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Re: Questions about hinduism
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To: srh@rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu
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Subject: Re: Questions about hinduism
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From: mani@srirangam.esd.sgi.com (Mani Varadarajan)
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Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 12:05:12 -0800
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In-Reply-To: dchakrav@netserv.unmc.edu's message of 2 Apr 1996 09:32:42 GMT
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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References: <4jmpqe$d47@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4jqs7q$gbh@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
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Reply-To: mani@srirangam.esd.sgi.com
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Resent-Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 22:00:31 -0500 (EST)
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Resent-From: SRH Editor <srh@rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu>
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Resent-Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960402220031.13576B@rbhatnagar>
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Resent-To: Ajay Shah <ajay>
In article <4jqs7q$gbh@babbage.ece.uc.edu> dchakrav@netserv.unmc.edu (Dhruba Chakravarti) writes:
> [Sati] is a rite when married women killed themselves by jumping into the
> cremation fire of their dead husbands. They did such things in order to
> save themselves from humiliation by invading armies or out of extreme
> attachment to their husbands.
>
Sati was also a custom that was generally followed
by ``respectable'' north Indian Hindu families,
particularly in Rajasthan. What Dhruba has written
above is only half the story. More often than not,
women did not undertake the practice of Sati
voluntarily.
This dastardly practice was often forced upon the
wife after her husband died. All too often, the
in-laws believed that the woman's duty was to join
her husband in heaven (or wherever he may be) and
serve him there as well. God forbid she live a
complete fulfilling life without her husband!
Though it is rare, Hindu women to this day are
sometimes immolated by their relatives after their
husbands die. It is unfortunate that the leaders
of the Hindu political renaissance would rather
concentrate on inter-communal arguments than
clean out their own closet.
Mani
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