by : G.B.Singh

While reading Lotus Buds, I stumbled onto a well-fitting, but Startling, statement which read, “Those who know India know how true this sentence is such legislation, however carefully framed, will be a delusion, a blind, a dead Letter, unless men of no ordinary insight and courage and character are appointed to see that it is carried out.” This was written in 1910. ‘The statement is more relevant to India of these days. The Dowry Prohibition Act (1961) is a prime example of the statutes in India. Dowry goes on as usual; so does the killings often associated with dowry. Let’s talk something relevant to my topic, Take the case of Chandra: Shekhar, the Prime Minister of India dung the first half of the year 1991. While acknowledging publicly, Chandra Shekhar proclaimed he worships a gadha {meaning a donkey). Devoted that he is, somehow led him to announce Hinduism a “superior religion.” 1 grant that sort of thing is a personal matter, But, what is not personal is when he appointed Kalyan Singh Kalvia man known for being prostate, the Minister of Energy. As expected, this appointment accompanied not even a whisper of protest from one comer of India to the other. A senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Raje Scindia, a woman at least when judged by the looks, stated, “No woman, wishing to be a sati after her departed husband, could therefore be deprived of her night to that faith Hindu.” Then there isthat fellow, Niranjan Dev Teerth, popularly known as the Shankaracharya of Puri, and Jagadguru (meaning, universal guni)a vociferous advocate of the Suitee system. There are more examples of high placed Hindus (names not worth mentioning) carrying leisurely their pros sutee views without any apprehensions of losing status in Hindu society.

I am sure some readers might think of the futility of this topic at this dam age; thinking sutiee remotely outdated. The facts on its frequency speak for themselves. Ever since Lord William Bentinck Officially outlawed suttee in 1829, it took the British several years to aggressively push towards its total ban. Since 1947, the number of suttees have increased. Narasimhan writes, “Stray cases of widow burning continued to be recorded in the post-independence years too one at Madhav ka Vas in 1954, another in 1957 (when the wife of Brigadier Jubbar Singh bumed on his pyre)… Two cases recorded in Shewara in 196061, one in Surpura and another in Mawda Kalan village in 1975 and at least three in 1980,.,three more in 1983…yet another in 1984 & one more in 1986 near Jabalpur ..Rajasthan is said to have had nearly 30 sati cases since independence…” Then followed that infamous case Roop Kanwar, a beautiful 18year old female burned herself to death on her husband’s pyre in September 1987. Had it not been for some women groups, like all cases before, this incident too would have bypassed the publicity channels.

My purpose of addressing this uncomfortable topic is to provide the readers the basic understanding with a fresh look into the suttee phenomenon. To begin with, allow me to clarify two terms. Suttee denotes the actual rite or the practice, whereas Sati is a woman who has accomplished the rite, often, two terms are used interchangeably. The word sati means a “faithful” and/or a “virtuous or a pious woman.” Suttee is commonly defined as the self-immolation of the widow on the pyre of her head husband. Suttee is further classified based on some imelevant procedural details: (1) Sahamarana meaning “dying together,” burning of the widow along with her husband’s body. (2)anumarana meaning “dying in accordance with,” a widow immolating herself senararely after her husband’s cremation. However, suttee as defined above is really incomplete; it does not account for many other types that had been prevalent over the centuries. Their brief description will suffice.

  1. Traditional Suttee: This is the garden variety and definitely the most common type. A would be sati whose husband had died decides (whether voluntary or involuntary) to bum herself to death along with her husband’s body. The whole event gets glorified in full view of the audience. Roop Kanwara is a prime example. A variant of this traditional form called “back alley” suttee surfaced in British India when suttee was outlawed. Here the suttee took place in the hide outs with virtually no exaltation; onlookers composed of mainly the most trusted villagers. Child suttee (where the child wife becomes sati) is another sub variety, sprouting directly from one undesirable outcome of Hindu Child Marriage the consequences of this ghastly practice resulted in eliminating precious life in millions over the years.

