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Against Sati PDF
Against Sati PDF
RADH A KUMAR
1993
The History of Doing: An IJJmtmted Account of Movements
for Women's in 1800-1990
was first published by
ways, lent a kind of outsider respectability to the was in itself so distressing that it took the heart out of
argument so that it also began to be advocated by their demonstration. Most distressing of all, however,
considerable numbers of those very urban, modern was the way in which the processionists appropriated the
sections of society which it sought to attack. language of rights, stating that they should have the
Perhaps the most striking point about the articles by right, as Hindus and as women, to commit, worship and
'Banwari', Ashis Nandy and Patrick Harrigan was that all propagate sati. At the same time, they also appropriated
three propounded their arguments in the form of a feminist slogans on women's militancy, for example,
polemic against the Indian feminist movement, accus- 'hum Bharat ki nan hain, phool nahin, chingari hairi (we,
ing Indian feminists of being agents of modernity who the women of India, are not flowers but fiery sparks).
were attempting to impose crass market-dominated The feminists who attended that demonstration experi-
views of equality and liberty on a society which once gave enced, therefore, the humiliating sense of loss which
the noble, the self-sacrificing and the spiritual the accompanies the discovery that your own words can so
respect they deserve, but which is now being rapidly readily be snatched and turned against you to serve an
destroyed by the essentially selfish forces of the market. antithetical cause.1 This experience led to two different
All three, moreover, defined these crass market-domi- reactions: one, the determination to research into the
nated views of equality and liberty as being drawn from existence of sati, sati temples and the proponents of
the West, so Indian feminists stood accused of being 'sati-dharma' in India; the other, to find non-confronta-
Westernists, colonialists, cultural imperialists, and— tional ways in which to undermine the ideology of sati.
indirectly—supporters of capitalist ideology. Both, however, emphasized the need to study, compre-
Though Indian feminists had suffered a series of hend and deal with the traditional.
attacks in the eighties, this was to date the most major of Whether for these reasons, or because no further
them, for not only did it appear to be concerted, its public campaigns in support of sati occurred, the issue
timing was such that it appeared to lend legitimacy both faded out until Roop Kanwar's death in 1987. Given that
to an ideology which claimed that the finest act a woman there has been, on an average, something like one sati
could perform was to die with her husband, and to a a year in India, why did this incident arouse such frenzy
specific incident of sad which was beginning to seem when others had not? Only four months earlier, the
more and more like an incident of murder. Outrageous police had prevented a woman called Banwari from
as the accusations against themselves seemed to Indian committing sati, and had dispersed the twenty thousand
feminists, who had shown themselves to be anti-imperi- odd people who had assembled at Bagda village in Pali
alist and anti-capitalist in a number of ways—and many district to witness the event.2 Two years earlier, in March
of whom had, ironically enough, themselves launched a 1985, the police had prevented another sati in Jaipur
critique of 'Western feminist' goals and methods many district and had used both tear gas and lathicharges to
years prior to this attack—what made it worse was the disperse the thirty thousand odd people who had col-
fact that not one of these writers addressed themselves lected at the proposed site.3 In neither incident did
to the question of what had happened, or was happen- police intervention result in agitations against them. Yet
ing, in Deorala where the sati had taken place, nor did Roop Kanwar's death, which no-one prevented, led to a
any of them ask under what conditions Roop Kanwar massive agitation both for and against sati. It was only as
had lived, or under what conditions she had died. a campaign around me issue developed that it became
September 1987 was not the first time that Indian evident that this particular sati was indeed different from
feminists encountered the problem of sati. The first most of the others. In contrast to some of the other areas
encounter in Delhi was in 1983, when a campaign to in which sati had been attempted, Deorala was a rela-
further popularize the ideology of sati was launched by tively highly developed village. The family, while not
a Marwari-funded organization known as the Rani Sati perhaps wealthy, were well-to-do. Roop Kanwar's father-
Sarva Sangh. The RSSS, which already ran several sati in-law was headmaster of a district school, while she
temples in Rajasthan and Delhi, had got the then Gov- herself was a graduate. A Rajput family, they had links
ernment to grant them a plot of land in Delhi to build with influential Rajputs and mainstream state-level
yet another sati temple, and had decided to celebrate politicians.
