Burial denial for Priyanka Chopra’s grandma triggers Church row in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: The question of whether or not to permit burial of a person who had married outside her religion at the person’s home church has triggered a controversy in the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church in Kerala.

And the fact that the deceased person happens to be the maternal grandmother of Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra has led to the issue hitting the headlines.

When Madhu Jyotsna Akhouri (94) passed away on June 3 in Mumbai, Priyanka Chopra and other family members wanted to fulfil Akhouri’s final wish that she be buried at the cemetery of her home parish church at Aattamangalam in Kumarakom on the outskirts of Kottayam.

Akhouri was born Mary John in the Kavalappara family in Kumarakom. On her marriage to Akhouri, a doctor in Bihar, where Mary worked as a nurse, she became Madhu Jyotsna Akhouri. Priyanka Chopra is the daughter of Akhouri’s daughter, Madhu Chopra.

The Metropolitan of the Kottayam diocese of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Thomas Mar Themothios, had no objection to the funeral being held at the St John’s Church in Kumarakom, but the parish authorities were of the view that the deceased had married outside the church and had hardly been in touch with the church throughout the rest of her life.

On the other hand, the Akhouri family felt their request to bury Madhu Akhouri at the church where she had received the Holy Eucharist was a reasonable one. They also pointed out that she was a social worker.

However, the church committee did not budge and with much difficulty, the family could get permission to bury her at the cemetery of the Saint Thomas Jacobite Church, Ponkunnam, some 40km from Kumarakom, following the Metropolitan’s intervention.

The Metropolitan, Thomas Mar Themothios, criticised the decision of the church in Kumarakom, saying its act amounted to a “denial of mercy” to the deceased and her family. “Denying funeral rights is inhuman and unchristian”, the metropolitan said.

The change of funeral venue, however, delighted many in Ponkunnam, a little town on the Kottayam-Kumily road, who could see the Bollywood star up close.