 

  1. Living Sati Satis of living and re incamated type are discussed with an underlying academic pursuit only. There is no self-immolation the kind we know of. Roughly speaking, living sati is more or less a converted title. This little is conferred upon that female candidate who has truly shown a remarkable fortitude for self-sacrifice without resorting to killing herself. Names such as Savitri, Anasuya and Arundhati are famous examples of sau without Suttee the living sali. The Hindu literature exemplifies Sati Savitri because she relentlessly argued her case with Yama (the god of Death) to safeguard her husband Satyavan from the impending permanent death. She succeeded, at last, signifying her resolute wifely strength as a mark of devoted wife Maharma Ganchi’s wife is also referred to as Satt Kasturba, although less frequently. Coming down to recent times, one Hindu acquaintance, with some reluctance suggested Indira Gandhi as another latest model of living Sati. According to him, Indira had “lots of sacrifices.” “Leaving her husband,” being one of those examples, he enumerated, I suppose, Sonya Gandhi rights well be the living Sati of today. Her sacrifices are no Jess, cither, After all, she traded Catholic Italy for Hindu India; which is not easy. 3.Reincarnated Sati Hindu Legend hasit:Saui supposedly the first wife of Siva went through self-immolation only to be re incamated as Parvati to become Siva’s consort again. It is rather a magnum opus love story concocted for the masses signifying the majestic attraction for Shiva, however fatal that may be. Nonetheless to understand Sati better, it behooves you to know the background of Parvati the reincamated Sati. Wendy O’Flaherty summarizes the story elaborated in one of the Puranas:”Daksa, a son of Brahma, gave his daughter San in mamiage to Siva, but he did not invite Siva to his sacrifice. Sati, in anger, burnt herself to death. Siva destroyed Daksa’s sacrifice and beheaded Daksa, but when the gods praised Siva he restored the sacrifice and gave Dadsa the head of a goat. When Siva learned that Sati had killed herself, he took up her body and danced in grief, troubling the world with his dance and his tears until the gods cut the Corpse into pieces. When the yoni fell, Siva took the form of a linga, and peace was reestablished in the universe.” There is a temple at Kankhal, which is about 3 km downstream along the Ganges from Haridwar. The devouts believe this temple is the site Sati bumed herself to death. 4.Masati:: Reported both in Punjab and Rajasthan, on numerOuS occasions, where a mother would burn herself pyre. This mother suttee is called masati. Such a self-immolation was considered to be the highest ofall suttees. How about instances where the sister would burn along with her brother’s pyre? That happened too, A variant of masati when a mother together with her all children burned herself to death on the husband’s pyre. Or, the mother daughter pair suttee added a special bit of glamour to this heart rendering practice which the British called tamasha. 5.Mahasati: The word mahasati connotes “the great place of faithfulness.” The stress is more on the particular site than the rite itself. The site than the rite itself The site is holy fora simple fact: thousands of women (wives and concubines) had bumtthemselves to death in large stacks on a exclusive site. Chitor, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and some South Indian slates are more prominent in the literature for their wholesale immolations. One sub variety of mahasati is Kuwlinism, which is particularly noteworthy. This is named after the highest Brahmin caste in Bengal known as Aidin. Members of Kudin made their profession to marry as many women as they could. According to Michael Edwardes,” …Koolin Brahmins never many without receiving large donations and multiply wives for the sake of obtaining these gratuities without knowing or caring what becomes of the women to whom they are united by the most solemn rites of their religion. They have been known to marry more than hundred wives each; and il is customary with them, immediately after going through the nuptial ceremony and receiving their gratuities, to leave the houses of the girls they have married, never to see their faces more.” In spite of what sounds atrocious, these wives were expected to leap on the funeral pyre of their husbands, And they did. 6Satu: The word suggests only 4 masculine of sati, Men slaves upon death of their masters also burn (o death. Rajasthan and Gujarat were notorious for this kind of killings.
  2. Sata: This is exactly the opposite of the traditional sati, Men, that is the husbands, end their lives ‘on the death of their wives, however accompanied by no glorification, One may think, Hindus exercised no sex discrimination in the practice of suttees, The fact stands the incidence of sata remained extremely minuscule in the literature.

8.Burial suttee; This had been more common among the low caste Hindus and the Hindus of the Sivasect. Rather than burning, the dead husband is in fact buried together with his alive wife(s). In instances where the widow ran away while the suttee was in progress, she generally faced “suttee by drowning” in the nearby river, once captured by the Spectators.

