Page 141 - Islam and Far Eastern Religions

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ing of countless women through the ages. Hindu women sometimes
willingly surrendered to this tradition, but were more often than not
burned by the force of society. Suttee is at present legally prohibited but

still widely practiced in India, especially in rural areas. Cases of suttee
are usually entered into public records as death by household accidents
or kitchen fires, but sometimes they are a public ritual; for instance, in
1987 a young woman by the name of Roop Kanwar was killed in a sut-
tee ritual at her husband’s funeral in Deorala, a village in Rajasthan, re-
opening the suttee debate. Roop’s burning was defended by her family,
the local population and many Hindu leaders, by claiming that it was
her own choice, whereas others suggested that the young woman was
burned forcefully by her family and the Brahmans. 54
In these ritual burnings, the Brahmans, rulers of the caste system,
played a leading role through the ages. They
encouraged suttee and presided over the ritu-
als and currently, it is the Brahmans again who
are leading the pack in the race to revive this

tradition. According to Agarwal, there are two
main reasons for the Brahmans to support the
revival of the suttee tradition, especially the
killing of the widows of other castes:
1-To reduce the numbers of non-Brahmans by
killing their women
2-The appropriation of the women’s property
by the Brahmans

Major demonstrations took place in the country
following the killing of Roop Kanwar. Some of
these demonstrations took place in order to
defend the savage ritual known as suttee, and
others in order to protest against Kanwar’s killing.

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)