An Indian farmer was in critical condition on Sunday after voluntarily cutting off his tongue to be offered as an offering to a goddess at a Hindu temple, police said.
Unexplained action. A farmer in his forties cut his tongue this Sunday, 11 September at a temple located in Uttar Pradesh (North).
The farmer and his wife first performed the rituals, then he took out a knife and cut his tongue before placing it at the temple door, police investigator Abhilash Tiwari told AFP.
“Our police officers stationed at the temple rushed to him and took him to the hospital, with the help of devotees,” added Mr Tiwari.
Appease the gods
According to him, the wife explained to police that her husband had “sacrificed” his tongue to appease a goddess but was unable to give a reason for the act.
Acts of self-mutilation and even cases of human sacrifice persist in India where most of the population maintains superstitious beliefs and sometimes performs strange acts to appease the gods.
Cut off the head as an offering
At least two similar incidents were reported in two Indian states last year: two men in their twenties cut their tongues out to offer to the gods.
In 2020, a Hindu priest beheaded a farmer and offered his head as a sacrifice, claiming that a god had given him orders in a dream to do so.
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