  1. Koorh Sati Koorh is really nothing more than an old version of Hindu style picketing. Being another one of Brahmin inventions in Bengal, akoorh washatched on the premise of free flow expendability of the females. Those wishing for extract concession of their demands from any authority, would erect a circular enclosure known as koorh, Within that enclosure, hopefully, would be seated an aged woman on top of the wooden pile. Given the right circumstances, on the approach of an administration, fire was lit to the koork with full view of sacrificing the female. This ruthless practice at its worst form, used with impunity, often gave the impression of a hostage style suttee, Even though the British outlawed it then, the practice has resurfaced again in what | call: koorksatu, the modem version of koorh.. A Pome example being when a total of 75 young people burned themselves on fire in 1990 in open day light, against V.P.Singh government’s decision to reserve 27% of central government jobs for Other Backward Classes.

10.Husbandassisted Suttee: This is probably the most unique ofall suttees. As originally reported by Sleceman, now documented by Narasimhan in her book, the story goes like this a banker at whose death a Lodhee woman claiming to have been his wife in three previous births decided to immolate herself; her husband was alive and she was forbidden to burn along with the banker’s body but she gathered some of his ash and burned nonetheless, with her husband himself applying the torch 6 her pyre…” I believe the husband assisted Suttee has a great import to us today. In India these days, thousands of women are burned alive each year under the context of what is termed Dowry killings where the husbands are participants in these killings. I view these dowry murders as modem manifestations of the age old husband assisted suttee.

11.Private suttee: Here the suttee takes place within the confines of the house. With extremely limited glonfication, a prospective sai will dig apitinsider her house, fill it with sandalwood, dress herself as a bride, shut the doors, and throw herself on the pile after igniting it. There are variations, of course, to the procedure. One of the victim’s wife (following the tragic Air India disaster in 1985) killer herself in accordance with the latest style of private suttee.

II

Searching the reasons for suttee in itself is not easy. If you ask a breathing Hindu, in probability he will blame the Moslem invaders. In accordance with the story, the wholesale slaughter of the Hindu males jeopardized their females” dignity; therefore in response to safeguard the female honor, suttee had surfaced. But this is not the whole truth. Historically, India has always attracted the invaders; Aryans being the first among many who followed. Brutal as they all were, what was so special of the Moslem invaders that forced the natives (relatively speaking) to suttee? The answer lies not in Moslems, but in the Hindu psyche, where there is a pathological need for enemies (to any blame on someone else), always succeeding in finding them, Ironically, it was the Britishers, one of those invaders who finally put an end to suttee, Mark Twain during his visit to India almost a century ago, tried to find a reasonable answer for suttee. Looking for explanation as given to him, he wrote, “A woman who throws away her life when her husband dies is instantly joined to him again, and is forever afterward happy with him in heaven; her family will build a little monument to her, or a temple, and will hold her in honor, and, indeed, worship her memory always; they will themselves be held in honor by the public; the woman’s self-sacrifice has conferred a noble and lasting distinction upon her posterity, And, besides, see what she has escaped: If she had elected to live, she would be a disgraced person; she could not remarry; her family would despise her and disown her; she would be a friendless outcast, and miserable all her days.” Obviously, not satisfied with this explanation, Mark Twain asked: “How did people come to drift into such a strange custom? What was the origin of the idea?” This is how Mark Twain answered after a search, “Well, nobody knows; it was probably a revelation sent down by the gods, One more thing: Why was such a cruel death chosen why wouldn’t a gentle one have answered? Nobody knows; maybe that was a revelation, too.” 1 think, Mark Twain is pointing to a culprit the Hinduism, 1 intend to intrude myself deep to explore the causes of suttee those etiological factors that truly shape the Hindu behavior, The readers should be cognizant of the fact that these factors working their way through an unknown however a dynamic process, seep to the surface veiling its essence, thereby hampering our diagnostic senses. Finally, the culmination of all factors exposes as economic and social pressures on widows; which no doubt, create tremendous tensions, often pushing these helpless creatures to a vulnerable position, jerking to end their lives, My scrutiny of Hinduism revealed the following causative elements:

  1. Riv Veda: A great confusion surrounds whether Rig Veda approves suttee, due to the controversial Sanskrit verse:

Ima nariravidhavah sapatneeranjaenea sarapisha samvishantu& Anashravoanameevah suraina arohantu janayo yonim agre.

