Santhara or Sallekhana

The Jain practice of Santhara or Sallekhana where a person chooses to end life voluntarily by stopping intake of food and water i.e. fast unto death is on the news in the recent past. The Rajasthan High court in its judgement  dated 10^th August, 2015 held Jainism religious ritual of 'Santhara' as illegal making it punishable under section 306 and 309 IPC (abetment of suicide). A petition was filed on the Supreme Court of India against the judgement of the Rajasthan High Court and the SC on 31^st  August, 2015 stayed the Rajasthan High Court’s judgment. 

The practice of Sallekhana or Santhara has been prevalent among the Jains since long. Sallekhana means ‘properly thinning out of the passions and the body’ and is generally allowed only when a person is suffering from incurable disease or great disability or when a person is nearing his end. In, other words it can be said as a person’s ethical choice to live with dignity till date. Around 200 Jains practice Santhara every year (Survey data of 2006) with more number of women practicing it than that of men. It is believed that, Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire undertook Sallekhana in around 300 BC. In a first in Jain culture, researchers have found evidence of six people of the same family having performed Santhara in the 12th- 13th century AD. This was discovered through Nishidi inscriptions which are erected in memory of those performing Santhara. These inscriptions were found in two different batches of three each with the first being discovered in Henuru village of Hanagal and Kadakola a few decades ago, and the second found just six months ago in Haveri, all in Karnataka.

In 2006, Kaila Devi Hirawat, a 93 year old woman undertook Santhara, to free her soul from its bad deeds in late August and made it public in August 31. This lead to world-wide publicity of the practice called ‘Santhara’ or ‘Sallekhana’ with pictures of her being published in various newspapers across the globe. As, her fasting upto death was on, another women named Vimla Devi Bhansali, aged 61, undertook Santhara on being diagnosed of liver and brain cancer on September 14, 2006 and finally died after 13 days. This prompted human rights activist Nikhil Soni and his lawyer Madhav Mishra, to file a Public Interest Litigation with the Rajasthan High Court claiming that Santhara should be considered to be suicide under the Indian legal statute. They argued that Article 21 of the Indian constitution only guarantees the right to life, but not to death.  The petition extends to those who facilitate individuals taking the vow of with aiding and abetting an act of suicide. They argued that Santhara, was in violation of the Right to Life. If euthanasia was not allowed, the practice of Sati was banned and suicide was illegal, Santhara could not be allowed, either. Later on, in the petition, Nikhil Soni also invoked the Supreme Court’s 2011 judgement in the Aruna Shanbaug case, which legalised passive euthanasia but emphasised that active euthanasia or assisted suicide is illegal. If such euthanasia could not be allowed, Soni argued, Santhara too could not be legal.

Nikhil Soni, a native of Churu in Rajasthan, which is also called the world's Santhara capital for its highest per capita incidence of the practice recounted that for many years, he quietly watched many such fasts-unto-death. But, the incident of Vimla Devi Bhansali undertaking Santhara in September 2006 made him to file a PIL against the practice. In his own words, “Diagnosed with terminal cancer, the elderly Vimla Devi was too weak and depressed to protest as her relatives went about publicly announcing 'her decision'. In her final hours, when she started screaming in a last-ditch effort for food and water, her cries were drowned out by loud bhajans sung to the accompaniment of high-decibel dholaks. Vimla Devi's case convinced me that Santhara is suicide, masquerading as a religious practice wrapped in the mantle of hoary tradition. At its worst, Santhara came across as nothing but ritual murder, devised to rid a family of the economic burden of caring for its elderly, seen as a burden on the family."

The Jain community argued that it is a violation of the Indian Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom. They argued that Santhara is done by gradually reducing the intake in order to purify 'body and mind'. It is not suicide, since the person observing it, is devoid of all passions like attachment.  According to Purushartha Siddhyupaya, when death is near, the vow of Santhara is observed by properly thinning the body and the passions. Pana Chand Jain, a retired Rajasthan High Court judge who drafted many replies to the PIL said that, “A person is allowed to take Santhara only in case of old age or if he is suffering from an incurable illness. People who take Santhara do it to shed their negative karma.”

After 9 years of litigation, finally on 10^th August, 2015, the Bench of Rajasthan High Court said that it was not established that Santhara or Sallekhana is an essential practice of the Jain religion. Jain scriptures or texts don’t say that moksha (salvation) can be achieved only by Santhara or Sallekhana. According to the judges, it was one thing to argue that Santhara is not suicide, and quite another to say that it is a permissible religious practice protected by Articles 25 and 26. The court asked the state to stop the practice in any form, and directed that any complaint made in this regard be registered as a criminal offence in accordance with Section 309 (attempted suicide) or Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC.

On 24 August 2015, members of the Jain community held a peaceful nationwide protest against the ban on Santhara. In Jaipur, the banners of the protest proclaimed: "Suicide is crime. Santhara is religion." They also petitioned the country’s Supreme Court for the right to starve to death as a religious freedom. Their petition stated "Santhara is an integral part of the Jain religion and the court can't interfere with its customs,” and requested the Supreme Court to legalise the practice.

Santhara is mostly undertaken by older Jains, with the permission of family and religious leaders, is believed to deliver freedom from the cycle of death to the fasters. To quote Ila Shah, a Jain scholar and lecturer from Mumbai, “Jain philosophy believes that we have been given a human birth only to accumulate salvation, and practicing Santhara is a way of burning away one's sins. The healthy, who have familial or social responsibilities, are not allowed to take up Santhara. The old and the terminally ill, too, can take Santhara only if they are of sound mind and make the decision themselves. Even then, they have to first take the permission of their family members, and then take a vow before a high priest. The priests, will first allow it just for a few days to see how the person fares. And there have been cases when people’s health gets better after a few days of fasting, and they choose to get back to life. Digambar Muni Amoghakirti of the Nandishvaradvipa Jain Mandir, Borivali, Mumbai points out that for every 100 who approach him for undergoing Santhara only 4-5 qualify. Judge Pana Chand Jain comments that, “Mindful of the country’s ethnic and cultural diversity, Article 29 guarantees citizens with a distinct culture, the right to conserve the same. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — of which India is a signatory - says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; [and the right] to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Taking all these into account, the Supreme Court on 31^st August, 2015 stayed the judgement of the Rajasthan High Court banning Santhara. The ban on a historical practice of religious significance of a minority religious community had caused anguish among its members. Feelings had also sprouted that, Santhara has more to do with larger right-wing Hindu plan to homogenise all minorities. This timely action of the SC has stopped the opening of the proverbial Pandora’s box of legitimising Santhara.