Roop Kanwar

Infobox Person
name = Roop Kanwar


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birth_date = c. 1969
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death_date = 4 September 1987
death_place = Deorala, Sikar district, Rajasthan, India
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nationality = Indian
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known_for = Sati
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religion = Hindu
spouse = Maal Singh
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Roop Kanwar (c. 1969 – 4 September 1987) was an 18-year old Rajput woman who committed "sati" on 4 September 1987 at Deorala village of Sikar district in Rajasthan, India. At the time of her death, she had been married for eight months to Maal Singh, who had died a day earlier at age 24 [cite web|title=The New York Times, 1987 |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D61139F933A1575AC0A961948260|accessdate=2008-05-31] , and had no children. She went to her death in wedding robes. [cite web
title=Countercurrents article, 2004
url=http://www.countercurrents.org/gen-shukla190304.htm
accessdate=2007-07-09]

News reports of the incident present conflicting stories about the voluntariness of Kanwar's death. Many news reports say that she was forced to her death. [cite web|title=The New York Times, 1987 |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D61139F933A1575AC0A961948260|accessdate=2008-05-31] However, other reports said that she wished to die, that her relatives were unable to persuade her otherwise, and that she went willingly to the pyre.Fact|date=February 2008 She is also said to have told her brother-in-law to light the pyre when she was ready. [cite web
title=Hinduism Today, 1987
url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1987/12/1987-12-04.shtml
accessdate=2007-07-09]

Several thousand people attended the sati event. After her death, Roop Kanwar was hailed as a "sati mata" -- a "sati" mother, or pure mother. The event quickly produced a public outcry in urban centres, pitting a modern Indian ideology against a traditional one. The incident led first to state level laws to prevent such incidents, then the central government's The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act. [cite web
title=Countercurrents article, 2004
url=http://www.countercurrents.org/gen-shukla190304.htm
accessdate=2007-07-09] [cite web
title=The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987
url=http://www.wcd.nic.in/commissionofsatiprevention.htm
accessdate=2006-12-24]

The original inquiries resulted in 45 people being charged with her murder; these were acquitted. A much-publicized later investigation led to the arrest of a large number of people from Deorala, said to have been present in the ceremony, or participants in it. Eventually, 11 people, including state politicians, were charged with glorification of sati. On January 31, 2004, a special court in Jaipur acquitted all of the 11 accused in the case, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove charges that they glorified "sati". [cite web
title=Frontline, 2004
url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2105/stories/20040312002504600.htm
accessdate=2007-07-09]

References

ee also

*Sati (practice)

Persondata
NAME= Kanwar, Roop
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH= 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH= 1987-09-04
PLACE OF DEATH= Deorala, Sikar district, Rajasthan, India