The last four words of the verse means: Let the mothers advance to the altar first. By changing two alphabets of the last word in the verse, it reads arohanii janayo yonim agni, meaning:Let the mothers go into the womb of fire. Scholars such as Max Muller believe the change in the word was a deliberate attempt by some priests to propagate suite, Given the benefit of doubt RigVeda deserves here, it is still no consolation as Hindu masses hardly read RigVeda. Noris RigVeda agreat champion of women rights. Mac Donell in mild words observed somewhat sardonically: “Indeed daughters are conspicuous in the RigVeda by their absence.”

  1. Parasara Samhitay; Quoting from Narasimhan’s book, “She. who follows her husband in death dwells in heaven for as many years as there are hairs on the human body that is, 35 million years..”
  2. Shudditattva: Citing from Narasimhan’s book, “All the actions of a woman should be the same as that of her husband. If her husband is happy, she should be happy, if he is sad she should be sad, and if he is dead she should also die Such a wife is called pativrata.” The idea of pativrats (meaning a good wife) is truly unique to the Hindusociety. Sudhir Kakar details a succinct account of pativrala.

In Mahabharata, the goddess Uma laid down the guidelines of right conduct for women describes pativrata as one, “who does not cast here yes upon the Moo nor the Sun (both male in Hindu cosmology) or a tree that hasa maseuline name, “The goddess, however, goes further, “Devotion to her lord is a woman’s merit; it is her penance; it is her eternal heave. Merit, penances, and Heaven become hers who looks upon her husband as her all in all, and who endowed with chastity, Secks to devote herself to her lord in all things, The husband is the god which women have. The husband is their  friend, The husband is their high refuge. Women have no refuge” that can compare with their husband, and no god that can compare: him. The husband’s grace and Heaven, arc equal in the estimation of a woman; or, if unequal, the inequality is very trivial. O Maheshwara, I do not desire Heaven itself if thou are not satisfied with me. If the husband that is poor or diseased or distressed were lo command the wife to accomplish anything that is improper or unrighteous or that may lead to, destruction of life itself, the wife should without any hesitation accomplish it.)

  1. Puranas: Poranas constitute one major part of Hindu scriptures and are notorious in their role in propagation for suites; I take the liberty of directly quoting in most part from Narasimhan’s book what various Puranas teach:

(a) Brakmapuranaz: “Tell the faithful wife of the greatest duty of women; she 1s loyal and pure who burns herself with her husband’s corpse. Should the husband die on a journey, holding his sandals to her breast let her pass into the flames.”

(6) Bhavishyapurana: “When the widow consigns herself to the same pile with the corpse of the deceased, whoever performsknya (rites) for her husband: shall per form it for her.” This purana also collaborates the procedural detail on: how to perform suttee?

(c) Garudapurana:  It praises the wife’s immolation. “A Brahman woman should’ not burn herself apart from her husband’s body (or after he is cremated) but that Kshatriyas and other women may do so while pregnant women and those having young children should not do so. A woman does not become free from the liability to be born again and again as a woman, until she becomes a sali.”

(d) Brhannaradiyapurana “Brahmin widows are not allowed anumarana, if the husband dies elsewhere; (and) wives who have not attained puberty or are in the monthly curse do not commit sati.”

 

(e) Vishnupurana Hinduism at times, pursues a bizarre and convoluted route to sanctify obnoxious Practices, especially suttee, you know precisely what mean, read the following story; “King” Satadhanu and his wife Saivya were observing a purificatory fast a heretic passed by and the king Spoke to him. The wife on the Other hand looked away. Because of this audacious offence, the king was reborn as a dog although his 2 ‘ascended the funeral pyre with him. His wife rebom as a princess had knowledge of her earlier life and recognized her husband; she married him and reminded him of his earlier incubation. In his subsequent birth, the king was born’ as a jackal; once Again the virtuous wife recognized him he starved to death in order to be and of that life and was reborn “again, this time as a wolf. After being born next as a vulture, a Crow and a peacock, he was finally born as a human, whereupon she mamiedhim and lived happily with him full he died in a battle. She then “cheerfully” ascended the Pyre once again with his body, and the two of them went to heaven.”

(f) Padma-purana: Commenting on the ideology of patirvata & patidey (the husband who is god: “There is no other god on earth for a woman than her husband. The most excellent of all the good Works that she can do is to seek to please him by manifesting perfect obedience to him. Therein lies her so le role of life She must, on the death of her husband, allow her Self to be birmt a live on the same funeral pyre; then everybody will praise her virtue..”

