Fire on the Ganges: Life among the Dead in Banaras
Summary
Banaras, Uttar Pradesh. A place where life and death co-exist in the most unimaginable way. The Doms are a Dalit sub-caste in Banaras designated by tradition to perform the Hindu rite of cremation. They have ownership of the sacred fire without which, it is believed, the Hindu soul will not achieve liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. Despite this, the community is condemned to the lowest order in caste hierarchy, and its members continue to be treated as ‘untouchables’.
Fire on the Ganges is the first attempt to chronicle the everyday realities of the Doms. It plunges into Banaras’s historical past, while narrowing its lens to a few spirited characters from the Dom community. Through their tales of struggle and survival, loss and ambition, betrayal and love, it tells the at-times-heartbreaking, at-times-exhilarating story of a community struggling to find a place beyond that accorded to it by ancient tradition.
Introduction
The importance of Banaras and its famous Manikarnika ghat for soul’s salvation, is not unknown in Hinduism. It is believed since times immemorial that when a Hindu is cremated at the Manikarnika, the soul attains moksh and for this reason thousands of people travel to Banaras for the final rites of their deceased family members. My own great grandmother’s dying wish was to be cremated at Manikarnika and men of the family including my father flew to Banaras once she passed away so her last wish was granted.
Radhika Iyengar’s ‘Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras’ provides a different lens to view the sacred city of Varanasi (formerly Banaras) through it’s moksh-serving fame of the Manikarnika ghat – the biggest cremation ground in the world. It delves into the unseen underbelly, exploring the lives of the Doms, a Dalit sub-caste in Banaras designated by tradition to perform the Hindu rite of cremation. They have ownership of the sacred fire without which, it is believed, the Hindu soul will not achieve liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. Despite this, the community is condemned to the lowest order in the caste hierarchy, and its members continue to be treated as ‘untouchables’. Through seven years of dedicated research and immersion, Iyengar sheds light on their crucial yet ostracized role as the cremators of the dead on the Manikarnika Ghat, the burning grounds along the Ganges.
Plot
‘Fire on the Ganges’ captures the stories of the people of the Dom community dissecting their personal lives from their life as corpse burners. These real-life experiences, personal anecdotes, and first-hand perspectives build the book and highlights what goes unseen but more importantly, ‘normalised’ in the Hindu tradition. We come across some strong people like Dolly who is a young widow and the only woman entrepreneur in the community who runs a shop to support herself or other people like Bhola who hide their identity from the world to escape their ‘destiny’.
Meanwhile other men, who’re bound to the pyre-burning duties, drown themselves in copious amounts of alcohol and other drugs in order to carry out the ardous and harrowing ‘duty’ of burning corpses, every living minute of their lives. The book chronicles their daily struggles, the constant threat of exploitation, and the yearning for a life beyond the ghats. Iyengar doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities – the pollution, the poverty, and the brutal caste system that denies Doms basic rights and respect. Book also covers the lives of youngsters in the Dom community who strive to earn a penny as shroud-pickers, the ash-sifters who dive into the Ganges to look for cremation leftovers, the maaliks who preside over the cremation processes, the wood-sellers, etc. peeling the intricate layers dense with caste and gender inequalities.
“In the land of the dead, there is life all around.”
Characters
Apart from the people of the Dom community, Varanasi itself becomes a character in this book. It’s magnificent yet modest presence makes it a prominent character throughout the book. The book also sheds light on the Dom community which comprises of the Chaudhary’s. We dive right into the lives of Dolly, Bhola, Aakash, Mohan Shortcut, Komal, Sekond Lal, Lakshya, and many others from the community. The Dom men earn their daily bread burning corpses while the young boys like Aakash, Bhola, are all shroud-pickers and live quite a competitive life, scavenging and selling the shrouds discarded post the cremation of the bodies that arrive at the Manikarnika Ghat.
