The custom of Sati (Sutee) in tradional India?

Question

What is it? How and why would one go to perform this?

Answer 1

It is forbidden since the British came (around 1830 or so). The tradition is that the wife (widow) climbs into the fire of her dead husband's burial (fire, they are not burried but burnt).

I have no idea who once came up with this idea and how they could possibly make any woman believe it is ok, but sadly enough, it was common for centuries.

I know WHY they came up with though: nobody wanted to maintain the widow, when the family was without income then. Just last week I read in a german paper about a recent case, that am old widow tried to jump into the flames. Her family rescued her though.

And what happens if the wife dies first? Will the husband jump into the flames? Of course not, he will just marry another woman!

The europeans were not better: it was mainly old poor women who were burnt as witches between 1430 and 1780, since that was such a convenient way to get rid of them.

Answer 2

It wasn't really because no one wanted to support the widow, it was because the men didn't want their wives to ever remarry. The men could remarry of course, but in India, just as everywhere else in those times, women had no real value, women were no more than the man's property.

Answer 3

Suttee is the practice of widows throwing themselves onto the funeral pyre of their recently deceased husband. British authorities worked vigorously to eliminate this religious tradition, regarding it as barbaric and without redeeming value.

Answer 4

cremation was/is traditional. if the man died, the woman was expected to throw herself on the funeral pyre. in some instances she was not interested in following her husband in death. onlookers or family members would just grab her and toss her in the fire