5.Hindu Law Books: There are number of law books such as Manusmriti, Vishnusmriti, Vedavyasasmrit, Parasarasmriti, Sakhasmriti, Nirnayasindhu, Dharmasindhu, etc. within the corpus of Hinduism that directly Or indirectly promote the wisdom Of sullee, One Of these goes on to proclaim, “She who follows her husband will abide in heaven for three and a half crore years,. Just as a snake catcher draws out a snake from a hole, similarly a woman who bums herself draws her husband out (from hell or wherever he may be) to enjoy heavenly bliss with him.”

There are definitely more Hindu Scriptures out there promoting suttee one way or the other. Let there be to doubt about I. How can the go spelson suttees be placed info a proper perspective in the overall picture of Hindi theology? A novice might tend to view suttee as a karma buster, or even perhaps a reincarnation buster; something which is quite antithesis to the Hindu theology as I know it. A brief analysis will suffice here: Caste, Reincarnation.

In a hierarchical impetus for an indie, Finally, i is raat that after series of in camations (will take millions of years) may come mutt, he liberation from the necessity f rebirths. While it is noted that during this lengthy phase on climbing the caste ladder, the process might take its toll on the shining Hindu soul in the form of extreme boredom. To circumvent this hurdle for a good karmic fellows a opposed to bad karmic) is to provide an attractive place to respite sandwiched in between incarnations for a prescribed period of time. These resting (or Hindu resorts) places are four in number. in the ascending order, they are: (1) Swargawhere Indra resides, is open to all virtuous souls, (2) Vaikuntha where Vishnu resides open only to his worshippers, (3) Kailasawhere Shiva resides open only for devout worshippers of lingam, and (4) Sattyalokawhere Brahma resides, open for virtuous Brahmins only. Once your presenbed time to rest and merrymaking is finished, the soul is ushered hopefully in an upward direction back into the caste, karma, and reincarnation cycle. Hindu evidence at least suggests strongly that if there is anything good that come out from suttee, it Guarantees the sali an extended Stay in one of four Hindu resorts. Mind you, this extended stay is impermanent. A individual committing suttee after suttee after suttee no doubt is least likely to experience boredom before reaching the mukii silage. Besides or in addition to the Hindu theology as one major cetology of suttee, a few more factors exist responsible for suttees. The prestige and political factors had accounted for numerous suttees. Then there are reasons such as woman in their heightened competitive spirit against each other, or trying to show off as a mark of aggrandizement of their dead husbands jump into the fire all in the state of ecstasy. Dichards of the system claim the cause of husband’s death as a result of poison given by the wife. Therefore, the wife must die. Another one is compelling reasons of so you, Hinduism also of ma Vasudeva’s death accompanied suttee off our of his wives; whereas Krishna’s death carried five women into the fire. According to Vishnupurana eight queens ascended Krishna’s accidental death to Suttee without glorification loses its mystical touch. But when given an exotic touch (whatever that may be), it infuses a new life into the practice. The veneration nites come in many forms. Prospective sau, according to Richard Grenier had an extensive range of choice, “In southern India the widow was flung into her husband’s fire pit. In the valley of the Ganges she was placed on the pyre when it was already aflame. In western India, she supported the head of the corpse with her right hand, while, torch in her left hand, she was allowed the honor of setting the whole thing on fire herself. In the north, where perhaps women were more impious, the widow’s body was constrained on the burning pyre by long poles pressed down by her relatives, just in case, screaming in terror and choking and burning to death, she might forget her dharma,” I have classified the glorification rites into four broad categones Before Suttee: A prospective sati receives a professional touch of beautification through makeup, expensive clothes, and jewels. After procuring a decorated funeral car, a great assemblage of people begin a procession march to the burning ground. Then procession is generally conspicuous with soldiers, trumpeters, and bandsmen interspersed with musicians throughout, A long row of onlookers assembles on the strect sides anxiously trying to procure the blessings from the soon to be Sali who is by now close to being a goddess. The priests within the procession chant various mantras adding an intense religious ecstasy. During Suttee In addition to the great fire and multiple procedural details, chanting mantras is the greatest veneration rite. Thanks (0 Hinduism, mantras too come in multiple varieties, Priests often would chant Pauranika Mantra; “Om. Let these faithful wives, pure, beautiful, commit them site recite mindlessly the prayers shorter mantras, some of which: are: (1)Hait Rama! Hai Ramal, (2) Victory to Umba, (3) Victory 10 Ranchor,(4)Narayana! Narayana! (S)JaiSatimataki,(6)Jai Bhiwani, (7)Hare Bul! Hare Bull, and (8) Rayana! Rayana! Rayanal After SutteesAs one can expect, Satiis immediately revered as the goddess, often the most talked about subject at least for the time being. Since the Hindu memory is short lived, other means have been instated to refurbish that fading memory. Many Sati memories have been laid to rest by building memonals. Whereas, special Satis receive special honors by way of erecting temples in their memory. There are over 150of these temples in Rajasthan alone; many of them paid for by industrialists such as Birlas. Those who hope to cash in easy money, just demarcate the sati sthal (site where sai bumed herself), You can bet Pilgrims will pourin by the thousands to this now new holy site. Miscellaneous: Dubois recorded an incident where the officiating Brahmins ate sati’s ashes mixed with boiled riceall in spirit of great delicacy, Today there exists folkloric bookssuchasSatishatak, Sati sujas, and Vir Satsai glorifying the virtues of the suttee system, Some simple Hindu folks even seek medicinal remedy for one disease or the other via are actively fresh sat. The truth is there is literally uncountable means of exalting sat is. Iv

