The Malta government should offer Hindus a subsidy to enable them to cremate their dead loved ones abroad, or allow them to cremate the deceased on traditional open pyres, an international association representing Hindus said on Monday.
"For this purpose, the Malta government should allot a cremation ground near a body of water where Hindus could cremate their deceased on open pyres," Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism said in a statement.
Repeating a plea he made in December 2019, he observed that although a law to allow cremation was enacted in May 2019, a crematorium was still nowhere in sight and should plans for one be taken in hand, one would not be operating before 2025 or 2026.
The situation is forcing the Hindu community in Malta to bury their loved ones, in contradiction of their long-held beliefs that burial hinders the soul’s journey, he said.
The government should therefore subsidise cremations abroad until a crematorium was built and available in Malta.
If the Government was unable to offer a subsidy for cremations abroad, then in the meantime, Hindus should be allowed to cremate their deceased on traditional open pyres in Malta, Zed said.
"Malta should show some maturity and be more responsive to the hurt feelings of its hard-working, harmonious and peaceful Hindu community; which has been in the country since the 1800s and has made a lot of contributions to the nation and society, and continues to do so," he said.
He pointed out that the Maltese constitution states that all persons in Malta shall have "full freedom of conscience and enjoy the free exercise of their respective mode of religious worship”.
Moreover, Malta was a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and it should seriously examine this issue of religious freedom, fairness and equality.
Funeral rites/ceremonies were one of the main samskaras (sacraments) of Hindu life. In most cases, Hindus were cremated, except infants and ascetics. After some ancient rituals at the cremation, remains (bones/ashes) are ceremoniously immersed into holy river Ganga or other bodies of water, helping in the liberation of the deceased. In Hinduism, death did not mark the end of existence.
Overseas cremations cost upwards of €5,000, Zed said.
He urged Health Minister Chris Fearne and Energy and Environment Minister Miriam Dalli to speed-up the crematorium process so that Hindus could send-off their loved ones with proper rituals, traditions and customs.
The church was also asked to help.
In August last year, Times of Malta reported that a local firm planning to invest in a crematorium had been left 'in the dark' by the government
Johann Camilleri and his company Active Group Ltd had submitted an application to the Planning Authority to develop a cremation facility on a plot of agricultural land next to the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery but no progress was made.