The book lays special emphasis on the lives of the Chaudhary women who stay behind and fend for the family, but when Dolly’s husband passes away in an accident, she has to rise up the fending role and become an earner. She thus, starts a small business right at home selling regular utilities. Even so, women don’t cross the household barriers in the Dom community to go earn a living and thus, Dolly has to face society’s backlash for being the bold woman that she becomes. All the characters live at Chand Ghat, the locality in the exteriors of Banaras, the home to the Doms. As the narrative progresses, one by one, their stories of grit, torture, toil, and harsh obligations unfold. There are clear demarcations of deeds men and women can carry out and each and everyone abide by it. Seldom, spirited souls like Bhola and Komal are born for whom education, identity, and freedom mean a lot more than their lives in the Dom community; people looking for an escape from the harsh realities of their life as Doms.
“The five-rupee coin, with its lost sheen and bruised edge, weighed heavy in his small palm. It signified something momentous; Bhola was no longer a burden in his family of eleven. he had become a breadwinner.”
Settings
While Manikarnika ghat takes the centre stage, Banaras with its sacred Ganges and historic temples forms the backdrop. We tour through the ancient cities alleys, its history, the associated mythology and deities, its people, the local language and culture, age-old beliefs and traditions, and these leave an indelible mark on the reader’s mind. Chand Ghat, the home of the Doms, is another pivotal setting where the personal sagas unfold. Written succinctly, the author manages to create a thousand pictures through words unveiling the canvas that this oldest city in the world is famous for. While some of the details make the skin crawl, one cannot deny the fact that the book arouses a urge to visit the city for real. Moreover, her powerful and vivid imagery brings the burning ghats of Manikarnika alive, immersing one in the cultural richness of Varanasi, flowing through the undercurrents of the book.
“I don’t let anyone know what or who I am. I don’t let them know that I am a Dom, that my worth is nothing.”
Writing and Research
Iyengar’s research and interviews bring to light the caste dynamics that continue to be entrenched within the Banarasi society. Doms can’t escape the stench of death they carry home every day because their caste identity hinders them from approaching ‘respectable’ jobs. Iyengar also takes the readers to the women of the Dom community, who are marginalised owing to their gender. The oppressed community further oppresses its women. It draws attention to the daily physical and mental abuse they bear at the hands of their husband apart from upper-caste men. “Nobody cares if the girl wants to study… If she is educated, they believe she will fall in love with any man and run off“, many such beliefs deep-rooted in this community come to the fore and makes one wonder if this is really plausible in the 21st century India.
Copious annotations and the research resources lend the writing the credibility it demands. Capturing landmark events such as the Vishwanath Corridor Project, the Covid pandemic, Namami Gange, and a plethora of other milestones, gives the reader a thorough understanding of the timeline and the transitions that occurred in the contemporary landscape of Varanasi thus. Iyengar remains an active yet empathic observer while maintaining the discretion and impartiality of a researcher quite impeccably.
“Her only ‘fault’ had been that she had befriended and loved Lakshya – a Dom.”
Final Verdict
‘Fire on the Ganges’ is a powerfully and visually thought-provoking book. It compels us to confront the uncomfortable realities of caste and gender discrimination, poverty, denial of basic rights and the freedom to thrive willfully, that prevail in contemporary India even today. This is not a book that offers easy answers, but it is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the hidden complexities of the stratified Indian society and the institutionalised discriminatory caste system wherein the lower castes are even denied to ‘aspire’. It is a book that challenges the prejudices and stereotypes that are widely carried out by the privileged of the society, and attempts to strip others of even their basic rights. As Radhika’s debut novel, the book is successful in delivering its core message one that quite subtly questions: Will things ever change for those suffering injustice such as the revered yet wronged Dom community of Banaras?
Author Profile
Radhika Iyengar is an award-winning journalist with a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York. In 2020, she was awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust fellowship at University of Kent, UK. She won the Red Ink award for Excellence in Indian Journalism (2018), was a writer-in-residence at Sangam House (2019), and a recipient of the Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellowship (2016-2017).
Have you read ‘Fire on the Ganges’? What did you think?
