SUTTEE IN INDIA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 10 March 1928, Page 11

SUTTEE IN INDIA

WOMEN WHO BECAME MARTYRS

ON the banks of the Ganges in India the other day a Hindu woman mounted to the top of her husband’s funeral pyre, while a crowd of 5000 natives ringed her around to acclaim the religious merit of the widow Who was about to immolate herself in the ancient rite of suite. In 1829 the barbaric rile was prohibited by the Brit ish in India, and severe penalties are now meted out to those who attempt to commit or instigate suttee, which is held equivalent to attempting or abetting suicide. As the flames burst trum the pvre on whieh the widow lay with Die body of her dead husband the police charged the mob, but were unable to fprlil” their way through. The victim refused to leave the pyre until the torture proved too great for her. When reinforcements appeared the police rescued the victim, who had tied to the river, and seized three Hindus who were charged with acting ns ringleaders. The woman later died.

Despite stringent prohibition of t rite, suttee has persisted in isoiaicl cases to this day, states the Nw York Times.” The Indians elevate the widow who immolates herself status of a martyr, with the result that crowds rush to obtain relics of the ic Urn, As late .as 1911 a woman poured kerosene on her clothes and ignited hu self in a “home” suttee, and there aic records of the illegal rite m Bihar during 1901, 1903, 1904 ami 1900 Nepal., located -outside British rule, maintained suttee until quite recently. Three women committed suttee at. the funeral of Sir Jung Bahadur in ISH.

Literally countless widows, many of them mere girls, have sacrificed themselves in suttee. Most European anth-

orities credit its origin to the Scythians, the Central Asian race, the funerals of whose kings saw huge holocausts of slaves. As many as 300 women at one time were burned on the pyres of Indian rulers between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The most appalling rate of suttee in the year ISIS, when in Bengal alone 539 native widows burned with their Imsba nds.

The Rajput- women were the bravest, by far in facing ileath through fire. Their husbands were warriors and tlmy met suttee willingly. A lighted lamp or a knife was placed in the hand of the Rajput girl or boy on coming of ago to signify the death that some day each must die. For years the .British East India Company refrained from prohibiting suttee, fearing to arouse the religious fanaticism of the natives, but eventually the force of public opinion in England prevailed, and in 182-9 it was banned by law from the provinces under Anglo-Saxon rule. The Mongol,conquerors of India endeavoured to suppress suttee, and Ak-bar. it is said, once rode 100 miles at a gallop to rescue the daughter-in-law of the Rajah of Jodhpur from the funeral pyre.

After the British prohibition, however, the rite lasted in the sctiK-imlo-pendent States for decades, the Punjab and Rajasthan retaining it in full force In .South India it was the custom for the widow to leap into a blazing pit. while in North India she ascended the pyre and held the head of her dead husband in her lap. 'The torch was applied by the eldest son or nearest male relative. To the Hindu suttee stood for an act typifying the highest degree of wedded love.