JAIPUR: Thousands of members of the austere Jain religion protested across India on Monday for the legal right to take part in an ancient ritual of starving themselves to death.

Dressed in traditional white kurtas and trousers and holding banners that read “Suicide is crime. Santhara is religion”, they marched silently through the city of Jaipur in the western state of Rajasthan.

Jains have been campaigning after a Rajasthan High Court ruled this month that their voluntary custom of fasting until death or Santhara was a form of suicide, which is illegal under Indian law.

“Our peaceful protest is against the judgement pronounced by the high court without understanding the concept and objectives” of the tradition, Jain leader Rajendra Godha said.

Godha said up to 100,000 devotees took part in the protest that snaked through Jaipur for several kilometres and also saw schools and businesses run by Jains close for the day.

Additional deputy commissioner of police Gyanendra Singh put the protest numbers much lower, at between 35,000 and 40,000. Smaller protests were also held in other cities including in Mumbai, where a photographer said several thousand gathered peacefully under a tent to hear speeches by two priests.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015

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