A teen died after a 68-day religious fast in India. Are her parents to blame?

[rug]

By Annie Gowen
October 10 at 7:36 AM

The 13-year-old girl in the southern Indian city of Secunderabad was unusually devout, her relatives said. Even in her younger years, Aradhana Samdhariya was known to undertake strict fasts from time to time to embrace her Jain faith.

Fasting is not uncommon for Jains, a centuries-old religious sect in India that embraces non-violence as its chief tenet. Jains practice strict vegetarianism and barefoot, white-robed Jain monks carry a small brush to swipe in front of them as they walk -- lest they inadvertently kill a small creature.

Even among the faithful, Aradhana’s ritual was extreme, however. She died Oct. 3, not long after completing a 68-day religious fast allegedly supported by her parents, an affluent jeweler and his wife.

As she grew weaker, she was kept home from school, according to a report in the Indian Express newspaper. Her relatives dressed her in finery, praised her devotion and took selfies with her, reports said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/10/a-teen-died-after-a-68-day-religious-fast-in-india-are-her-parents-to-blame/

[rug]

2. They are the most pacific religion I know.

I wonder why she did not choose the diksha instead.

[Cartoonist]

3. No

Religion is to blame. She didn't get that idea from Dawkins.

[rug]

4. He did say this,

Being dead will be no different from being unborn -- I shall be just as I was in the time of William the Conqueror or the dinosaurs or the trilobites. There is nothing to fear in that. - The God Delusion

without the values the Jains have.