diis grant by leading a procession of men and women to Roop Kanwar had only been married a short while
die temple. Delhi feminists heard of this plan, and before her husband died. Her dowry included some
decided to hold a counter-demonstration along the thirty tolas of gold. Her husband suffered from mental
route of the procession, which they did with signal disorder and they had spent only around six months
failure, partly because they had had no time to mobilize, together. When, after his death, it was decided that Roop
and thus found themselves outnumbered, and partly Kanwar would 'become' sati, the impending event was
because this was the first time that they had had to announced in advance, because sati is always a public
confront a group of women in a hostile situation; this spectacle. Yet her family were not informed. Evidence
THE AGITATION AGAINST SATI 175
All India Democradc Women's Association activist, Brinda Karat at a demonstration against
Roop Kanwar's immolation, Delhi 1987
in the campaign against sati, fora majority of the Rajputs and arguing that the State is particularly biased against
whom we met focussed on this point rather than on a the Hindus, for it is willing to accede to the demands of
defence of sati itself. Almost without exception, they minority communides for representation, but is unwilling
asked why such an issue was being made of sati and, to do the same for the majority. (The particular point of
almost without exception, they saw the campaign as reference here was to the Muslim Women's Bill).
being directed against the Rajputs per se. In a way the definition of the democradc state in India
Both arguments were taken a step further by two other has always been deeply ambivalent on the relationship
groups. The first, head priests of the major Hindu tem- between secularism and religious representation. What
ples in such centres as Benares and Puri, issued state- is new really is the extent to which the two are today
ments that sad represented one of the most noble converging, so that secularism has become synonymous
elements not only of Rajput culture, but of Hinduism, with providing 'fair' representation to different religious
and claimed scriptural sanction for this view. While communities, which are defined in opposition to each
re-iterating the need to legitimize sad, the main thrust other. Thus the 'true' representatives of different relig-
of their argument was that such issues came under their ious communities are held to be their fundamentalist
purview and not that of the state. At the same time they leaders, rather than, say, the reformers within their
also raised the bogey of 'Hindusim in danger' from the ranks. Mobilization on communal grounds is thus an
opponents of sati. extremely effective political tool, both to gain political
The second group consisted of a section of extreme space and State recognition, and to create political-
right Hindu nationalists, spearheaded by the Shiv Sena. electoral bases. An index of the mainstream communali-
The Shiv Sena was active in the pro-sati agitation, organ- zation of politics and the constituency of women as a
izing demonstrations on the Hinduism-in-danger line, communal 'sign' is the rise of two centrist Janata Party
THE AGITATION AGAINST SATI 179
politicians, Syed Shahabhuddin and Kalyan Singh Kalvi, The tradition versus modernity argument entered this
both of whom shot into prominence as communal fun- context in such a way as to further isolate the feminists.
damentalist leaders, the former via the Muslim Women's The bogey of modernism was so successfully created that
Bill agitation, and the latter via the pro-sati agitation. the fact that sati was being used to create a 'tradition'
Shahabuddin today heads his own political party, while went unrecognized despite feminist efforts to emphasize
Kalvi is an elected representative of the Janata Dal. it. Tradition was defined so historically and so self right-
Questions of representation, politics and the state eously that it obscured the fact that sati was being used
arose in a new way for feminists in 1987-88. Religious to reinforce caste and communal identities along 'mod-
fundamentalism, as we find all over the world, not only ern' lines, with modern methods of campaigning and
rationalizes the sexual oppression of women, but also organizing, modern arguments, and for modern ends,
mobilizes them in support of their own oppression. The such as the reformation of electoral blocs and caste and
pro-sati agitationists mobilized considerable sections of communal representation within the state.
women in their own support, both on a castiest (Rajput) Worst of all, by polarizing women along the rural-ur-
and on a religious (Hindu) platform. That is to say, they ban, traditional-modern axis, it disallowed a whole series
mobilized women who would seem to be direcdy af- of questions and insights. For example, looking more
fected by their demands. This allowed them to claim that closely at the nature of women's support for the pro-sati
they represented the 'true' desires of Hindu women, agitation, it became clear that this was ambiguous, and
and to accuse the feminists of being unrepresentative. at many points consisted of drawing a firm line between
So the feminists were placed in the anomalous position worship of sati and the actual practice of it.
of appearing to speak in the interests of women whom Secondly, an examination of the women who were
they could not claim to represent and who defined their mobilized for the pro-sati demonstrations made it clear
interests differently. that they were not, in fact, the women who were most
180 THE HISTORY OF DOING
Street play against widow immolation, Critiquing the 'martial honour' ideology,
Sabala Mahila Sangh, Delhi, 1987 anti-sati march, Delhi 1987
directly affected by the issue. The figure of the widow only did because of opposition furore) under which sati
was conspicuously absent. The elevation of sati into a was defined as suicide and the first person to be pun-
tradition of ideal man-woman relations, in the context ished was the woman herself, for attempting to commit
of widowhood, not only obscured the miserable condi- suicide.
