Lucknow, Dec. 13 :    Lucknow, Dec. 13:  Death was not the end of Shantidevi Sareen's crusade for women's rights. It was another pioneering chapter in her struggle. Yesterday, the small town of Farrukhabad saw a strange funeral - women bearing the pall, women performing the last rites, women doing the puja and the havan. In deference to her last wishes, men were kept out of her funeral. Daughter-in-law Rajni Sareen, who was given the responsibility of fulfilling her last wishes, saw it as a fitting finale to the social activist's life. 'She fought for equality of women in everyday life. She was especially concerned that women have been, through the ages, kept out of funerals, left at best to cry at home. She wanted to change all that.' Shantidevi was convinced that the only way was to set an example herself. In a signed letter addressed to her bahu, Shantidevi said her funeral pyre should be lit not by her son, but by her daughter-in-law. She also wished that she be taken on her last journey by her 'sisters'. In the letter to Rajni, she had expressed the desire to 'break a tradition that is not only unfair but cruel and baseless'. 'Start a new tradition, break the fetters imposed on women by centuries of irrational laws. Involve women in my funeral, let them do the last rites,' she wrote. Shantidevi was a true reformer. While wishing that her ashes be immersed in the Ganga, she made a point that has raised the hackles of traditional Brahmins in this mofussil town. 'Special care should be taken not to sprinkle my ashes over the holy river. Through centuries, the ashes of dead people have been thrown in the river. Has anyone thought how much the river has been polluted by this? All this must stop,' she wrote. True to her wishes, the women collected her ashes in an urn and buried it on the banks of the river. Her husband, B.N. Sareen, sees sense in it all. 'We respect her wishes. After all, what she says makes sense. Why should women be kept away from religious ceremonies or functions of any kind? We will deal with the pundits later.' He added that in accordance to his wife's wishes, her death was not mourned but celebrated. 'She was happy that she was giving birth to a new parampara,' the proud husband said. The people of the small town didn't seem to mind the break from tradition either. Vishnu Prajapati, a local journalist, said: 'People from all over the town and even its outskirts came in droves to pay their last tributes. They appreciate and honour the bold decision of an extremely courageous woman.'