Mohar Singh Meena
Roop Kanwar was burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre
The case made headlines around the world and sparked widespread condemnation.
A teenage widow was burned on her husband's funeral pyre according to the Hindu practice of sati 37 years ago.
Today, Roop Kanwar's story is once again making headlines in India after a court acquitted eight men accused of glorifying his death, in the last of the remaining cases in this grisly saga.
Sati was first banned in 1829 by British colonial rulers, but the practice continued even after India's independence in 1947. Kanwar is recognized as India's last sati.
Outrage over her death forced the Indian government to introduce a new, tougher law – the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 – banning the practice and, for the first time, also its glorification. It imposed death or life imprisonment for those who commit sati or encourage it. But over the years, everyone accused of being involved in Kanwar's death and the glorification that followed has been cleared by the courts.
This report contains disturbing details
Last week's order also sparked outrage, with women's organizations and activists expressing concern that no one has been held accountable for her death.
Fourteen women's groups from Rajasthan have written a letter to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal requesting him to ensure that the government challenges the order in the High Court and also does everything possible to prevent the glorification of sati. Coming after such a long delay, these acquittals could “reinforce a culture of glorification of sati,” they wrote.
A lawyer representing the eight accused told BBC Hindi that they were acquitted because “no evidence was found against them”.
I asked Rajasthan Law Minister Jogaram Patel if the government planned to appeal the decision.
“We have not yet received a copy of the judgment. We will review it on its merits and demerits and then decide whether to appeal,” he told me.
When asked why the government had not appealed previous acquittals, he said those cases had happened before him and he was not aware of the details.
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Roop Kanwar was married to Maal Singh for only seven months when he died.
The death of this 18-year-old man in Deorala village on September 4, 1987, was a huge public spectacle. Observed by hundreds of villagers, it has been described as a stain on Rajasthan and India.
Her husband's family and other members of the upper-caste Rajput community said Kanwar's decision was in line with the tradition of sati and was voluntary.
They said she dressed in her bridal finery and led a procession through the village streets, before climbing into the pyre of Maal Singh, her husband of seven months. She then placed her head on her knees and recited religious chants while slowly burning, they added.
It was a claim disputed by journalists, lawyers, civil society and women's rights activists – and initially even by Kanwar's parents. They lived in the state capital, Jaipur, just two hours from the village, but learned of their son-in-law's death and their daughter's self-immolation from the next day's newspaper.
But they later said they believed their daughter's act was voluntary. Critics said the retraction was due to pressure from powerful politicians who used the incident to mobilize the Rajput community in favor of “vote bank politics”.
Mohar Singh Meena
Some still visit the place where Roop Kanwar died to light a lamp
In the days following Kanwar's death, both sides staged loud protests.
The incident sparked widespread condemnation, with activists protesting for justice, criticism of the Congress-led state government and a letter to the chief justice of Rajasthan calling for a ban on celebrations .
Despite the court's ban, 200,000 people attended a ceremony 13 days after Kanwar's death, at which framed photos and posters of her were sold, transforming Deorala into a profitable place of pilgrimage. Soon after, two separate reports concluded that Kanwar “had been stalked by villagers to commit sati” and that her self-immolation was “far from voluntary.”
Journalist Geeta Seshu, who visited the village as part of a three-person team three weeks after the incident, told the BBC that “the situation on the ground was tense and tense.”
“The Rajput Sabha had taken over the entire venue and the atmosphere was very charged. The place where Roop had died was surrounded by sword-wielding young men. They were going around in circles and it was very difficult for us to talk to eyewitnesses. »
But the trio still managed to obtain testimony from villagers who participated in Trial by Fire, their damning investigative report.
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Women's organizations protested in Delhi and other cities against Kanwar's death
“Preparations for the sati began immediately after Maal Singh’s body was brought to the village in the morning. Roop, who came to know about it, ran away from the house and hid in the nearby fields,” they wrote.
“She was found curled up in a barn and dragged home and burned at the stake. On her way, she is said to have walked unsteadily, surrounded by young Rajputs. She was also seen to be foaming at the mouth, suggesting she had been drugged.
“She struggled to get out when the pyre was lit, but she was weighed down by logs, coconuts and sword-wielding youths who pushed her back onto the pyre. Eyewitnesses reported to police that they heard her screaming and calling for help,” the report added.
Ms. Seshu says that “you can put it in the language of bravery and sacrifice, but it was nothing short of a horrible murder.”
She says that when she met Kanwar's parents and brothers, “they were angry and ready to fight. But then they changed their position under pressure from community leaders.”
His older brother Gopal Singh disputes this and told the BBC they initially suspected foul play. “But our aunts who lived in Deorala told us that it was Roop’s decision. The elders of the family therefore decided to abandon him. There was no pressure on us.
Mr Singh then joined the Sati Dharma Raksha Samiti – a committee formed to promote the Kanwar immolation – and became its deputy leader. After its glorification became illegal, the group dropped sati from its name. He said he spent 45 days in prison for glorifying sati, but was acquitted in January 2004 for “lack of evidence”.
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Rajput organizations held protests to support their right to worship the goddess Sati.
Ms Seshu says the general consensus during their visit to the village after the incident was that “sati happens, women do it.” The police and administration were so complicit in the celebrations that no real effort was made to collect evidence or establish responsibility.”
The most tragic thing, she adds, is that Kanwar's death was used by the Rajput community as a mobilizing force to gain political benefit and make money.
“Supporters wanted to build a temple on the site, but the new law that prohibited the glorification of sati also prohibited the construction of temples or the collection of money from visitors. This acquittal could now pave the way for a renaissance of religious tourism in the region.”
This is a legitimate concern.
In Deorala, the place on the edge of the village where Kanwar died, still attracts a few visitors all these years later.
A photograph taken a year ago shows a family lighting a lamp in front of a framed photo of Kanwar and her husband, placed beneath a small brick structure draped in a red and gold scarf.
But despite Kanwar's deification, the chances of justice being done to India's last sati remain slim.
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