Recently, I came across a shameful example of how religion-based superstition, played a dirty game with one of the greatest mathematicians who was born (and died) in India. On the death of Ramanujan, there were less than a handful of people in his cremation, to bid him farewell. Their common excuse/alibi was that Ramanujan had crossed the oceans and on his return, he never performed the obligatory purification rituals. So they all thought that a curse would befall on all who participate in his cremation. Even the priest who was to perform the funeral rites, absconded from the scene. Ramanujan’s own wife/widow was absent because, according to Hindu custom, ladies cannot enter a cremation ground.
See:: Glimpses of Ramanujan