Assignment on Paper -04

'Theme Of Sati in The Fakeer Of Jungheera '

Paper Number: Indian Writing In English (Pre -Independence) 

Prepared By : Sima Rathod 

M.A. Sem: 01

Batch :2019 - 21

Email Id :rsima144@gmail.com

Enrollment No :2069108420200034

Submitted To : S. B. Gardi English Department, MKBU 

Theme Of Sati In The Fakeer Of Jungheera :

        The Fakeer Of Jungheera is a long narrative poem written by one of the first Indian educator to spread Western education and science among the people of Bengal Henry Derozio.  He was a radical thinker ,at the age of 17 he worked as a professor at The Hindu college ,Kolkata. He was an Anglo- Indian but he was a mighty patriot for his native Bengal , and considered himself as an Indian .He died of cholera at the age of 22.He was an Indian poet and assistant headmaster of Hindu College, Kolkata.one of the first Indian educators to disseminate Western learning and science among the young men of Bengal.Derozio was perhaps the first nationalist poet of Modern India.Derozio wrote many wonderful poems in English before his untimely death of which "The Fakir of Jungheera"was one of the most important. His poems are regarded as an important landmark in the history of patriotic poetry in India.Henry Louis Derozio has also written a wonderful song of love known as "Song Of The Hindustani Minstrel".This song is structured around the three main points-first the speaker describes the beauty of his beloved kashmirian girl.Next he speaks about the poverty and finally he assures his beloved that soon they will see he better days.At the end of the poem the poet presents the optimistic picture in front of his Dildar(beloved),he says that though the world may change but their hearts will not change and they will love each other till the The ending part of the poem presents the vision of the lover.It's similar to the vision of the lovers in the poem "The Last Ride Together" by Robert Browning. His ideas had a profound influence on the social movement that came to be known as the Bengal Renaissance in early 19th century Bengal.

Theme Of Sati in The Fakeer Of Jungheera :

            The Fakeer Of Jungheera is a long narrative poem written in two  cantos of twenty eight and twenty four stanzas.Repetitively written in iambic , anapestic, trochaic, and dactylic meters .

                   In this poem Derozio depicted the cruel custom of Sati, Hindu –Muslim relationship , love story of Nuleeni and Fakeer  , how she was rescued by her true love Fakeer from the funeral pyre of her dead husband and how they were chased by her parents and society and how cruely they were killed by them just to satisfy their ego and shallow customs.The ancient Hindu tradition called SATI wherein, a widow would burn herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre.it was initially considered to be quite courageous and heroic but later it become a  forced practice.

The word ‘SATI’ is derived from Sanskrit word ‘ASTI’ which means ‘ she is pure or true’.

According to historical records sati first appeared between 320 to 550CE during the rule of the Gupta Empire. Incidents of sati were first recorded in Nepal in 464 CE. The practice then spread to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where most number of sati cases happened over the centuries. SATI was at its peak between the 15th and 18th centuries. During this period , as many as 1000 widows were burned  alive every year, most commonly in INDIA and NEPAL.

DIFFERENT WAYS OF EXECUTION:

-Sitting on funeral pyre  or lying down next to the dead body,

-Jumping on funeral pyre or walk into it after it had been lit,

-Giving poison or drugs to make her unconscious to reduce  the pain of burning.

-Widow herself would get snake- bitten or use a sharp blade on her throat or wrist before entering the pyre.

       Rajsthani rajputs practice jauhar which has been well depicted in the movie PADMAVAT.

        The Fakeer of Jungheera” is the masterpiece creation of Henry Derozio. In his poems, he deals with the theme of patriotism, of love, of nature, of death. The central theme of 'The Fakeer of Jungheera' is the cruel and inhuman practice of 'sati' in the contemporary orthodox Indian society.Derozio was very well aware of the treatment meted out to women in his times. 

He wanted to change this situation. He is the only Indian who is credited not only for the 

inception of Indian Poetry in English but also for writing for the upliftment of women in 

the first place. He is ironically, a progeny of mixed parentage with an English first name 

and a Portuguese surname: Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, being memorialised as Indian 

Keats. He is often considered as India‘s national modernand Romantic̳poet who 

ignited the flame which melted a coal-tar of a set order and set up an appropriate path for 

the generations to follow, later known as the Young Bengal Movement or the Bengal 

Renaissance which aimed at improving the fate of women also. In the poem women sings songs to convince Nuleeni to become sati. The practice of sati is glorified and is celebrated like a festival women sing :

"joys are immortal, 

Hopes never decay 

Onward from glory to they fly ``.women try to convince Nuleeni that after becoming Sati she will be happy forever. These women's minds were conditioned to speak in favour of patriarchy. How shameful is this? Instead of raising their voice against these cruel and inhumane custom they were singing songs to convey her to burn herself and to meet her husband whom she never loved in heaven. These women speaks as subaltern. They sing song of the festival of death but their pain is veiled by pathetic structure of language. They sing :

"Happy!  Thrice happy thus early to leave, 

Earth and its sorrows, 

For heaven and it's bliss, 

Who that hath known it at parting would grieve quitting a world so disastrous. ``this lines describes the tragic condition of widows in Indian culture. For them death is a better option as socity would torture them daily and their life would be in hell as society would not allow a widow to remarry. They promised her that she would become a queen if she becomes Sati .

 Conclusion :

         It was Raja Rammohan Roy who fought really hard to abolish this cruel and inhumane act of Sati. Though in 1987 there was a case of Sati in Rajasthan.In 1987 , in the village of Deorla in Rajasthan  , an 18 year old married woman named Roop Kanwar was forced to become sati after eight months of marriage ,she refused but a group of men from village forcefully drugged and immolated her. After this incident , the government created the PREVENTION OF SATI ACT, making it illegal to force or encourage a woman to commit sati and anyone so doing be punished by death .

Thank You...