House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (2021)
Netflix, 3-part documentary.
Director: Leena Yadav
Just like a thin line that delineates ingenuity and insanity, there surely must be a fine line separating faith and delusion. There is a constant need to remind ourselves that religion was introduced to mankind to help him to make correct decisions to stay grounded on the most fulfilling path of life. Towards this end, specific do's and don'ts in life were decreed.
At a time when humanity's mental facilities were not fully developed, these rules helped Man make rational life decisions. Along the way, these religious edicts took control over logical thinking and questioning culture. Many things were taken in wholemeal from sensory nerve to somatic nerve bypassing cerebral cortex and higher centres.
When we were growing up, we thought bizarre crimes and UFO sightings were only seen in the USA and newspapers. I remember reading about the Jonestown mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978 under the auspices of Christian-revival plus Marxism priest Jim Jones. In 1983, in Waco, Texas, a massacre took place where zombie-like followers under the leadership of David Koresh of the Branch Davidian group, an offshoot of the 7th Adventist Church, willingly drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid at command. Well, what do you know? Within a generation, we are seeing mass suicides hitting our shores.
On the morning of 30th June 2018, friends realised that the general store belonging to the Chundawat family in the suburb of Burari in Delhi was still not open by mid-morning. Police were summoned when they could not get into their home. What the police found was unsettling. Ten members of the extended family (aged 15 to 60) were seen hanging by the neck to an iron grill roof like extensions of a banyan tree. They had their hands tied behind their backs, gagged and blindfolded. The senior-most member of the family, the grandmother, 80, was found strangled and sprawled under the bed.
It took the neighbourhood by surprise. The Chundawat family was seemingly the perfect family, with everything going well for them. Love was all around within the family members. They had everything going well for them. A fortnight prior to the incident, the family had a lavish engagement party enjoyed by many close friends and relatives. The police had a hard time trying to decide whether it was mass suicide or homicide. All they had were 11 bodies and 11 diaries over a span of 11 years.
With so much extensive investigations, interviews and forensic examination, the police deduced that it was a case of mass psychosis and accidental death. The youngest of the family, Lalit, had been suffering from PTSD following two harrowing experiences with death. He was unable to speak after his second experience but still assumed the role of the patriarch of the family when the father passed away. Lalit was a religious person who guided the family to better conditions. He soon started having dreams about his father, who would tell the family how to do things and about certain rituals that needed to be followed. During one of these religious recitals, Lalit regained his voice. All these were found written in the diaries. He could have also had auditory hallucinations.
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| Lalit Chundawat |
The last few entries before the tragedy suggested that they were to engage in a tantric ritual witnessed by the deceased father from which they were all supposed to come out alive.
Due to mounting public and media to wrap up the case, the police came up with a plausible explanation. They blame it on the sad perceptions of mental health. Because of their reluctance to seek mental health help, a person needing was left to go on with life and influence others around him. The liberal members of the civil society were quick to blame toxic masculinity and ancient occult Hindu tantric practices.I feel that the investigation results did not give a proper explanation for the turn of events. The hallmark of good mental is day-to-day functionality. In all accounts, the family seems to have done that. They had done themselves well from the hard times that befell them when they had to sell their property in Haryana and uproot themselves to Delhi. They had a thriving general store. They had friends and were cordial to the neighbours. Some of the family members got themselves higher education, and wedding bells were in the air. In the closely-knit community with so many find entertainment in playing busy-body and finding dirt amongst other people's households, it is perplexing that none is aware of the Chundawats' darks secrets. It is unbelievable that a 15 year would willingly submit himself to a deathly ritual. All the preparation could not be such a hush-hush. Is it so easy to subjugate educated, confident adults, to automatically accept and obey just because it is stamped with a religious seal? Wouldn't the younger generation, being of rebellious nature, be teeming with scorn at such practices and open up the dark family secrets to his close buddies? Some puzzling questions need to be answered.
P.S. "Drinking the Kool-Aid" is an expression used to refer to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards.
