An Indian farmer was in critical condition on Sunday after voluntarily cutting off his tongue to offer it as a sacrifice to a goddess at a Hindu temple, police said.
An inexplicable act. A farmer in his forties cut his tongue this Sunday, September 11 at a temple located in Uttar Pradesh (North).
The farmer and his wife first performed the ritual, then he took out a knife and cut off his tongue before placing it on the temple door, police investigator Abhilash Tiwari told AFP.
“Our police officers stationed at the temple rushed to meet him and took him to the hospital, with the help of worshipers,” Tiwari added.
Calming the gods
According to him, the wife explained to police that her husband had “sacrifice” his tongue to appease a goddess but could not 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 bizarre acts to appease the gods.
The severed head as an offering
At least two similar incidents were reported in two Indian states last year: two men in their twenties cutting off their tongues to offer to the gods.
In 2020, a Hindu priest beheaded a farmer and offered his head as a sacrifice, claiming that the god had given him orders in a dream to do so.
