a new sati

[Enrica Garzilli]

> From Michael Witzel (everybody can check the news on the net):

SATI IN PANNA, SHIELDED BY THE FAITHFUL & WITNESSED BY SONS

by   TAPAS CHAKRABORTY

      Aug. 6:

 Fifteen years after Roop Kanwar was forced to commit sati in
Rajasthan's Deorala, Guttu Bai plunged into the leaping flames of her
husband's pyre as an entire village in Madhya Pradesh erupted in
celebration and her two sons stood as spectators.

      Moments into the incident, the village of timid onlookers in Panna
district, about 300 km from Bhopal, worked up a frenzy, dancing, chanting
hymns celebrating sati and virtually converting the faceless crematorium
into a makeshift temple.

      After Mallu Nayya, 70, a backward class member of Patnatamoli
village, died last night, his widow Guttu declared she would commit sati. A
section of villagers from another caste informed Saleha police station,
about 8 km away.

      Deputy superintendent of police S.H. Ghose reached the village with
his team even as the pyre was being lit amid beating drums and kirtans.

      Ghose tried to stop Guttu as she lunged for the pyre after certain
rituals. But a couple of hundred villagers helped her wriggle out. The
policemen were treated to a shower of stones and brickbats, and Ghose fell
unconscious. Guttu Bai's sons did nothing to save their mother.
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Dr. Enrica Garzilli
University of Macerata
Editor-in-Chief, IJTS & JSAWS
http://www.asiatica.org
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