Changing the Subject of Sati

Charan Shah's 1999 death was widely considered to be the first sati, or widow immolation, to have occurred in India in over twenty years. Media coverage of the event focused on procedural minutiae—her sari, her demeanor—and ultimately, several progressive commentators came to the counterintuiti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPolitical and legal anthropology review Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 37 - 53
Main Author Das Acevedo, Deepa
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Arlington Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2020
Subjects
agency
citizenship
Death & dying
India
law
Media coverage
Personhood
Politics
sati
Women
India
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1081-6976
1555-2934
DOI10.1111/plar.12354

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Summary:Charan Shah's 1999 death was widely considered to be the first sati, or widow immolation, to have occurred in India in over twenty years. Media coverage of the event focused on procedural minutiae—her sari, her demeanor—and ultimately, several progressive commentators came to the counterintuitive conclusion that the ritually anomalous nature of Charan's death confirmed its voluntary, secular, and noncriminal nature. This article argues that the “unlabeling” of Charan's death, like those of other women between 1999 and 2006, reflects a tension between the nonindividuated, impervious model of personhood exemplified by sati and the particularized citizen‐subject of liberal‐democratic politics in India.
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ISSN:1081-6976
1555-2934
DOI:10.1111/plar.12354