HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF SATI
Lakshmi Subramanian

Hindu, India
May 22 2007

It offers a representative sample of writings on the practice and
idea of sati

SATI – A Historical Anthology: Andrea Major – Editor; Oxford
University Press, YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New
Delhi-110001. Rs. 650.

There are many reasons to recommend this anthology. First, it offers
a representative sample of writings on the practice and idea of sati,
enabling the reader to go beyond the intuitive understanding of the
elements that constitute the practice and the discourse on it.

Secondly, it gives the reader a valuable introduction to the
historiography on the subject updated with all the literature sparked
by the Roop Kanwar tragedy at Deorala in 1987. The introduction is
an excellent overview of the major debates that have emerged around
the practice and will be universally welcomed by students. The only
criticism that could be made is the tendency of the author/editor to
interpret the anthology too closely and present it within a linear
teleological frame which makes the narrative too staid and shorn of
internal contradictions and inconsistencies.

Social history

The anthology is not without charm for the lay reader either. Some
of the extracts – from classical Greek accounts to the notices of
early European travellers, from unabashed Orientalists to the schizoid
nationalists who took pride in India’s self sacrificing women and at
the same time condemned the practice – have much to offer. Among them
are some tantalising snatches on the social history of 19th century
India including the most unexpected of actors and agents. For instance,
take the case of Manucci’s observations in his story of Mughal India,
where he speaks of the courage of his Armenian companion who rescued
a woman from the flames and married her – an instance that is not
only rich in detail but indicative of the kind of ties that merchant
networks, like those of the Armenians maintained with local society by
embracing its language, and striking marital bonds. Some extracts point
to the policies adopted by the Mughal state; it regulated the custom
through a combination of pragmatism and ideology and insisted on the
bereaved women being supported to maintain their sons and dependents.

The "colonial" section is understandably best-documented, capturing
the complexities of the debate that raged around the practice – how
by the 1820s, there was an unequivocal rejection of the practice,
as the balance of political and intellectual opinion shifted to the
Anglicists in India and concomitantly there was a rising demand in
Britain that the imperial presence in India be justified not in terms
of economic gain alone but of the larger benefits it could generate
for the indigenous population. Significant in this section is the
way the modalities of the debate on the abolition of the custom were
worked out in India and how subsequently the occasional occurrence
of this practice was treated within the purview of colonial law.

Similarly, the representations of the practice especially in early
English writing are also rich and suggestive of the various factors
that produced a very complex and ambivalent understanding of the
practice and the psychology behind it.

Deorala tragedy

The final section details the various strands of debate that
followed the Deorala tragedy and the conflicting interpretations and
politics of sati as it emerged, in its modern incarnation, as a public
spectacle staged with the endorsement of several sections of the local
community. The incident exposed the intellectual bankruptcy of the
state and the inefficacy of its apparatus. It also generated a debate
that somewhere along the way became counterproductive and resulted
in a sharp polarisation of opinion that was not just predicated on
false premises but proved extremely invidious.

Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of women activists and academics
such as Sudesh Vaid, Kumkum Sangari, and Veena Oldenburg, we have
had an effective reply to some of the arguments that were put forward
by straightforward sanatan dharmis in defence of sati as well as to
the more clever and polemic responses of a scholar like Ashis Nandy
who saw the protest as an overreaction by the urban middle class,
for which this was the only available way of retaining its legitimacy.

However, what remains to be reaffirmed is that at the end of the
day the murder of a widow – whether endorsed by custom, convenience
or by the aura of a greater will – remains an act of brutalisation,
a point which this anthology brings out only too graphically. For
this, the editor needs to be commended and the volume is bound to
find favour with students and researchers alike.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress