Indian villagers worship conjoined twin girls as goddess incarnation

Bareilly villagers worshipping Siamese baby as "Goddess"
By Vineet (DailyIndia.com)

Indalpur, July 15: Ignorance is perhaps not always bliss, as it appears in Indalpur Village of Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly District. The blind faith and ignorance here has led to the worship of an infant with two heads, four hands and two legs.

Villagers consider the baby child born on July 4 to Geeta of the Indalpur Village near Shahjahanpur nothing except the reincarnation of Goddess.

Ramesh, father of the twins, said: "On the fourth of this month, this child was born to my wife at 8'o clock. Everyone called her an incarnation of Devi (Goddess), as she has two heads, four hands and two legs. People come here from far off places, and offer money to my child out of respect."

Doctors suggest it could also be Siamese or conjoined twins, who are joined together physically at a particular part of the body. The newborn are conjoined at the torso.

Dr. Ashok Aggarwal, a surgeon with the Ruhelkhand, Medical College, said: "Such kinds of children are called as Siamese baby. They are no incarnation of God. It can be referred to as a mistake done by nature. When two eggs join at the time of fertilization, they grow together after that. They are no incarnation. They should be immediately operated to be separated so that life of both the babies can be saved.

He added that if they are continued to be treated as an incarnation, then life of both babies can come into danger. "Thus, to save their lives, operation is a must."

The news of the unusual child-birth spread very quickly. After initial hesitation and surprise, people started pouring in to have a glimpse of the child.

Elders in the infant's family are also delighted to have been blessed with 'the baby Goddess'.

Ramdevi, grandmother of the twins, said: "I am very happy that an incarnation of Goddess Devi has been born to my daughter-in-law. People are coming from far off places to take their blessings. We are offering prayers to them and performing hymns."

Ramesh, the father has refused any medical help to the twins and is interested in raising the child in its original condition.

In the "civilized" world, especially in places like big-city India where the cutting-edge medical technology of the 2000s is combined with the conformity-centered medical ethics of the 1950s (see entries about Dr. Nayudamma, below), the "modern" approach would be to surgically halve these babies' torso and pelvis and then dump them back in their backwater village as crippled future beggars. In the "primitive" world into which they were fortuitously born, however, they are recognized as something rare and special and treated accordingly. Yes, I'd definitely say it's a shame that these poor benighted Hindu parents are so woefully ignorant.