Death by Fire

The Indian village of Deorala in Rajasthan is neither remote nor feudal. There is running water and electricity, and the villagers have had television for over 20 years. On 4 September 1987, before a crowd of several thousand people, mostly men, 18-year-old Roop Kanwar was burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre, dressed in her bridal finery. The apparent revival of an ancient tradition opened old wounds in Indian society and focussed world attention on the status and treatment of women in modern India. The ancient practise of sati - the self-immolation of a woman on her husbands funeral pyre - was outlawed by the British administration in India in 1829. Since Independence, the practice was widely believed to have died out. The fate of Roop Kanwar changed that perception.