Roop Kanwar

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Roop Kanwar (* 1969 ; † September 4, 1987 in Deorala , Rajasthan ) is a victim of widow burning in India . The burning was followed by many spectators and received all over the world through media and science. Thousands of supporters of the widow burning then made a pilgrimage to the place. The death of Roop Kanwar led to heated public disputes and a further tightening of the ban on widow burning.

Life

Kanwar grew up in the metropolis of Jaipur in the desert state of Rajasthan and had 10 years of schooling. She married the teacher Maal Singh and moved in with him in his small home village Deorala. The couple were childless. At the time of her death, Kanwar had been married for eight months.

combustion

Kanwar was burned at her husband's stake at the age of 18 . Her 24-year-old husband died of gastroenteritis the day before . The reports of the cremation are contradicting the voluntary nature of Kanwar's death.

According to the family-in-law, Kanwar is said not to have cried when she saw her husband's corpse and said she wanted to follow him. Neighbors and relatives who wanted to dissuade them from this plan have placed special curses on them , the "sati curses". The project was known in advance and their decision was examined by village elders and so-called holy men. Kanwar sat at the stake, put her dead husband's head on her lap and asked her 15-year-old brother-in-law to light the pyre.

Other sources report that Kanwar was forced to the stake. Untouchables reported to the press that they had heard loud arguments in the Singh's house on the day of death. The family held Kanwar responsible for her husband's death. She was believed to have been put to the stake while drugged. A brother-in-law lit the fire. Kanwar managed to free himself. She ran away calling for help, but was caught again and beaten with logs. She was burned screaming. The police did not intervene.

The burning was attended by 900 spectators from the beginning, later the crowd increased to 4000 spectators.

Happened after the burn

The event caused an outcry of horror in the urban centers of India and demonstrated the contrasts between traditional and modern Indian views.

After her death, Kanwar was worshiped as a satimata , a "sati mother" with supposedly divine properties. Thousands of pilgrims visited Deorala village, about 200 km southwest of New Delhi , to worship Kanwar. Three months after the cremation, the residents of Rajasthan had raised US $ 230,000 to build a planned temple for Kanwar. One year after Kanwar's death, in 1988, a festival with around 3000 participants was celebrated in honor of the Sati Roop Kanwar. Photographs of Kanwar at the stake were also sold in large numbers.

A movement against widow burnings developed. The incident led to a new law, mainly due to pressure from women's organizations. The central government passed the "The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act" , which made widow burnings and the worship of burned widows a criminal offense.

Processes

Several controversial lawsuits were conducted in connection with Kanwar's incineration, each lasting several years. All defendants still alive at the time the verdict was pronounced were acquitted. The judgments were received controversially.

Murder trial

32 people were charged with Kanwar's murder. Her father-in-law and brother-in-law were among the defendants. However, the prosecution was unable to summon witnesses willing to testify in court. She was also unable to present the films to the court that several viewers had made of the cremation. The course of the murder, which according to the prosecution should have been that the pyre was lit together with the living Kanwar, could therefore not be proven. As a result, all of the defendants were acquitted on October 11, 1996, including the underage brother-in-law who was accused of setting the stake on fire.

Trial for the glorification of widow burning

16 people were charged with glorifying the Kanwar widow burning. Among the defendants were her father-in-law, brother-in-law, residents of Deorala and high-ranking figures who attended the 1988 festival, such as the previous minister and vice-president of the BJP in Rajasthan, a Hindu nationalist party, Rajendra Singh Rathore. On January 31, 2004, all 11 defendants who were still alive at the time were acquitted. The court in Jaipur based the verdict on the fact that it could not be proven that Kanwar died the Sati death. However, if no sati has been committed, according to the judgment, it cannot be glorified and no crime can result from it.

The Rajasthan High Court sent a subpoena to the Rajasthan government in 2009 to question why the case was not brought to a higher court. Several NGOs demanded that all officials who had acted hostile at the trial should be investigated.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b India seizes four after immolation. (Four people arrested after widow burning) In: The New York Times. 1987.
  2. ↑ Souls united in death , Rainer Paul, Der Spiegel, January 11, 1999
  3. ↑ a b Wife Emolates Herself On Husband's Funeral Pyre. In: Hinduism Today. December 1987.
  4. ↑ Correct setting of the mirror from May 2, 1988
  5. ↑ a b "Sati" and the verdict . In: Frontline Magazine . Vol. 21, No. 5 , 2004 ( online ).
  6. ^ Glorification of Sati Outlawed in India. In: Hinduism Today. December 1988.
  7. ↑ Madhu Kishwar , Ruth Vanita: The burning of Roop Kanwar. In: Race & Class. July 1988, 30, pp. 59-67.
  8. ↑ Sati fight to poll battle, she wins them all Times of India, February 6, 2010
  9. ↑ The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wcd.nic.in archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , exact legal text from 1987.
  10. ↑ Cf .: Maja Daruwala: Central Sati Act - analysis on. ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 1988. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pucl.org
  11. ^ Sati glorification: Crime, Society And The Wheels Of Injustice. on: countercurrents.org , 2004.
  12. ↑ Trial by fire. In: Communalism Combat. Special Report, February / March 2004, Vol. 10, No. 96.
  13. ↑ All accused in Roop Kanwar case acquitted. In: The Times of India. January 31, 2004.
  14. ^ Rajasthan High Court Accepts Sati Writ Petitions. In: South Asia Citizens Web. August 4, 2004.
  15. ↑ HC faults govt for not appealing in sati case The Times of India, October 15, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Kanwar, Roop
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian woman, widow burn victim in India
DATE OF BIRTH 1969
DATE OF DEATH 4th September 1987
Place of death Deorala , Rajasthan