Just over 37 years after 18-year-old Roop Kanwar was burned alive at her husband’s pyre, the last eight accused in a case of glorifying the act the following year, to deify the victim as of “Sati Mata”, were acquitted on October 9 by a “Sati Niwaran” (Sati eradication) court in Jaipur. Kanwar’s alleged self-immolation – a ritual act supported by his champions as part of the custom of certain sections of Hindus and abettor that was banned in 1829 by British Governor General Lord Sir William Bentick as culpable homicide – in Deorala, Rajasthan, on September 4, 1987 was the last known case of sati and sparked widespread outrage, leading to the enactment of the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, which criminalized its glorification.

Just eight months after their marriage, Kanwar’s wife Mal Singh Shekhawat, 25, succumbed to illness. The couple had only spent a few days together. Police and many others said she was forced to sit at the stake. While some asked why no one stopped her even though she chose to self-immolate as her in-laws claimed, many responded that they did not want to face the curse of Sati Mata. The court, however, found no evidence to convict the 32 accused, including Kanwar’s father-in-law and brother-in-law, who were arrested for aiding and abetting the act. They were acquitted in 1996.

Kanwar would be the 29th victim of sati since independence. While her act drew massive crowds of worshipers to the site where she died and elevated her to the status of deity, it horrified many others, including activists, who demanded an end to her glorification in order to do not encourage other widows to imitate her. When the first ‘chunri mahotsav’ at the site where Kanwar died was announced, the Rajasthan High Court, acting on letters from women’s rights activists, banned it. Yet on September 16, 1987, nearly 100,000 people gathered there, forcing police to stay away from the ceremony to avoid bloodshed. A backlash across India and even internationally forced the state government to pass an ordinance banning any form of glorification of sati or the construction of any temple at the site.

The following year, 45 people, including prominent political figures, were charged with organizing a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of the banned act. To protest against the order, they had attempted to reach the site in a truck on September 22, 1988. In 2004, 25 of them were acquitted, including Rajendra Singh Rathore, who later became a leader of the opposition BJP, and Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, who became a minister in Ashok Gehlot’s Congress government. Four are said to be on the run and some are said to have died. Kalyan Singh Kalvi, a former Union minister who was at the forefront of support for sati, died in 1991, and his son Lokendra Singh Kalvi, founder of the Karni Sena which sought to ban the films. Jodhaa Akbar (2008) and Padmaavat (2018) for allegedly distorting Rajput history and culture, died last year. The latest acquittal is at least at the trial stage.

At the Deorala site, prayers are performed quietly on a platform built to deify sati and most passers-by bow to it with folded hands. While many Rajputs and others had opposed the sati ordinance, seeing it as interference in their personal affairs and religious customs, the annual commemoration event in September no longer has sufficient scale to seem like a glorification. Kanwar’s brother Gopal Singh, a transporter in Jaipur, still insists she was not forced to die and says his family would have filed an FIR if it had been otherwise. He is one of those who believe that unless a woman is forced to commit this act, the law should have nothing to do with it. Others say the ban on glorification played a role in ensuring that Kanwar’s case remains the last such case, even though there have been a few incidents where women were stopped from committing the act at the last minute. The Sati temples built before the Kanwar episode, however, continue to attract devotees.