tions under which most Hindu widows live, it actually For most of us, at the time, the campaign around
rationalized their slavery: for if the widowed woman is sati revealed the growing strength of the opposition
not capable of living up to the sati ideal by immolating to feminism, and spelt a considerable setback to the
herself, then what better fate for her than to be the movement, Yet the challenges it posed to our self
servant either of her family or of the temple? definitions yielded some insights of value: a more
For the feminists the realization of how these polari- complex understanding of the ways in which different
zations between tradition and modernity, materialism groups and communities saw themselves; that it is not
and spiritualism, rural and urban, had successfully side- helpful to view the state as a monolithic entity from a
lined all questions of affection or compassion for women purely oppositional stance, especially at moments of
was a bitter one. Even worse, because peculiarly ironic, crisis, for it is important for us to assert that we have
was the way in which these polarizations forced them the right to a voice in the administration of our soci-
into positions which appeared not only to contradict ety. Thirdly, that representation consists not merely
earlier stands but also to diverge sharply from the direc- in a show of numbers but in the seeking and encour-
tions which they had been pursuing. One such position agement of a plethora of voices, which is to some
was the demand for state intervention, made in three extent taking place through the feminist and associ-
ways: first, that Roop Kanwar's in-laws and the doctor ated movements. Opposition to sati, for example
who drugged her should be charged with murder; sec- came from a variety of sources: both the right-wing
ond, that all those who profited financially or politically Hindu reformist tradition and maverick left-wing
from her death should be punished; and third, that a Hindu reformers such as Swami Agnivesh of the Arya
new law should be promulgated banning both the com- Samaj, opposed it. Swami Agnivesh in fact went on
mittal and glorification of crimes against women in the dharna outside Deorala, and challenged the head
name of religion. priests of the Puri and Benaras temples to a debate on
Feminist unease about demands of this kind has ex- the scriptural 'sanction' of sati. His challenge was
isted from the beginning of the contemporary women's declined. Opposition also came from sections of the
movement and has been a kind of constant undercur- Gandhians, who held a rally of about 10,000 women
rent in all their campaigns, most of which have, for fairly in Orissa, who gheraoed the head priest of the Puri
obvious reasons, tended to focus on demands of the temple, calling him to account for his views, which he
state. Partly due to this unease, the draft Bill which was was unable to do. And it also came from the anti-caste
prepared by a sub-committee of the Joint Action movement in Maharashtra, who announced their
Committee Against Sati in Delhi was never circulated to opposition to sati. Finally, within Rajasthan, consider-
M.P.s and so never tabled in Parliament. Instead, the able opposition both to sati and to state inaction of
Government was left to introduce its own Bill (which it Roop Kanwar's death was voiced by huge numbers of
THE AGITATION AGAINST SATI 181
women, largely rural, who joined demonstrations to through a campaign. Perhaps one of the most valuable
protestagainsttheglorification of her death. insights in this regard has been the understanding that
Most of these voices and actions were not co-ordinated while specific and short term campaigns are necessary,
at the time, because feminist resources did not permit if only in order to mark reactions, the roots of feminism
of co-ordination. But in a sense co-ordination was not are now spreading in a variety of ways of across the
really necessary, because the problem of sati, like most country.
other problems of women, cannot be resolved simply
NOTES
1. Recounted to me by Nandita Haksar and Sheba 10. Madhu Kishwar and Ruth Vanita, ' The Burning of
Chhachi, December 1983. Roop Kanwar', Manushi, No, 42-3,1987, The slo-
2. Indian Express, 10.5.1987. gans/chants listed above translate as follows:
3. Hindustan Times, 6.3.1985. (1) 'What should a sati be like? Like Roop Kanwar;
4. Statesman, 18-20.9.1987. which is based on ' What should a country's leader
5. Times of India, 17.9.1987. be like? Like Rajiv Gandhi; (2) 'One, two, three,
6. Ibid. four, raise your voice in praise of sati'; 'Our land
7. Kumkum Sangari, 'Perpetrating the Myth', Semi- and our religion have decreed this: that sati is our
nar, No. 342, February, 1988. mother', which is based on 'Our land and our
8. Sudesh Vaid, 'Politics of Widow Immolation', Semi- religion have decreed this: that the cow is our
rar No. 342, February, 1988. mother'.
9. Hindustan Times, 17.9.1987. 11. Times of India, 17.9.1987.