I was Officer of the Deck on a U,S, Navy ship during Sea and Anchor detail going into Cochin (now Kochi), India in the late-eighties. Bow lookout reports someone in the water. We are going to commence man overboard when the Harbor Pilot tells us to ignore it and not to worry about it. He goes on to inform us that many groups in India cremate their dead on riverbanks. The poorer ones cannot afford enough wood and ghee to get the job done. So they start it and then everyone looks away while someone kicks the rigged fire so the body falls into the river and floats away.
To make matters worse, fresh water barges were brought alongside during our stay. The test samples were cloudy and filled with particulates. Turns out they just tow the barge upstream and fill it up with river water. I was very careful to only drink water from bottles with unbroken seals. Yes they refill and resell the fresh water bottle too.
The thing that irritates me the most is the basic dishonesty of those practices. It is fraud for pecuniary reasons at every level of society that keeps them in turd world status.
It’s difficult to build a functional society when everyone practices ripping each other off as a matter of course.
Honesty is the best policy because civilization cannot thrive without it.