[nukkad] Sati yet again

[Net Geek <>]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Economists are still trying to figure out why the girls with the 
least principle draw the most interest
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=18285621

MP woman burns herself on husband's funeral pyre 
 
AFP [ TUESDAY, AUGUST 06, 2002  8:21:12 PM ] 
 
NEW DELHI: A 65-year-old Indian woman burnt herself to death on Tuesday by sitting
on her husband's funeral pyre and committing the centuries-old, but outlawed, custom
of sati, police said.


Two policemen had rushed to the village in Madhya Pradesh on hearing that the woman
was about to commit Sati, but the locals threw stones at them and did not allow them
to enter, police said.


"The incident happened around 8.30 in the morning. Our men tried to stop them but
could not because they were pelted with stones," a policeman in Madhya Pradesh's
Panna district, near where the incident happened, said.


"Now, around 40 to 50 policemen are posted in the village. All our senior police
officials have gone to the spot. But there is no trouble in the area now."


The woman, Kuttu Bai, decided to kill herself on her husband Mallu Nai's pyre after
he died from a prolonged illness, media reports said.


Bai's two grown-up sons did not try to stop their mother from sitting on their
father's funeral pyre, police said.


Najma Heptullah, deputy chairperson of Rajya Sabha condemned the incident and said
police action should be taken against the whole village for being "spectators" to
the "monstrous act". "I will definitely raise the issue in Parliament," Heptullah
said.


"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. It is a national shame and the government of Madhya Pradesh should take
action against the whole village or at least the people who aided and abetted the
whole thing."


The last reported incident of Sati was the death of 18-year-old Roop Kanwar, widow
of Mal Singh, in the Rajasthan village of Deorala on September 4, 1987, which
sparked national and international outrage.


Police charged Sumer Singh, Mal Singh's father, with forcing Roop Kanwar to sit on
the pyre with her husband's body as part of the outlawed Hindu rite. Pushpendra
Singh, his other son, was accused of lighting the pyre in front of several people.


Kanwar's father-in-law and brother-in-law were both acquitted by an Indian court in
October 1996.


Following the Roop Kanwar case, India enacted federal legislation providing the
death penalty for anyone abetting Sati 

________________________________________________________________________
Want to sell your car? advertise on Yahoo Autos Classifieds. It's Free!!
       visit http://in.autos.yahoo.com


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, use the form at: http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/#options
This list is archived at: http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/archive.html