Opinion: The Return of Sati Worship
Posted by Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia
Opinion: The Return of Sati Worship
Posted by Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia on Sunday, 10/01/2000 11:21 AM MDT
| The return of sati worship Rashme Sehgal Times of India 28 November, 1999 Vishnu Dutt Rishi is the pujari of a bustling Sati Devi temple in the heart of Meerut city. Scores of women come here to worship Kyano Kunwar, a woman who committed sati at the funeral pyre of her husband several decades ago. Rishi carries so much of clout that he recently published a booklet on how Sati Devi should be worshipped. This was released by none other than Sundri Vishwanathan, wife of the local commissioner and Soni Aggarwal, wife of the District Magistrate of Meerut. In Yahyaganj, old Lucknow, a Shiva temple has an entire nook devoted to Sati Devi. According to its pujari, Dr Srivastava, he had a dream uncannily soon after Roop Kanwar's death in which Sati Devi appeared exhorting him to start a temple in her honour. He did so. The temple has prospered and so has the pujari. Strategically located outside the town of Banda is another Sati temple built in honour of Jeevatri Devi and her husband Rama Kant and brother-in-law Shiva Kant. If devotees did not stop to read the names of this trio written under the marble idols, they could simply pass off as statues of Rama, Lakshman and Sita. These are just three sati temples that have come up during the last fifteen years nailing the government lie that no new sati temples came up after 1983. So pervasive has the practice become that Rishi boasted that similar temples dot the landscape of western and southern India as well. All three temples have a huge following who believe the dieties being worshipped possess the power to fufil their manat (desires). In fact, the pujaris here are known to encourage newly married couples to visit their temples immediately after they have tied their nuptials so that the bride can promise the satimata she will stay with her husband throughout her life and thereafter do `as you did'. These temples are also known to perform yagnas during Amavasya (August-September) every year. Rishi's booklet lists out specific steps on how the satimata should be worshipped. He claims to have brought it out in order to direct devotees to perform the sati puja in the correct manner especially since they are known to squander huge amounts of money by not following the traditional practices correctly. And though he denies he is glorifying sati, the message he wants to send to women is that their happiness is directly linked with that of their husband. Glorification of sati is a crime under the Sati (Prevention) Act 1988. The moot question is: What is the government doing about it? In the heart of Delhi lies the famous Rani Sati Mandir in Nai Sarak which also propagates the entire hype over sati. Shakuntala Goel, a famous freedom figher from Meerut, is incensed at the building of this Sati Devi temple. She claimes that at the time of the Roop Kanwar case, there was no sati temple in Meerut. This one literally cropped out of the blue and its present pujari is an ex-serviceman. What has angered her even more is the involvement of the wives of two public officials in propagating sati and though the Department of Women and Child shot off a letter to the UP chief secretary demanding some action be taken against these officials little has been done so far. The same story has been repeated in the Bundelkhand region where a local BSP leader, Jeevan Lal Chaurasia, has publicly declared that people should be allowed to worship at the spot where Charan Shah died. He also demanded the police `stop interfering in the religious faith of the people'. Local educationists here defend `voluntary sati' and warn the government to steer clear of interfering in the religious practices of the public. The government seems to be doing just that. By insisting the recent sati of Charan Shah was a case of suicide, they have deliberately attempted to muddle the issue through. The same happened in the Roop Kanwar case where all the accused were let off by the local district magistrate who deemed it a case of sati. No questions were ever asked about what happened to the several lakhs of rupees collected at the sati sthal, especially since no temple was allowed to be constructed there. Are we once again returning to an era of superstition and mediaeval horror? So it would appear because it seems as though the local administration has no qualms in helping obscurantist practices. When Javitiri Devi died, the Transport Department issued special permits for buses to ply hordes of villagers to the sati site. If sati glorification is to become the norm, and sati temples allowed to spring up in every nook and corner of the country, we will then definitely see a rise in these horrifying cases which Raja Rammohan Roy fought so hard in the 19th century to eliminate. |
