The Washington times., 1923-03-25

the Little OMG 0@910@ kI1Am
Il His 7-Year.0Id Wife.
THE English Government 10 greatly
disturbed over the fanaticai relig-
iosas suicide few days ago Of
beautiful young Hindu, who threw herself
on her husbands funeral pyre and
perishedJ in the flames that consumed his
corpse.
Of al things in the world, the un-
fortunate young lady could have done
nothing better calculated to bestir the
gold-braided military and white-cuffed
British officials of Delhi
When Musammat Rulkka chose the FIRE
route osgo to heaven with her husband.
she was striking at the very source Of
British authority in India. And as India
has given Great Britain more trouble
than sore tooth since Gandhi started
his famous non-resistance policy for driv-
ing the British out of his native land,
this act fof widow suicide added fuel to
the fires. of patriotism already raging in
every Hindu's breast.
What it viii all amount to 10 difficult
to predict
The beautiful young widows act Of
self-immolation was carried out In
obedience to one of the most sacred of
Hindu religious doctrines, which requires
a widow, no matter how young. to be
burned alive when her husbands body Ii
cremated.
Military Intervention stopped, so the
government officials thought, this practice,
except for sporadic outbreaks, for nearly
a hundred years. And law was
promulgated declaring any person who
aided in widow burning punishable for
the crime of murder. But this law, as
every official knew, was passed against the
expressed desire Of the Hindus and &C.
cordingly was given only that respect to
which the Hindu thought it entitled.
Now IFS open defiance by the public re-
vival of, "suttee''-as widow burning is
called-serves to convince the British
officials that high caste Hindus have not
only refused to abolish this shocking
custom from their lives, but occasionally
have been burning their widows in
secret all along.
- And as a consequence of the wide pub
throughout India, the British Government
feels that Bengal and Rajputana may soon
break oct in mutiny and many religious
suicides and other breaches of British
Governmental regulations are expected.
In this latest case in the town of
Etawah, near Delhi, the capital of India,
Ganga Din Ahir, young man of twenty
eight, died after Q short illness. When his
body was given to the flames few hours
afterwards, in accordance with the native
custom Of cremating the dead, his beauti-
full twenty-dve-year-old wife, Musammat
Rukka, arrayed in bridal inery, mounted
the funeral pyre and died "holy
woman"
Quite the most remarkable feature OF
the young wife's sacrifice was the bold
way in which II was conducted. In open
defiance to the British law, she methodic
ally carried out, with strict religious de-
tail, every ceremony prescribed In the
sacred writings for death by fire.
According to the ancient custom OF hel
Brahmin ancestors, Immediately after hel
husbands death, the widow announced hel
intention Of becoming a sati-the name
given wife burned with her husbandI
ashes.
AS was foreseen by relatives il sh'
carried out this intention everyone con
nected with the dead mans obsequie
would surely be called to account, so the!
tried to dissnade the young woman. Blu
Musammat Rukka would not be moved
"Have / not the right 70 die as have
the holy women Of my faith?" she asket
all who would withhold her. ~ am willinI
to suffer burning alive that / may no