Child sacrifice cases stun India

New Delhi - Police in India's central state of Chhattisgarh have arrested seven people for allegedly sacrificing two children to gain 'supernatural powers,' officials said Thursday.

Witch-doctor Ishwari Yadav, his wife Kiranbai and five of their disciples were arrested after police found the bodies of a 2-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl at their home in Durg district Wednesday.

'The boy was killed on Tuesday and the girl was murdered some six months ago,' district police chief Amit Kumar said in a telephone interview. '(The suspects) were arrested for holding human sacrifices and have confessed their crimes.'

'During questioning the couple admitted that they had offered the sacrifices for appeasing the Hindu goddess Kali and attaining occult powers and wealth,' Kumar said.

According to Kumar, the murders which have caused outrage in the region, were uncovered after the boy's father alerted the police when his son went missing.

During the investigation, the police determined that the boy was last spotted at Yadav's house.

The police raided the house and found the body of the child buried under an idol in a worship room.

The police, who seized a knife used for the crime, later also found the skeletal remains of the girl.

Human sacrifice has long been banned in India, but cases have been reported from underdeveloped regions where superstitions hold sway.

In April, the beheaded body of a factory worker was found in a Kali temple in West Bengal state.

Kali is widely worshipped across India and has several forms, including that of a benevolent mother figure and a dark and violent destroyer of evil wearing a garland of skulls.

You tell me. You're the ~~Indian~~ Australian.

Corrected.

A statistically insignificant anomaly of an incident where a particular person murders a child to appease a deity causes uproar within the same community he belongs to, and beyond. You don't know why, you claim?

I would've thought you'd have been capable of performing a mental process equivalent to adding 2 and 2, to arrive at the answer. Nonetheless, here's what the Gita says:

Two stamps there are marked on all living men,

Divine and Undivine; I spake to thee

By what marks thou shouldst know the Heavenly Man,

Hear from me now of the Unheavenly!

They comprehend not, the Unheavenly,

How souls go forth from Me; nor how they come

Back unto Me: nor is there Truth in these,

Nor purity, nor rule of Life. “This world

Hath not a Law, nor Order, nor a Lord,”

So say they: “nor hath risen up by Cause

Following on Cause, in perfect purposing,

But is none other than a House of Lust.”

And, this thing thinking, all those ruined ones—

Of little wit, dark-minded—give themselves

To evil deeds, the curses of their kind.

Surrendered to desires insatiable,

Full of deceitfulness, folly, and pride,

In blindness cleaving to their errors, caught

Into the sinful course, they trust this lie

As it were true—this lie which leads to death—

Finding in Pleasure all the good which is,

And crying “Here it finisheth!”

Ensnared

In nooses of a hundred idle hopes,

Slaves to their passion and their wrath, they buy

Wealth with base deeds, to glut hot appetites;

“Thus much, to-day,” they say, “we gained! thereby

Such and such wish of heart shall have its fill;

And this is ours! and th’ other shall be ours!

To-day we slew a foe, and we will slay

Our other enemy to-morrow! Look!

Are we not lords? Make we not goodly cheer?

Is not our fortune famous, brave, and great?

Rich are we, proudly born! What other men

Live like to us? Kill, then, for sacrifice!

Cast largesse, and be merry!” So they speak

Darkened by ignorance; and so they fall—

Tossed to and fro with projects, tricked, and bound

In net of black delusion, lost in lusts—

Down to foul Naraka. Conceited, fond,

Stubborn and proud, dead-drunken with the wine

Of wealth, and reckless, all their offerings

Have but a show of reverence, being not made

In piety of ancient faith. Thus vowed

To self-hood, force, insolence, feasting, wrath,

These My blasphemers, in the forms they wear

And in the forms they breed, my foemen are,

Hateful and hating; cruel, evil, vile,

Lowest and least of men, whom I cast down

Again, and yet again, at end of lives,

Into some devilish womb, whence—birth by birth—

The devilish wombs re-spawn them, all beguiled;

And, till they find and worship Me, sweet Prince!

Tread they that Nether Road.

- Bhagavad Gita, Ch: XVI, Lines: 34-80.

And whoso loveth Me cometh to Me.

Whoso shall offer Me in faith and love

A leaf, a flower, a fruit, water poured forth,

That offering I accept, lovingly made

With pious will. Whate’er thou doest, Prince!

Eating or sacrificing, giving gifts,

Praying or fasting, let it all be done

For Me, as Mine. So shalt thou free thyself

From Karmabandh, the chain which holdeth men

To good and evil issue, so shalt come

Safe unto Me—when thou art quit of flesh—

By faith and abdication joined to Me!

I am alike for all! I know not hate,

I know not favor! What is made is Mine!

But them that worship Me with love, I love;

They are in Me, and I in them!

- Bhagavad Gita, Ch: IX, Lines: 101-116.

Rather sporadic.

I’ve read of reports where the local villagers descend upon the perpetrators and lynch them upon finding remains of children, well before the cops can get to them.

Almost all the time, these incidents happen in the hill-tribe areas of rural India which comprise of people who are officially listed as “adi vasis”, which in Sanskrit translates to “first inhabitants” - forest people. The locals don’t even consider them to be Hindus, but they are a protected class a-la Indian Reservations. They combine elements of mainstream Hinduism with their tribal culture.

If you’ve been following the news lately (especially on topics related to minerals/mining), a conflict is raging in these parts of India between the tribals and local mining agencies that want leasing permits to access their lands.

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