained him
“physically, mentally and financially.”

“Now if I go tomorrow I will go peacefully, because I know that I will have a good send-off. Everyone should live and die according to their own religion,” he told reporters outside the court.

“And that’s what my religion and faith said.” -- AFP