Father Lazarus Moon, the chairman of the Agra Cemeteries Committee, said the committee passed a unanimous decision in which it was ruled that graves will be dug very deep in the cemeteries of Agra. (Photo: Krishanveer Singh Rawat)

Being one of the oldest cities of India where the Catholic Christian community established its roots in the early ages of European exploration of the Indian subcontinent, Agra has some of the oldest cemeteries in the country.

The centuries-old graves in Agra are still preserved by the cemetery committees for the European descendants who may want to visit the grave of their ancestors.

However, this also means that Agra is now short of space in the cemeteries for Christians to bury their dead. In a bid to resolve this problem, the Agra Cemeteries Committee has taken a controversial decision which is not sitting well with most Christians living in the city.

Father Lazarus Moon, the chairman of the Agra Cemeteries Committee, told India Today that the committee passed a unanimous decision in which it was ruled that graves will be dug very deep in the cemeteries of Agra.

Moon said that the coffins will be placed in tiers inside the graves, burying one dead of the family on top of another, thereby, conserving valuable space for other graves. This way, he said, the family will stay together even in death with their bodies separated by stone slabs.

Father Lazarus Moon said that this decision was taken to conserve and salvage space in the already congested cemeteries of Agra and it will give a respectful send off to the departed family members.

The committee has also decided to open the graves that have not seen any relatives visiting them in decades and that the space will also be used to bury new dead.

However, the committee will preserve the details of the grave that is being opened. This move will recover a lot of space in the cemeteries for the future generations of Christians.

Father Moon said that this decision will be announced in the Sunday prayer meetings in all churches of Agra so that the people understand the reasoning behind this decision.

Criticising this move, cleric Mufti Mudassar Khan Qadri said that this is desecration of ancestral graves.

Mufti Mudassar Khan Qadri said that Christians and Muslims are often referred to as the 'Followers of the Book', which meant that there was no need for changing religion for a Muslim to marry a Christian woman or vice-versa. However, this decision by the Christians to pile up the graves of their ancestors with dead bodies from the rest of the family is something that is hard to fathom.

ALSO READ | Tourism industry disheartened as Yogi Adityanath's suplementary Budget gives Agra a miss