 

Suttee is an important subject to study at least for understanding the Hindus mass psychology, if not for anything else. In today’s ecumenical age, some modem heavy thinkers have piven a new twist Allis One, and One is Allin their approach to the world’s religions. The prime example is that of Aldous Huxley’s ‘perennial philosophy.” This oversimplified thought process of a human mind when faced with the mystery of the Divine I have encountered in the West somehow has compelled me to focus attention to the Punjab of the i9th century the times of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. For reasons I have not been able to decipher. Ranjit had his own brand of ecumenism, where there was the synthesis of Hinduism and Sikhism. There are those who proudly proclaim that in order to better the experience of religions, in corporal the best teachings of other religions into your Own religion to enjoy the blissful state of being with Oneness, But there is a problem. How will anyone dissect Hinduism to chart out good teachings from so many of its il! advised teachings? Once successful (although impossible), how can anyone amalgamate “good” Hindu teachings to Sikhism without all erring its essence or even without undermining the latter? But to Ranjit Singh, I suppose, the process was simple. Scholars have labeled his kingdom as “Hinduised Sikhism.” But, this religious hybrid regrettably is fraught with dangers scholars saster, Ranjit Singh was hot content by as similar in two “good” Hindu practices, went for the Hindu package effectively incorporating as much of the Hinduism as possible, One of those “good” Hindu practices Sultce slipped in too. No sooner did Ranjit Singh die, his successors tumbled down just like the dominos, however, accompanied with an incredible human toll in the form of sat is. On his death, Ranjit’s four wives and five slavegirls became sat is. Maharajah Kharak Singh’s death resulted in the suttec. of one of his three wives, Maharajah Nao Nihal Singh’s death produced twoqueensand 1 I slavegirls to the ranks of sat is. Sher Singh who was assassinated on September 15,1843 was honored appropriately by way of “the usual Suttee rites.””Numerous other sulices followed with the deaths of few more important male Sikhs and non-Sikhs of the time, until the last one, that of the widow of Sham Singh, One mass suttee that clearly stands out of all Suttees of Punjab Kingdom is that of Raja Suchet Singh. His death added 10 wives and 300 concubines to the glorious list of satis, Every community except for the Europeans whoever associated with the Hindus one time or the other partially succumbed to the suttee virus. But, to the Sikhs (as well as to other Punjabis) the price was a dearonc: They lost their nation. By bringing Sultce to the surface, L intend not to cast doubt on other well publicized accounts pointing to few other factors held responsible for accelerating the demise of Punjab as a sovereign country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.Dubois, Abbe. Hindu Manners, Customs & Ceremonies. Translated & edited by HK Beauchamp; 3rd edition; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906,

  1. Edwardes, Michael. The Myth of The Mahatma. London? Constable, 1986,

3,Grenier, Richard, The Gandhi Nobody Knows, Commentary, March 1983.

  1. Kakara, Sudhir, Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality, New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1989,

S.Narasimhan, Sakuntala. Sati Widow Burning in India. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

6.Thompson, Edward. Suuce. London:George Allen & Unwin; 1928

7.Twain, Mark. Following the Equator; Joumey Around the World. New York: Dover Publications, 1989 (reprint).

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 5, 1993