Woman gives agni pariksha to prove fidelity

Hindustan Times ^ | 07/08/2002 | HT Correspondent

[The Energizer]

celebrate diversity!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Hindi is a religion of peace.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Keep in mind, these people would also sit on the World Court.

[dighton]

The Awful Truth

[Andy Ross]

I was watching National Geographic the other week, and they did a few minutes on something like this (from the same region too).

What happened was that two men had been accused of stealing from the market. The town elder had the job of deciding whether they were guilty or innocent. The method used in this region is for the suspect to lick the blade of a red-hot knife. After this, the town elder examines the tongue and issues his decree.

I could barely believe my eyes. Each guy was obviously badly burned (the burns looked to be through to the flesh of the tongues). As I recall, one was innocent and the other guilty. The town elder was quite sketchy when asked what he looked for on guilty tongues....

Andrew

[GovernmentShrinker]

I think this has more to do with primitivity than with diversity. It was only about 300 years ago that our culture was busy testing women to see if they were witches by binding their hands and feet and dropping them into deep water -- if they floated, it proved they were witches and they were executed; if they sank (and usually drowned) it proved they were not witches, and it was just unfortunate that an innocent person had been forcibly drowned. For all the idiocy demonstrated by cultures that are presently in a primitive state, the witch-dunking stunt remains hard to top.

[Orual]

They put Sangeeta on the hotta Sita.

[nothingnew]

"She turned me into a newt!"

FMCDH

[Slainte]

I got better.

[The Energizer]

You may be right, but a disproportionate number of these types of judgments are targeted at women.

[D.P.Roberts]

Still, it's better than where she used to have to hold it.

[stlrocket]

Who sez these people are not anymore civilized than the Taliban?

TALIBAN JUSTICE

[sandydipper]

My wife stayed gone for 11 days without telling me when or where she was going - I'd be pissed off too - plus I'd starve to death.

[general_re]

"What a jolly romp!"

MP: Four more held in "agni-pariksha" case

Indore, July 8. (PTI): The police have arrested four more persons in the case in which a woman was allegedly subjected to 'agni- pariksha' by her in-laws and others here on July 5, taking the total number of those arrested to 10.

The 10, including the husband and mother-in-law of the woman, who had to undergo 'agni-pariksha' to prove her fidelity, were remanded to 15-days' judicial custody by a local court, police said today.

Additional Superintendent of Police, G G Pandey, said the victim, Sangeeta, went to Vaishnodevi along with her friend from Mumbai without informing anyone, that led her in-laws to suspect her.

On her return after a few days, her husband, Rajesh Sode, and mother-in-law, Champabai, along with others, subjected her to 'agni-pariksha' by placing red-hot iron rod on her palms to prove her fidelity, Pandey said.

A case has been registered against 11 persons, he said adding, Sangeeta's father-in-law was yet to be arrested as he is bed- ridden. Six of the accused were arrested on July 6 while four others, including Champabai, were held yesterday.

Pandey said Sangeeta, who appeared before the court, submitted a statement saying she had decided to undergo 'agni-pariksha' on her own free will and nobody pressurised her to do so. But even after that, the court remanded the arrested to 15 days of judicial custody.

The accused have revealed to the police that the incident was videographed in order to show it to their community members in Mumbai, Pandey added.

[dighton]

Hmmmm, nobody "is absconding." I feel cheated.

[Redcloak]

Woman gives agni pariksha...

I don't suppose that this is anything like giving oo-mox to a Ferengi.

[general_re]

Recipe for agni-pariksha paneer paratha...

[jellybean]

Cheer up!! Perhaps we can apply Agni pariksha to our candidates for office.

Although, I'm not sure I would like to hear most of them sing...

[Brian Allen]

The word "savage" did not isidiously sneak and/or surreptitiously back its way into the English Language.

Multiculturalism, anyone?

Celebrate "diversity," perhaps?