Burning Questions

Abstract

It was in Deorala village in Rajasthan on September 3, 1987 that the last incident of sati was reported. Then an 18-year-old Roop Kanwar had committed sati by jumping into the funeral pyre of her 23-year-old Rajput husband, Maal Singh. Over 11 years later, a 55-year-old Dalit woman, Charan Shah 'committed sati' in Satpura village in Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh on November 11. Perhaps the only difference in the two cases is that while Roop Kanwar was forced to commit sati, Charan Shah had done it on her own.