"Sati" means the burning or burying alive of any widow along with the body of her
deceased husband; or any woman along with the body of her husband, irrespective of whether such burning or burying is claimed to be voluntary on the part of the widow or the women or otherwise.
According to ancient Indian history, the act of sati was seen to be courageous and heroic. It was considered to be the greatest form of devotion of a wife towards her husband. In Sanskrit, the word Sati means ‘faithful wife’. It was believed that the women who committed sati, blessed her family for seven generations after her death.
In the age of feminism, and the increasing focus on equality, it is difficult to admit the existence of the Hindu practice of Sati in our modern world. The practice has been outlawed and is illegal in today’s Indian society, yet it is still regarded as the ultimate form of womanly dedication and sacrifice.
The alternative to this practice was for the widows to live a life
renouncing all social activities, shaving her head, eating bland and negligible amount of food and sleeping on the floor. A widowed women was a burden to the society, since the husband who had the responsibility to take of her had died. She also had no other role to play in the society because the main and the only purpose of her life was to take care of her husband.
For Hindus, marriage is a sacrosanct union, where the husband has an active dominating role and the wife has a passive role. The primary roles of a woman being “marriage” and “motherhood”. Marriage brought security and dignity to a woman, and an unmarried status was seen to be a disgrace. Women were relegated to the household and made to submit to the male dominated, patriarchal society. All these customs have led to the poor treatment
of women, which is present even today.
Manu (the quintessential giver of Hindu law) stated that women “should never be free” in their lifetime. Women are considered to be under the protection of fathers in their childhood, under the protection of her husband during her youth and under the protection of their sons during old age. Out of the three stages of life, women have never been treated as an independent entity, they were always placed in relation to the men in their life. The backbone of the Indian society is based on a patriarchal structure, giving a secondary status to women. It was believed that men were the whole and sole owners of the soul of a woman. Widow remarriage was a concept which was heavily looked down upon.
In 1987, in the village of Deorala in Rajasthan, an 18 year old woman; Roop Kanwar’s
husband had passed away after eight months of marriage. She was forced to perform Sati by her family and neighbours but she blatantly refused. Following which, a group of men from the village drugged and forcefully immolated her. In lieu of this incident, the Government of Rajasthan enacted the Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987. Subsequently, it became an act of the parliament of India with the enactment of the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.
Although today, Sati is illegal and its glorification is prohibited, it cannot be denied that even though Sati exists no more, the ideology behind it is still rooted in our society and in the minds of the people. In practice and legally, women might not be physically immolate themselves, but their primary responsibility is still considered to be to look after the welfare of her husband and family. A widow is still considered to be a burden on the society, and a woman is still placed in relation to the men in her life. ‘Sati Pratha’ was abolished 32 years ago but the conception of the practice is inculcated in the values that our society upholds even today.
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