Sati-Roop Kanwar

A pretty young bride married for barely 8 months,Roop Kanwar,became a sati-burning herself to death on her husband 's funeral pyre -on 4 September 1987 at Deorala village in Rajasthan . The reaction was a mixture of shock ,admiration ,outrage ,reverence and embarrassment over the young girl's action . Local police failed to stop the sati. The Indian press called the act a 'barbaric incident which blackened India's images in the world . Anti-sati feminists responded with protests and marches , condemnig the glorification of sati, yet they barely influnced the 3,00,000 pilgrims who came by busloads to worship at the site of the cremation. The government action against Roop's relatives was slow and belated. Yet private opinions,evem of prominemt politicians,were ambivalent.