Since the beginning of the Freedom Movement in India, reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy have fought for abolishing regressive practices like Sati. Today, because of reformers like him, there are no known cases of Sati. The last known case of Sati was recorded in 1987–that of an eighteen-year-old girl named Roop Kanwar.
Kanwar, according to the people present at the ritual, jumped into the funeral pyre of her husband. The act, akin to suicide, was glorified and mythologised to the extent that Kanwar is now deified as a goddess in the village. Had she been alive, she may have been treated as an ill omen, one who needs to be avoided and shunned from all social occasions.
The exact events of the incident are not known because different people give different versions of the story. One thing, however, is clear: many believe Roop Kanwar turned into a goddess on the day she committed Sati. Had she not committed Sati, then, she would have, most certainly, died socially.
Unfortunately, the harsh truth, whether one likes it or not, is that most widows in India are socially ostracised. It’s a practise one can witness even in contemporary India. Widows are not seen as a persons with feelings. They are considered to be bad omens. Often, they are forbidden from blessing newly married couples, not invited to join celebratory social gatherings, scorned at when they attend marriages, betrothals, house warming ceremonies and so on.
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