The Economics of Burning

It's difficult to find a more curious aspect of Varanasi than the public cremations of those who came to die on the bank of the Ganges. Although public cremation is the norm for Hindus throughout India, the act as it's performed in this holy Hindu city is more emotional because of its important spiritual implications. But most Hindus do not experience this ultimate release for many reasons, money being the most common.

A proper wood cremation ceremony, even in one's hometown, involves basic expenses that much of India's poor majority simply cannot afford. The most expensive supply is the wood itself, costing about Rs. 150 for 40 kg. With a minimum requirement of about 300 kg., the price of wood cremation starts at Rs. 1,125. Other supplies include ghee (an oily, clarified butter), sandalwood powder and cloth to prepare the body, and there's a tax to be paid, too. The total price for the ritual usually comes to a minimum of Rs. 2,000. Add to that the cost of traveling to Varanasi, and the prospect of honoring the dead at the bank of the Ganges becomes financially daunting—many of the poorest people in India make only Rs. 2,000 a month or less.

To help with cost, traditional funeral pyres share space at the burning ghat with Varanasi's one electric cremation center. Burning a body here costs just Rs. 500, a fraction of the cost of wood cremation, though still expensive by Indian standards. A lack of money, in fact, is probably the best explanation for a body drifting by during a boat ride on the Ganges. It's unlawful to offer dead bodies to the river now, except in the case of a pregnant woman, a child younger than five, someone with smallpox, someone who has been bitten by a cobra, or a holy man—Hindus believe that gods live inside these bodies, so they can't be burned. But in the absence of money for a cremation, poor relatives often have no other choice but to break the law if they want to honor the dead in the holiest of waters.