In Byrenahalli village of Tumakuru district, the grief over the death of a Dalit man, Hanumathrayappa, in February last year was quickly overshadowed by the inability of the family to find a proper burial place for him. As a landless Dalit family, their choice was limited: bury him somewhere along the highway running alongside the village, or bury him at the burial ground and invite the wrath of the upper caste villagers. The family ended up burying him on a piece of government land since village elders objected to Hanumathrayappa’s burial alongside the highway as that road was intended to facilitate a road widening plan. The family then had to keep a constant vigil, because the Lingayat residents of the village threatened to exhume his body. Following this incident, Dalits — whose population is larger in the village — began using this piece of land as their community's burial ground.
The lack of burial spaces is a long-standing issue in Karnataka. The dire need for burial ground space in villages, especially for Dalit families, had the High Court direct the Revenue Department to provide lands for burial grounds in more than a thousand villages in an ongoing case. Burial is a common funeral custom among Dalit communities and is also widespread among other lowered caste groups. While caste Hindus usually cremate their dead, some dominant communities like the Lingayats and Vokkaligas in Karnataka bury their dead. But as communities that own substantial land, they often bury their dead on their own land. It is the marginalised and frequently landless Dalit communities that suffer the most.
The Challaghatta area in the East Taluk of Bengaluru is a notable example of how inadequate infrastructure can lead to a lack of civic amenities like cemeteries, while also transforming a region into a centre of high-tech industries with significant agricultural land being taken over by public sector units, businesses, IT parks, and business parks.
Two common burial grounds which stand full can be found on either side of the Wind Tunnel road as it leads into Challaghatta. One of the cemeteries, which is about 2,904 square yards or 24 guntas (survey numbers 31 and 34) according to official records, adjoins the Karnataka Golf Association's fence. The association has been vigilant against new burials as the residents are forced to bury closer to the boundaries of the golf course as there is lack of land availability in the area.
R Mohan Raj, state convener, Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, tells TNM that though burial grounds are full and it is hard to find places for burial, the issue has not been dealt with the seriousness it deserves. A resident of Challaghatta village himself, he explains the struggle to get a proper burial place for the village.
“The issue has existed for more than 40 years. The members of the community built a cemetery closer to the Dalit settlements in the area called ‘santhe dari’ (which translates to a road that leads to a marketplace). But a new problem has started to emerge in recent years. On all sides of the cemetery are private properties, preventing access during funeral processions. Every foot is being used as a result of the realtors' gradual ascent,” he says. A temple that was recently built next to the houses on one side of the residential colony blocks access to the cemetery now. The cemetery can only be accessed through the main entrance of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) office located beside the temple.
This land too came with struggle. Mohan Raj’s grandfather was buried on a piece of government land near the village in 1981, as they did not have any burial land. Until then, Dalit families from the village used to bury their dead near the Bellandur Lake. He says, “After 1981, the Dalit community started burying their dead in the cemetery. But now, this cemetery is full and blocked by private properties on all sides leaving no room for expansion. My parents and sister were also buried here. But there seems to be no space for me.”
Mohan Raj explains that he had complained nearly a decade ago about the problems regarding the cemetery, but nothing has changed to this day. When TNM visited revenue department offices to check the records about the land, we learnt that the ground itself was not mentioned in any of the records. This meant that the burial ground was not officially classified as such, which left it vulnerable to encroachments and expropriation.
(R Mohan Raj, state convener for the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, pays respects at the grave of his grandfather)
“Dalits make up approximately half of the population in the area, with Gowdas and Reddys making up the remaining half,” says Mohan Raj, who was born and brought up in the same neighbourhood. Dalit residents feel that the reason why the government has taken a lackadaisical attitude to solving this issue is that the Reddys and Gowdas sometimes bury their dead on their own land, while the majority landless Dalit residents have no such relief.
In Bengaluru, a global city that has experienced rapid urbanisation over the last three decades, the 132 burial grounds maintained by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike for various communities are filled to capacity. With a burgeoning population of 1.3 crore and expanding city boundaries, no new cemeteries have been provided in a long time. A Revenue official pointed out that no government land was available for graveyards despite demands from several communities. The only choice for the government was to either purchase private land at exorbitant costs or wait for private individuals to come forward to sell their land at lower costs.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the Karnataka revenue department estimated that there were 7,064 villages in the state without a cemetery in 2021. The report also revealed there were 6,053 villages without burial grounds in 2018, and that number rose to 7,064 in 2021.
A Public Interest Litigation in the Karnataka High Court a few years ago resulted in the court repeatedly issuing orders to the Revenue Department to provide burial grounds in all villages and towns within six weeks. Thereafter, the state government allocated Rs 10 crore in the 2018-19 Budget to acquire land for burial grounds by purchasing private land in villages with no government land. It is to be noted that the market rate for an acre of land in the Bengaluru Rural region ranges around Rs 5-7 crore.
The court also warned that the Principal Secretary of the Revenue Department would be prosecuted for contempt of court in one of the most recent hearings last year.
Even though the Department tried to make the case that no government land is available and that no private landowners are willing to sell their land, the court took no notice of any of these arguments. According to a status report that the government submitted in September 2022, burial grounds have been provided in 92% of the villages in Karnataka, and that there has been a delay in a few cases owing to legal issues. It also stated that 1,141 burial grounds in the state had been encroached upon, of which 282 were removed and 859 are yet to be cleared.
However, the order is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it ensures that there are enough common burial grounds, rather than Dalits having exclusive burial grounds, unlike existing practices in most villages. But on the other hand, dominant burial practices by major communities in Karnataka might also lead to the monopolisation of the burial grounds. If Dalits use the same land, they may be attacked or denied access.
BS Laxmikanth, nephew of Hanumathrayappa, tells TNM that there is apprehension among Dalit residents in the village about burying the deceased in a common burial ground. “Dalits are reluctant despite having been given 10 cents of land in the village's common burial ground because they are concerned that the upper castes will object," he says.
Aware of the ground realities, the Social Welfare Department is trying to step in and provide burial grounds where possible for Dalits. Social Welfare Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said that they had received appeals from Dalits for separate burial grounds in several areas. “Our department along with the Revenue Department is in the process of identifying land for burial purposes and the area of land provided is determined by the population of Dalits in a particular area,” he says. The Minister says that when they receive requests for separate burial grounds when Dalits say they are being discriminated against by upper castes, they do make every effort to provide separate grounds. “Yes, we do receive some complaints of discrimination, some of them are related to caste, others are related to political and other reasons. We do make an effort to provide lands to Dalits in such instances,” he adds.
This reporting is made possible with support from Report for the World, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.