The Hindu : Barbarism

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Friday, Aug 09, 2002

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Barbarism

THERE IS AN awful sense of deja vu in the death of Kuttu Bai, a sixty-five-year-old woman in Tamali Patna village in Madhya Pradesh and it relates to the words chosen by the State Home Minister, Mahendra Boudh, while speaking about it in the Assembly. Mr. Boudh is reported to have said that the woman "died of burns" after she was forced to enter the funeral pyre of her husband, Mallu Nai. The sequence of events, as they unfold in this case, revives memories of the gory killing of Roop Kanwar at Deorala (in neighbouring Rajasthan) in September 1987 and the celebration of this odious practice — sati — by a cross section of the members of the political class at that time.

The events in Tamali Patna village may look different from the Deorala story in that one is yet to come across anyone (from the political establishment) celebrating the murder in the name of tradition. The Leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly has even demanded a discussion on it through an Adjournment Motion. That Mr. Shejwar, who belongs to the BJP, has struck a note different from the position held by his party's stalwarts after the Deorala incident (when they went about making Roop Kanwar a `devi' in the name of tradition) is a welcome change. One would expect the political leadership, cutting across the spectrum, to live up to this and resist the temptation to defend such obscurantism in the name of tradition. Such apprehensions about the political establishment are bound to arise given the experience in the aftermath of Roop Kanwar's murder in Deorala. While the political establishment (cutting across the spectrum with the exception of the Left parties) allowed its members to participate in the celebrations in Deorala at that time, 32 men from the village who were sent up to trial on charges of murder (including the kith and kin of Roop Kanwar's deceased husband) were acquitted by the sessions judge, in October 1996, for want of evidence. It is for this very reason that one will have to resist the temptation to rest assured that all those guilty of murder in this case will be punished.

There are reports of the two constables sent from the neighbourhood police station having been prevented from doing their duty by a 1000-strong mob. It is difficult, hence, to find anyone from the village to stand as witness for the prosecution as it happened in Roop Kanwar's case. It is imperative for the civil administration and the political establishment, in this context, to initiate measures and build a legally sustainable case here. This will be possible only if the civil society institutions (more importantly the political leadership in and around Tamali Patna village) launch a consistent campaign against the retrograde values upon which sati is sustained. The onus is now on the national leaders of the political parties; they will have to speak out sharply against sati without any prevarication as happened some 15 years ago in the context of Roop Kanwar's murder when a majority among them chose to remain silent letting their camp followers participate in the celebrations in Deorala.

Meanwhile, it is also important that those in the civil administration are sensitised on these issues. A sensitive police official, after all, would not have reacted in such a casual manner by sending just a couple of constables to the village, on receipt of information (that the villagers there were planning to set a woman on fire in the name of tradition), only to be outnumbered by the 1000-strong crowd there. The station-incharge in Saleha police station could have averted the murder if only there were more policemen there. While the magisterial inquiry ordered by the Madhya Pradesh Government will have to look into these aspects (and those found guilty of omissions must be identified), penal measures alone will not do to stop such practices. The murder of Kuttu Bai is a chilling reminder of the need to sustain and persist with the tradition set by Raja Rammohun Roy and several others of his generation — a campaign against obscurantism of all kinds — as an integral part of the nation building process. It is needless to stress the need to put in place an education system and a curriculum that helps cultivate a scientific temper and modern values in this context.

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