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Rasheeda Bhagat

ONCE again, the barbaric custom of sati has made the headlines. On Tuesday, 65-year-old Kuttu Bai of Madhya Pradesh's Panna district immolated on her husband, Mallu Nai's funeral pyre. He had died after a prolonged illness. As in all cases of sati, questions have arisen on whether the woman committed the act voluntarily or was pushed onto the pyre in a drugged state, as has often happened in the past.

While her two grown up sons — Ashok Kumar and Raj Kumar — have been arrested for not preventing this heinous act, and charged under Sections 302 (murder), 120-B (conspiracy) and 201 of the IPC, 13 other people of her village have also been arrested and charged under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (illegal gathering) and 332 (obstructing Government work) for thwarting the efforts of a sub-inspector and a constable to stop the woman from killing herself.

Unfortunately, in several villages of North India, a large number of illiterate and superstitious people believe that there is something supremely beautiful and endearing about a woman who decides to give the ultimate gift — of one's life — to her husband's corpse. By acknowledging that her life is incomplete, useless, unbearable or whatever without her spouse, the sati elevates herself to the state of a saint and needs to be deified. That is why after the notorious Roop Kanwar sati case in Rajasthan in September 1987, the police was put on high alert to prevent the villagers from building a sati temple at the site of her death. More so, on the anniversary of Roop Kanwar's death every year.

In the Kuttu Bai case too, when the police came to know about the plan and even reached the spot in time and attempted to pull her out of the fire, the mob which had gathered at the site to witness the event, started pelting stones, injuring the sub-inspector. Reading about this latest case of sati, one would naturally imagine that Kuttu Bai had great love and attachment to her husband and could not bear the idea of life without him and so decided o go along with him. But one would be wrong. It is reported that Kuttu Bai was not even living with her husband and the villagers did not even remember for how many years the two had lived apart.

About the probable reason for her action, a Hindustan Times report comments, "She was either awash with guilt or simply senile. But so far as the people of this rural hinterland of Bundelkhand are concerned, they have witnessed a sacred act and Kuttu has been deified. This village, which traditionally cultivates and exports betel leaves (paan), even boasts of a higher secondary school. But the collective psyche of the village, and probably the region, still regards sati as a sacred practice. Though most villagers are reluctant to talk, their faith in `Sati Mata' is unwavering. Some even hoped that the sati would rescue them from drought."

Another report quoted the village sarpanch as saying that Kuttu Bai had separated from her husband because she could not bear his living off his in-laws (her family) and would often quarrel with him. So, she would have committed sati on sheer guilt, he concluded.

Sadly enough, the villagers, while talking to journalists, have expressed pride that a sati happens in the village every 50 years. About 52 years ago, there was a sati in one Janu Chaurasia's family, and before that in a Brahmin household.

A television channel, which interviewed a few villagers on how the incident happened, was told in a matter-of-fact voice that many women in the village saw Kuttu Bai dressing up in a new sari, putting on her sindoor and other shringar and jumping on to the funeral pyre.

Obviously, they believe that they were fortunate enough to witness a modern day miracle, and the thought did not even strike them that a heinous crime was being committed right in front of their eyes and needed to be prevented. On the contrary, everyone rushed to the scene and soon a mob of a few thousand had collected on the spot. Sadly, most of them believed that this was an act of God!

At the moment, the village is being watched by a posse of policeman and all routes to it have been sealed to prevent people from paying their homage to Kuttu Bai.

Of course, Kuttu Bai's sons could neither deify their mother or say in their defence at the court before which they were produced that their mother had only submitted herself to an act of God. Instead, they said that they had tried to stop her, but their mother was like a woman possessed and could not be prevented.

The unfortunate part of the entire episode is that though the police acted quickly and the cases have been filed against the woman's relatives, they have not registered this as a case under the Prevention of Sati Act. The Panna District Collector, Mr Ravindra Pastore, told the media that an actual sati case involves several rituals.

As these did not take place in the present case, it could not be officially regarded as a sati case.

There have been instances in the past when women have tried to kill themselves in this bizarre manner because they were totally dependent economically on their husbands and not having either children to support them or any other source of income, they opted for death. But Kuttu Bai did not face any economic plight as she had five acres registered in her name.

The Madhya Pradesh Government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into this incident and the State's Home Minister, Mr Mahendra Boudh, informed the MP Assembly that the preliminary investigation had revealed that the unfortunate woman was forced to enter the pyre.

So much for the villagers' testimony that the woman had decked up for the great event and committed the act voluntarily.

Past evidence from sati cases shows that most women are drugged by their relatives. Condemning the incident, the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Ms Najma Heptullah, told AFP that the police should take action against the whole village for being "spectators to the monstrous act".

"Everyone knows that defenceless women are drugged and made to sit on their husband's funeral pyres.

No one does it out of free choice. Does anyone ask a man to show his love for his wife by sitting on her funeral pyre? The practice of sati is monstrous and a national shame," she added.

But why does such a horrific act take place in this day and age, and the people of several villages endorse and try to mislead the police while protecting the family members who may have forced the woman onto the pyre?

Hindu mythology has it that sati is an earlier incarnation of Goddess Parvati. She committed suicide, but not by throwing herself onto her husband Siva's funeral pyre, as the term `sati' suggests. Sati killed herself when her father insulted her and Siva by refusing to invite them to a sacrifice he was performing, because of Siva's ascetic appearance and odd behaviour.

Sati was so enraged at her father's snub, that she threw herself into a fire. But mind you it was not her husband's funeral pyre.

The grief-stricken Siva is said to have pulled her body from the fire and carried it throughout the universe in grief. Vishnu finally relieved Siva of his grief by slicing off pieces of her body until Sati's body was gone.

But the practice of sati does not even adhere totally to its mythological background. For one, the Siva-Sati legend does not perpetuate the idea of joining a husband in afterlife since Siva was alive when Sati jumped into fire.

But it is argued that the object of the practice is to "transform oneself through death and pain in order to transform one's husband".Pain, suffering, sacrifice... This seems to be the burden of a traditional Indian woman's life. And this cuts across religions. Reverting to sati and the attempt to deify a woman, albeit after her death, women need to tell society firmly that pain and suffering form a part of the living experience, but for both men and women.

Losing a husband can be a traumatic experience, but the vice-versa is true too. Such people should be helped by family and friends to come to terms with their loss, instead of the woman being told to end her life, physically or otherwise. And the man given the go-ahead to hunt for another mate, as happens so often.

(Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)

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