As far as the question of Glorification of sati practice is concerned it seems our mind sets are not going to change at all; atleast in the recent future. Be it the incidence of 75 year old woman offering her life at the funeral pyre of her husband in Banda, U.P. or the publication of Rajasthan Tourism guide recently released by state tourism ministry itself which advertises the state to tourists as ‘‘best known for sati matas’’. The guide exults that ‘‘there is not a spot in the state where women had not committed sati’’. (1) The above stated two incidence are just the tip of the iceberg known as 'sati practice' in India and openly glorified by most of the sections of the society. There are various reports proving that glorification of sati practice has not ended despite the enactment of the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, passed in the aftermath of the death of Roop Kanwar in 1987, and peoples have not stopped contributing or donating lands and funds for the establishments of the "Sati mandir".
The ironical part of this whole story is that the persons who are responsible for the eradication of social evils and on whom a duty rests to educate the illiterate public over gender equality are themselves taking parts in these glorification of "true Indian woman" forced to undergo an act that was declared to be a crime almost 2 centuries ago and this is done sometimes in the name of fulfilling their commitment towords their husbands made at the time of their marriage and sometimes for the family property to avoid possibility of giving their share to them.
Further, we also undermine the complexity of the problem when we try to differentiate between any two cases of woman forced to commit act of sati on the basis of their age or social-economic back ground. Neither is the impact of a 75 year old lady forced to commit sati less on the minds of general public mostly uneducated peoples belonging to poorest section of the society nor can be her life less valuable to a 18 year old woman. Hence, we must stop comparing the recent case of sati of banda, U.P. to Roop kanwar case of Rajasthan.
The study of case law relating to sati acts and glorification of them shows its high time for all of us to act sensibly in this regard and stop glorifying this inhuman practice of killing a woman alive by burning her along with a dead body.
(1) The Times of India; Dated June 3, Delhi
*All RIGHTS RESERVED WITH THE AUTHOR
Geeta Narula ,
Practicing Advocate, High Court Delhi
Contact at:
advocategeeta@yahoo.com / advocategeeta@rediffmail.com