THE Roop Kanwar sati puja performed on Jaljhulni Gyaras, a day after Dusse-hra, in Deorala’s Rajput homes will be unusually fervent this year. So pronounce the elders of this self-styled ‘pilgrim village’ in Rajasthan’s Sikar district. "Victory has come after nine long years," the exuberantly defiant lot observe.
They speak proudly of the judgement passed by a trial court at Neem Ka Thana last week which acquitted all 39 accused in the infamous Deorala sati case for lack of evidence. They point out that there were no witnesses to testify that the 18-year-old Rajput bride Roop Kanwar, who had been married for barely seven months, was forced to burn herself on the funeral pyre of her husband Mal Singh on September 4, 1987.
"It’s been justice at last. This, despite all the warped efforts of the media to badmouth our traditions," boasts a jubilant and relieved Sumer Singh Shekhawat, Roop Kawar’s 62-year-old father-in-law. Lording it out amidst a congratulatory crowd in his house, the retired Government schoolteacher complains that his statements have been used against him in 106 publications over the world. The crowd clucks its collective disapproval of journalists. Encouraged, Shekhawat throws a tantrum: "I vow never to comment on our belief in sati pratha before cynical outsiders. They do not know that nothing can deter the Indian masses from worshipping sati mata in their hearts."
Well, in their ‘heart’ it will have to be. For, the past nine years have had five constables tirelessly guarding the sati sthal day and night. No one is permitted to worship, photograph or so much as enter the wired mound of earth where a rusting trident, a bridal veil and the conch that had hailed the warped sati ‘sacrifice’ still stand as reminders of the day which shamed progressive India. "Still, which police can keep us from revering her?" demands Deorala resident and principal of Saraswati Bal Niketan, Tej Singh. "In a battle between the Government and our beliefs, we’ll always win."
However, an irate Lalita Saini, pradhan of Deorala Panchayat maintains that the Yadavs and the Sainis of the village don’t believe that Roop Kanwar was a ‘voluntary’ sati. She insists that those who witnessed the horrifying cremation still remember how Roop, "a modern city girl brought up in Ranchi", was drugged, taken out of her home, doused with ghee and burnt even as her cries for help drowned in the frenzied slogans of Jai sati mata. "Only the Rajputs believe that Roop Kanwar brought pride to Rajasthan."
One of them is Roop’s brother Narain Singh. The 36-year-old owner of Jaipur-based Rajputana Transport maintains a "cordial" relationship with Roop’s in-laws and feels that "Rajputs should be left to their own beliefs." His wife blurts out that the family performs the Roop sati puja every year and is respected in the community for having borne a sati. Singh concludes: "The law of the nation has decided the issue once and for all."
Not if the state administration is to be believed. Rajasthan Home Secretary Arun Kumar promises that the state will appeal against the Neem Ka Thana judgement. In the aftermath of the Deorala case, Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had lost Rajput support for refusing to defend the incident and had been forced to abdicate his status as the leader of the community to the late Kalyan Singh Kalvi because of the latter’s unashamed pro-sati stance. With Shekhawat back in power, the battle against superstition seems far from over.
Aiding the government in this fight will be the state’s strong feminist lobby. Already disheartened with the adverse judgment in the well-known Sathin Bhanwari Devi case, the sati judgment has been yet another blow. "It has once again followed the anti-woman pattern of an indifferent police investigation leading to a weakened case for the prosecution and a consequent adverse judgment," says Kavita Srivastava on behalf of Jaipur-based Mahila Atyachar Virodhi Jan Andolan, an umbrella organisation which has over 20 women’s organisations in the state as members. She says resolutely: "This judgement is a marginalisation of our struggle and that can’t be allowed to happen."
There is a lot of fire in the fight yet. And it won’t let the flames that consumed the helpless Roop die out so soon.
