Is Sati Pratha Really Abolished? Roop Kanwar Last Known Sati- Evidence of Dire & Dark Reality of Our Society

Picture Credit: Wikipedia

Marriage sometimes is a kind of institution if you get into it there is no way to escape. Living an unhappy life is one thing and another is as bitter as a bite of poison, You know you gonna loose your life but you have no choice except accepting it and that is to be a "sati".

Throw yourself in the fire and prove your sanity.

What do you think situation changed long back?

No. It isn't.

Here we are discussing following regarding the last case of sati pratha we are aware of (although there can be many, hidden)

What Does Sati Pratha Mean?

Why It Was Abolished?

The Last Case of Sati Pratha in India.

Sati Pratha in India

Why were men never asked to prove their sanity? (It's not like I support such acts but I am clearly against these biased rules for men and women).

Sati Pratha, a social practice, was present in Indian society years ago. In fact, it is still present secretly in the country to some extent.

Sati Pratha meant to burn the widows with their husband’s funeral pyre to prove their purity and “pativrata”.

Why women were always asked to prove them is still a mystery.

Sati Pratha was a common practice in India. Women were considered dead after the death of their husbands. And to add to the cruelty, women were forced to burn themselves alive in the fire along with their husbands.

It was meant to prove that a woman has no life of her own.

Do you know from where did this heinous act got its name from?

What Does Sati Mean?

Sati was the wife of Lord Shiva. She married him against her father’s will.

When Lord Shiva was not invited to the royal sacrifice, she burnt herself alive in the yajna’s fire to protest against her husband’s insult.

Sati has been considered as a loyal wife by our society, and from here the social evil, the practice of Sati Pratha got its name.

After the incident, Lord Shiva went mad due to the death of his wife, he even tried to destroy the entire universe. Even after Sati came back as Parvati, Shiva did not accept her as his wife easily. It shows how much he used to love his wife.

When we don't expect the men to be a loving husband as Shiva, why do we expect the women to be a sacrificing wife as Sati?

When men has every right to start a new life after the wife's death, why not women?

It shows the hypocrisy of our Indian society who used the name of the divine Goddess to cover up the social evil existing in our society.

After years of practicing such a shameful act in the India society, finally there was someone who thought of abolishing it.

Abolition of Sati Pratha

Our history has seen a lot of examples of people who challenged evil practices and fought to protect women’s rights.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a social reformer, fought to abolish the act of Sati in Indian society.

There is a story that explains why Raja Ram Mohan Roy was so invested in getting this evil practice of sati abolished.

When Raja Ram Mohan Roy was there in some other country, his brother died, and his sister-in-law was burnt alive as sati. This incident affected him a lot.

And due to that, he pledged to put an end to this evil act existing in the society against the women.

After his endless efforts, in 1829, Sati finally was abolished in the entire country.

Is Sati really abolished?

If you think Indian society follows the rules and laws by heart, you are highly mistaken. 

Although Practice of Sati is banned in the Indian Constitution, still, every year at least one such case is there in our country.

The Roop Kanwar’s practice of Sati shocked the entire nation in 1987.

Picture Credit: Roop Kanwar

Who Was Roop Kanwar?

Roop Kanwar was an 18- year old girl, just eight months married in Deorala, a village in Rajasthan. 

In 1987, when her husband died, she was burnt along with her husband.

Some believe it was her own decision and some think she was forced to do that.

What was special about this case is that, along with the people protesting against the practice, there were people who were in support of this sati practice.

Can you imagine someone burning alive and a lot of people witnessing it? She might be forced to burn herself in the fire and no one daring to stop the act.

A mass gathering happened at the site, a crime was taking place, but neither police nor media tried to stop the crime. None of them raised their voice.

Why?

Just because media wanted the breaking news and police didn't want to take action against the mob.

In fact, a huge celebration took place just after few days of the incident, again mass gathering took place, sacrifice of Roop Kanwar was celebrated, but no one took any action again.

Police could have at least done something to stop the gathering but they didn't. 

According to the villagers, it was Roop's own will to perform sati after the death of her husband. Some people tried to stop her but she didn't. Villagers now have immense respect for her just because she chose to end her life, but I am sure, reactions must have been different, if her decision would have been to live.

Some people were there who were glorifying this act of Roop Kanwar. They were celebrating the fact that she burnt herself in order to prove her purity and loyalty towards her husband.

One surprising thing about the case is that, there are people who believe she was right by committing sati, she did her wife’s duty by ending her life after her husband’s death, but the same people would never ask the men to undergo such acts after their wife’s death. (Not asking men to undergo such heinous acts but why all the rules and all the evils against women only and not the men)

These contradictory rules for a woman and man show the heights of hypocrisy of Indian people.

One good thing about this case is that it forced the Indian Government to strict their laws. 

Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987

This act is supposed to prevent Sati either voluntary or forced, and it also prohibits glorification of sati practice.

In short, It prohibits the people to glorify the evil practice of sati on the sake of loyalty or sanity of a good wife.

Credit: Source

Sati Pratha in Modern Scenario

2018 movie, Padmaavat glorified the scene where the queen underwent jauhar to protect her honour.

Jauhar is also a kind of sati, where the queen used to burn herself in the fire with her own will when the king gets killed in the battle in order to avoid being captured by the rival and to protect her honour.

Yes, it might be a part of our history, but why do we need to glorify this voluntary sati practice. It doesn’t show the courage of the women, instead it shows their weakness.

It shows that a woman can’t even fight for her honour after her husband’s death. 

It shows how a woman’s life is limited around her husband only.

Audience appreciated character of Padmavati for ending her life and not letting Khilji see her face, but none thought what message this movie gives?

That only thing a women can do to protect herself or to show her greatness is by ending her life. Why can't the society accept a woman fighting for herself?

And the worst part is all this happens as a test for a woman’s love for her husband. And to be a good wife, a woman is expected to blindly follow these lame rules.

The fact is why every time a woman is supposed to prove her purity and not men.

Why is it so difficult for society to trust the woman without any proof or test while they trust everything about a man blindly?

Why only the women who go through some test is considered pure and divine ?

Be it Devi Sati or Mata Sita, Both had to go through fire to prove that they were loyal.

We worship Lord Rama because he is God, But you know why we worship Goddess Sita, because she didn't refuse to go through the test. She went through the fire and came out unaffected and that makes her divine.

But what if she refused to go through the test, would that prove she was not pure? No, Then why do we need to do any test, why can't we just trust the women without any test?

At the end, I would just say that Roop Kanwar's case might be about 30 years old, but the prospective of society about women is still same. But it need to change for the betterment of the entire human race

Written By: Nidhi Jha

Edited By: Komal Jha