Parents in the Sitapur district of the Uttar Pradesh, a populous state in northern India, had their four year old daughter beaten, killed and burned in the hopes of becoming rich:
Parents sacrifice 4-yr-old girl to become rich
The couple, identified as Srikrishna and Ramdevi, were told by a “tantrik” (exorcist)that they would become rich if they sacrificed their daughter, according to police sources here.
Acting on the advice of a “tantrik”, a “havana kund”(a pit in which the fire is lit and yajna is performed), was prepared in the courtyard of the couple for the rituals late on Monday night.
The parents then put their daughter Kanni into the pit amid chanting of “mantra” and lit the fire. The girl, who was also mercillessely beaten, was half buried in the pit.
The parents had stuffed a piece of cloth in the mouth of the little girl so that her cries could not be heard by any one in the village, sources said.
No words.
(via)
Sickening. Absolutely sickening.
This shit makes me so angry. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to throw the parents in the pit.
Hinduism has some scary shit in it. There is the socially acceptable version presented to the outside world and then there’s the caste-ridden, woman oppressing real version which nobody wants to talk about.
Agreed Darwin. My first introduction to Hinduism years ago was Joe Campbell, whose rose-colored glasses made him blind to things that should have been obvious to someone so well travelled.
I’m not sure what makes me angrier – the fact that the couple believe this bullshit, or that they value money over their daughter. The latter, I think. I’m with Jonathan Chang – into the pit with the pair of them.
Being an American coming from a family who luckily never wanted for anything, even though money has always been tight, I find it hard to judge the actions of others living in other societies when money is involved. This is just one step too far for it to be acceptable in ANY society except perhaps those most tightly in the grasp of a religious mindset.
Sure, morality is subjective and egocentric, but by most standards this is a heinous thing and even deserving of punishment.
By all reasonable standards murder is a horrendous thing deserving severe punishment. The only real question is if it deserves capital punishment.
In this case, yes – it does. Yes.
absolutely
Sorry, but reasonable is a subjective term. Murder must be punished, but not because it is “wrong”, morality is subjective in all issues. Without laws against theft, murder, assault, etc., any society would collapse.
Just because an issue makes you feel very strongly, it does not change the fact that morality is subjective. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.
Thanks for backing me up, Dan. I don’t want people to think that I condone this by any means, but there are circumstances surrounding this that I’m sure very few (if any) of us could completely comprehend.
Shades of Omelas?
I wonder if they would’ve done it if the child was male…
I’m sure not. I’m not sure about Hinduism, but every other major religion I’ve looked into value males much more than females.
It would have been viewed as a more valuable sacrifice
sorry I thought the cite attribute would be visible in some way. That quote was from:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,322673,00.html
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Religion. Isn’t it wonderful?!?!?!
Question: Why do you even report on this sort of thing anymore? I personally have reached the point where I really don’t want to hear about Human being’s stupidity…. or their INHUMANITY towards each other. with more than 6.8 BILLION people on the Planet does one, more or less make that much difference? How about some good news for a change………….. Like: ”Entire country blows itself up, destroying MILLIONS.” Not that would be good news for the planet…. freeing up much needed resources for those that are left.
There’s this little x in the upper left hand corner. Clicking it should fix you right up.
Or right hand corner.
Depending on your OS.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Does anyone know enough about Hindu to have even the vaguest idea what part of their woo this was based on? I mean when Christians, Jews and Muslims do hateful crap, I can usually go “oh they interpreted this thing in their book of woo to mean something like this.” But I’ve got nothing here.
As an “ex-hindu” (I’ve been finding an incredibly hard time really finding atheists who used to be Hindu), I’d say its a huge variety of issues. It ranges from the society in South Asia being very male-oriented (giving female children up for adoption, for example), and so the general devaluation of women. Of course, this isn’t true for all Hindus at all. Since it’s not a centrally-organized religion in any sense of the word, the best way to describe this situation is the lack of education, belief in crazy things like witchcraft (or witchcraft-like things), and the socio-economic situation – where these people, presumably from a small, generally uneducated village, are willing to go to great lengths to acquire something they view as longer lasting than a female child.
What I mean by that last part is that sons are viewed as being more desirable (my parents, with me as their only daughter will gladly refute this bullshit :) ) since they keep and carry on the family name, and get everything upon the death of the parents. Also, as per south Asian society *generally* dictates, children take care of their parents and this task is viewed as a son’s task (although it is very frequently a daughter taking care of the parents and not getting anything in return). The sons generally get the inheritance, even if they don’t do anything.
Daughters on the other hand are viewed as burdens in many ways – They are born, taken care of, raised, maybe sent to school (maybe not, considering the likely scenario here), and then they get married off to some guy and are sent to that person’s family. She can now go help their family, take care of her husband’s parents, and not her own.
I’d say these people deserve the highest punishment that it is possible to give them. And whoever the insane person was who suggested this deserves worse.
Hinduism has its positives and negatives and I occasionally do miss it, but when stories like this, unfortunately, emerge, I’m extremely glad to distance myself from the crazy as much as possible.
(I apologize if this was not the most coherent post – I may be slightly inebriated at the moment and thus unable to really read and proofread it.)
Actually it is coherent and good.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how fractured the major religions are.
The true problem is belief in the supernatural. In the world of the supernatural anything is possible.
I think the true problem is human beings are right bastards due to our evolutionary baggage. Humans can believe crazy things that are not based on the supernatural that lead to equally appalling actions.
They are blinded by their greed. I think they risk breaking their law.
Anyone up for a BBQ?