Dear Payal Rohatgi,
I’d like to begin by saying thank you for the time you took out of your busy schedule to educate us about your knowledge of Sati Pratha, the sad and deeply unfortunate history of our country. We had studied a different version than what you just described, but what do we know, we don’t have ‘board topper’ in our Twitter bio.
It took you 280 characters and a big BIG snooze during history lessons in school to call Raja Ram Mohan Roy a traitor for the reform he brought in our country by abolishing Sati.
You also called him a “chamcha to Britishers (Britisher’s puppet),” saying that they used him to “defame the Sati tradition”.
First of all, your understanding of Sati is wrong and embarrassing, TBH. You have to realise that you’re not in the Bigg Boss house anymore, so your silly stints aren’t going to help you get votes and a win at something in life. To quote this young man:
If you still don’t get it, try to see it her way:
Second of all, w.r.t. to your first tweet, Jowhar wasn’t an ‘incident’ and it definitely wasn’t ‘related to Padmavati’. Jowhar was the act of mass self-immolation by women, sometimes with their children, to avoid capture, enslavement and rape by any foreign invaders when facing certain defeat during a war. It’s been happening since BCE. And it wasn’t Rani Padmavati but Rani Padmini of Chittorgarh (1303). Jeez, you didn’t even watch the film right. This may help, dear.
Sati, on the other hand, was the act when women were forced to self-immolate on their deceased husband’s pyre. As against your notion, there ARE references to Sati in Hindi and Sanskrit texts where the term is, in fact, synonymous with ‘good wife’. This is in reference to your remark that said:
Also, as a Jain, I can vouch that this faith is based on the principle of ahimsa or ahinsa (non-violence) and nowhere is there a mention of Sati in the teachings of Lord Mahavir.
While you continue to condemn Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the man the world remembers as the ‘Father of Indian Nationalism’, the abolisher of the Sati Pratha, and the harbinger of a free press in India (it’s because of him you’re able to crap all over the media, BTW), how about we give you a quick lesson on the social reformer? Chapter 1, which is only four pages long, of the book Leaders Of The Nationalist Movement, is all you need to correct your facts and save your face.
Oh! BTW, here is some quality literature on the subject by History scholars for your perusal, Ms Computer Engineer and Gujarat Board Topper:
1. Sati – Widow Burning in India by Sakuntal Narasimhan
2. Sati: Dialogues by Ram Mohan Roy by Mulk Raj Anand
3. Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India by John Stratton Hawley
4. The History Behind ‘Sati’, A Banned Funeral Custom in India
Yours sincerely,
A person with two, side-by-side eyes…that are open.
Image: Instagram
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