Death, dying and bereavement in a British Hindu community
This thesis explores beliefs and practices concerning dying, death and bereavement in the Hindu community in Westmouth (a pseudonym), with the aim of furthering understanding of Hindu belief and practice, particularly for medical and social work professionals. The Hindu model of a good death may be difficult to facilitate in British hospitals if medical staff are unaware of Hindu needs and if communication is inadequate. Funerals are arranged by professionals rather than the family, and there are delays because of bureaucracy, post mortems or lack of space in the crematorium. Priests, when available, may not be accustomed to conducting funeral rituals, and have to work within constraints of time and place, with more of the funeral taking place in the home than would be the case in India. All this has caused major changes in the traditional patterns of death rituals and mourning. Despite these changes there is strong family and community support at times of crisis, reinforcing social bonds and religious and cultural traditions. Religious beliefs help to make sense of the experience. This thesis has three parts. Part I sets the context of the study, fieldwork and methodology, introducing the Hindu community
Firth, Shirley
Philosophy
Death, dying and bereavement in a British Hindu community. This thesis explores beliefs and practices concerning dying, death and bereavement in the Hindu community in Westmouth (a pseudonym), with the aim of furthering understanding of Hindu belief and practice, particularly for medical and social work professionals. The Hindu model of a good death may be difficult to facilitate in British hospitals if medical staff are unaware of Hindu needs and if communication is inadequate. Funerals are arranged by professionals rather than the family, and there are delays because of bureaucracy, post mortems or lack of space in the crematorium. Priests, when available, may not be accustomed to conducting funeral rituals, and have to work within constraints of time and place, with more of the funeral taking place in the home than would be the case in India. All this has caused major changes in the traditional patterns of death rituals and mourning. Despite these changes there is strong family and community support at times of crisis, reinforcing social bonds and religious and cultural traditions. Religious beliefs help to make sense of the experience. This thesis has three parts. Part I sets the context of the study, fieldwork and methodology, introducing the Hindu community
death die bereavement british hindu community explores belief_practice concern dying death bereavement hindu community aim further hindu belief_practice particularly medical social work professional hindu model good death may difficult facilitate british hospital_medical staff unaware hindu need communication inadequate arrange professional rather family delay bureaucracy post lack space priests available may conduct funeral ritual work within_constraint time_place funeral take_place home would case india cause major_change traditional pattern death ritual mourn despite change strong family community support time_crisis reinforce social bond religious_cultural tradition religious_belief help make_sense experience three_part part set_context study fieldwork introduce hindu community