Mumbai News: Tower Of Silence Trust Removes 'Smashanbhoomi' From Cemetery Signboard After Orthodox Backlash

After a furore in the Parsi community last week over a new nameplate that identified the Tower of Silence cemetery at Malabar Hill as a 'smashanbhoomi', a word usually used to identify a crematorium, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) has removed the word from the name board.

The 50-acre forest cemetery is popularly called Doongerwadi. A week ago, the BPP decided to add a Marathi name at the gates of the cemetery. However, the choice of the word angered orthodox members of the community who wondered whether a crematorium was being added at site against their wishes. The cemetery is a site for dokhmenashini or sky burials where corpses are laid out to be disposed of by the sun and carrion birds.

In the past, suggestions to add a crematorium in the hilly cemetery was rejected by the community high priests and orthodox members.Community members who wanted a crematorium later set up a prayer hall inside the Worli municipal cemetery for those looking for alternatives to traditional funerals. The trust also installed solar panels - now dysfunctional - to speed up the desiccation of the bodies.

Viraf Mehta, chairman of the BPP, which manages the cemetery, said that the word 'smashanbhoomi' has been erased from the board.

Earlier, the management of the Tower of Silence cemetery said that 'smashan bhoomi' was a literal translation of the word 'cemetery' and not 'crematorium'.

The new signboard had spurred a debate in the community. One member said it was a good time to consider building a crematorium on campus to give Parsis an alternative - dokhmanashni or cremation and bury the ashes there. Other criticised any such thoughts, “So that finally Doongerwadi can be sold to the builder lobby; it being the biggest land bank in south Mumbai. A crematorium does not require much land,” said another community member.