Divine (Un)Forgiveness: Death Rites for the "Sinner" Among Vaishnavas of North-East India

Death is not solely a personal loss for the bereaved, but also a deeply social phenomenon, encompassing collective rituals, practices, and symbolisms that embody the cultural, religious, and social structures of a given society. It transcends the individual experience of loss into a communal event where societal norms dictate mourning behaviours, funeral rites, and memorialization practices. Studying death sociologically is crucial as it provides insights into how societies structure their responses to morality, and mortality negotiating the meanings of death and life. This paper investigates what happens to deaths that fall outside society's moral compass. What at all is a moral death and an immoral one? How are suicidal deaths mourned in society? This article explores the complex interplay between notions of sin accorded to suicide, divine forgiveness and denial of it, and prescription and prohibition of death rites within the Vaishnava community of Assam which is located in North-East India. Using an auto-ethnographic approach, this paper analyses the ritual practices (and the absence of them) in socially unacceptable deaths among the Vaishnavas. By focusing on the liminal status of the “sinners,” the article contributes to broader discussions on the sociology of religion, death, and morality offering insights into how religious beliefs shape death practices and the moral categorization of individuals at the end of life. And consequently, how this socially constructed mourning reshapes the experience of loss and the process of grieving of the bereaved.