Incredible Rajasthan

There has always been a curious inertia on the part of the Vasundhara Raje government when it came to addressing the issue of Sati with the rigour that the law demanded. Whether this was prompted by political expediency or the personal belief of its chief minister is difficult to say. In January 2004, when a lower court acquitted all the accused for glorifying the Roop Kanwar Sati in 1987, the state government was expected to challenge the verdict. It responded with silence. More recently, the Jaipur Development Authority actually named a new township as Shree Rani Sati Nagar, right under the nose of the government. Nobody in Jaipur’s corridors of power discerned anything amiss. Now comes the brainwave from the Rajasthan Tourism Development authority — apparently with the full encouragement of the state’s tourism ministry — of packaging Rajasthan’s Sati sites as tourist destinations.

As the chief minister of the state — and the first woman in this post — it was Vasundhara Raje’s responsibility to signal her government’s adherence not just to the letter, but the spirit of the law. The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, is unambiguous in recognising as a crime not just Sati, but the glorification of it. It bans “the supporting, justifying or propagating” of the practice of Sati “in any manner”. Against this legal backdrop, you have a publication brought out by a Rajasthan state government authority gushing: “There is not a spot in the state where women had not committed Sati”. This actually amounts to the state-sponsored promotion of the cult.

One of the insights gained from the Roop Kanwar tragedy is the link between the public veneration and celebration of Sati and its actual commission. The public approbation helps to create an enabling — often encouraging — ambience for such a crime. This is precisely why we have cases of Sati surfacing in various remote pockets of the country some 176 years after it was abolished. A few days ago a 70-year-old woman was found dead on the funeral pyre of her husband in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, in a half burnt state. Within a few days her death was venerated by the local people as a Sati. Incidents like this will continue to occur unless those who govern the state come down hard — and with the utmost urgency — against such practices. But is Vasundhara Raje even interested in this discussion?