Since the recent RTI "incident" with regards to lack of sources in the assertions of NCERT books, I decided to do some research.
Some initial findings:

In the VIII class text-book, chapter 8 titled "Women, Caste and Reform" the chapter starts with a section on Sati. 🙄
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I have said this before: Sati was not widely practiced in India. Don't take my word for it, read up Meenakshi Jain's seminal work on this topic: "Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse."
Or do this, ask people around you about their
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experiences with caste & you will observe that you will get multiple examples (while assertions of caste-based discrimination may be debated, almost everyone will acknowledge caste-consciousness). However, ask folks if they have heard stories of Sati within their own
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family history or in the histories of friends, acquaintances, & you will draw a blank.
NOTE1: Sati did exist, & women were (are) discriminated against. But wasn't the main challenge women faced. Or even the 10th on the list!
NOTE2: Hindu scriptures don't really celebrate
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Sati; in the Mahabharat, there's a reference to Sati - Madri immolates herself after Pandu's death in the forest - but neither is Madri an important character in the narrative neither is her sacrifice referred to in popular discourse on the two epics.
The point is, this
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