In Sikar, India’s last sati village, chorus for temple trumps fear of police action (2025)

But in 1987, Shekhawat Sadan was at the heart of an event that shook the state and the nation: on September 4, 1987, Roop Kanwar, 18, allegedly sat on her husband Maal Singh’s funeral pyre and committed sati. While the family claimed her act was voluntary, activists have maintained that she was forced to do so.

Besides forcing the ouster of Chief Minister Hari Dev Joshi of the Congress, Roop’s death led to the enactment of the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.

Last week, in one of the last remaining cases lodged in connection with the incident, a special Sati Nivaran Court in Jaipur acquitted eight persons accused of glorifying the act. Although several cases were filed and hundreds were named as accused, activists say not a single person has been convicted till date.

At Shekhawat Sadan in Rajasthan’s Divrala village, a wedding photo of Roop Kanwar and Maal Singh sits next to images of Gods and Goddesses. (Express photo by Hamza Khan)

A padlocked house and a shrine on a cot

As Bhupendra opens the main door of Shekhawat Sadan, he says it’s mostly women who “pray” to Roop. “There are a few every day. On gyaras (her death anniversary), there are thousands,” he says, straining to speak.

Roop, the youngest of six siblings, was married to Sumer’s son Maal Singh in January 1987, but he passed away from an illness in a Sikar hospital eight months later. After Maal Singh’s death, Bhupendra’s other brother, Pushpendra, died in an accident. Their sister Manju lives in Jodhpur with her family.

At Shekhawat Sadan, Roop’s room is visibly better maintained than the rest of the house, which is marked by blackening walls and climbing moss. Now a shrine, Roop’s room is the first on the right.

Inside, on her cot, sharing space with garlanded images of Lord Ram, Sita, Hanuman and Saraswati, is a wedding photo of Roop and Maal Singh. The shelves on the walls around the bed have more images, including a depiction of Roop on a funeral pyre.

The spot in the village where Roop is said to have committed sati. (Express photo by Hamza Khan)

Overlooking the bed is a window from where visitors “pray or pay their respects” to Roop from outside the room. Outside, above the window, the text reads: “Shri Roop Kanwar Sati Maa.”

At Divrala, the legend of Roop Kanwar has only got stronger with each passing year and with every retelling: a woman says the gaanth (lump) on her throat disappeared after she prayed to Roop, another one claims that her unemployed uncle got a job and her daughter was finally blessed with a child after years of marriage, and yet another woman says her family finally found a groom for her.

Narpat Jangid, 46, who was in Class 6 in 1987, claims, “Over 70% in Divrala have faith in Roop and turn to her in times of crisis. ‘Sati Maa’ fulfils their wishes.”

His father Ramlal was among the dozens who spent about 2.5 months in jail in connection with the incident.

A Sati Mata temple in Kareeri, located barely 10 minutes from Divrala. (Express photo by Hamza Khan)

However, seniors like Jai Singh, 75, write off Roop’s impact. He says, “Only a few who worship Roop in their houses or at her home or the spot of her pyre.”

At the site where Roop allegedly committed sati, Dharamveer Singh, 35, who lives nearby, says “devotees pray with incense sticks, coconuts, oil, etc., and leave money too”. But there is no priest to oversee these prayers since it violates the Sati Prevention Act.

Near the sati site are two structures, said to have been built in memory of the women who committed sati before Roop — at least four women from Divrala are said to have committed sati. In the house adjacent to Roop’s, the family has a small taak (a shelf built into the wall outside their home) to remember one such woman: “Sati dadi sa Mitthu Kanwar sa”.

Sati temples all over Rajasthan

The Sati Prevention Act prohibits the construction of a temple or structure in memory of a sati. Its Section 7 empowers a District Collector to remove certain temples or other structures, while Section 8 allows them to seize any funds or property collected or acquired for the purpose of sati glorification.

The spot in the village where Roop is said to have committed sati. (Express photo by Hamza Khan)

But Rajasthan is no stranger to sati temples. From a regular-sized temple in Jaipur’s residential neighbourhood of Shastri Nagar to a grand, Wes Anderson-esque temple in Jhunjhunu, hundreds of such temples exist across the state.

Kareeri village, barely 5 km from Divrala, has at least two sati temples. Before Vimal Sharma, the priest at one of them, his father and grandfather were priests at the temple.

In Jharli, about 30 minutes from Divrala, lies a grand Om Shakti Temple. At the heart of this temple is a ‘Sati Maa’ who consigned herself to flames some years before Roop. Today, the flames are depicted in the form of a lotus, with her “husband’s” photo kept nearby. The temple was inaugurated in April 1983 by Bhawani Singh of the erstwhile Jaipur royal family and father of current Deputy CM Diya Kumari.

And yet, fear of police action over a demand for a sati temple in Divrala almost seems unfounded at present because “strict” action in the case was taken only in the months and years after 1987 — that too, largely due to public outcry and the media glare.

In the latest case, government lawyers failed to prove the commission of sati. Aman Chain Shekhawat, who appeared for some of those acquitted, says, “To prove the violation of Section 5 (glorification of sati), Section 3 (attempt to commit sati) needs to be proved, but the prosecution, investigation agency could not prove Section 3.”

Activists, however, claim that one doesn’t need to prove commission of sati in order to prove its glorification.

Bhupendra Singh, the only remaining family member at Divrala village, at the shrine dedicated to his sister-in-law Roop at Shekhawat Sadan. (Express photo by Hamza Khan)

Led by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) national president Kavita Srivastava, 14 women organisations — who term the probe in the Roop Kanwar cases as “shoddy — say they are “not surprised” over the recent acquittals. Though the organisations have urged CM Bhajan Lal Sharma to file an appeal, it seems unlikely.

Stating that an appeal filed by them has been pending for 20 years, the organisations have accused successive Rajasthan governments led by Vasundhara Raje (BJP) and Ashok Gehlot (Congress) of not pursuing the case “since both parties did not wish to antagonise the Rajput vote bank and leaders from both sides were implicated in the case”.

A demand in Divrala

In Divrala, locals who earlier spoke of Roop in hushed tones due to fear of police action, have openly started demanding a temple for her. The fear seems to have also perhaps ebbed because most of Divrala residents were not around in 1987 or were too young to remember the police crackdown.

Many feel that a temple will change the fortunes of the sleepy village, where farmers are dependent on rain due to the lack of a water source.

Ashok Kumar, 34, says, “Even though she was the country’s last sati, the anti-sati law should have been implemented on cases after Roop. If we have a temple here, it will improve Divrala’s dasha (condition) and disha (direction).”

Laxman Ram Meena, 50, whose father spent nearly 2.5 months in jail in 1987, says, “Most (locals) want a temple to be constructed, but are scared of going to jail. But a temple will help bring employment in Divrala.”

Sarpanch Ramavtar Saini tells The Indian Express that “if the villagers demand for a temple, then it is my demand too”.

However, women’s groups say a temple cannot come up at all because the Act is very clear when it comes to temples. However, though the Act also covers sati cases preceding the law, the subsequent state governments have looked the other way when it comes to existing Sati temples.

Arguing that there are sati temples all over Rajasthan, Rajendra Kumar, 55, a tailor, says, “When a temple for Lord Ram has been constructed (in Ayodhya), why not (make) one for ‘Sati Maa’?”