Ancient India firmly believed in religious dogmas manifesting falsehood. As India is blessed with varied cultures and with it comes a few weird traditions which have been blindly followed since decades. One of them is throwing babies from 30 feet tower.

The practice is believed to date back centuries and takes place across India – involving both Hindus and Muslims in Maharashtra and Karnataka & this custom has been around for more than 700 years.

Although the practice of baby dropping is only limited to a small area in India, it has caused controversy and there are calls by many to ban it. But some argue that every culture, no matter how small, reserves the right to perform rituals.

Local campaigners managed to get the practice banned in 2011, but it returned. Here’s a video, shot in the village of Harangal, Maharashtra, which shows robed priests shaking frightened babies, before dropping them to the ground below, where locals are waiting with a blanket to catch the traumatised tots.

When the children land safely, the crowd celebrates wildly, passing each infant around before returning them to their mothers. This bizarre ‘ritual’ is followed in Baba Umer Dargah near Sholapur, Maharashtra & Sri Santeswar temple, Karnataka.

Watch the horrifying video here:

Terrified toddlers scream and sob as they’re shaken by men in robes and tossed from a balcony 30ft above the ground. But, what is the logic behind it, you ask? Throwing a baby off the terrace of a building is supposed to bring you good luck and fortune. That’s it!

What do you think – should the governments outlaw such rituals? Where is the line between government control and cultural freedom?