The BJP and Women : Supports of ‘sati’

The "sati sthal" in 1987 guarded by Rajput youth brandishing swords.

ON September 4, 1987, 17-year-old Roop Kanwar consigned herself to flames or was burnt alive at Deorala village of Sikar district in Rajasthan. This infamous incident came to be referred to as the "sati" case. Sixteen years later, on January 31, 2004, a Special Court acquitted, for lack of evidence, 11 persons, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator and State party vice-president Rajendra Singh Rathore, charged with glorifying the incident as one of sati.