The Legality of Sati in Colonial India.

The legality of Sati in Colonial India.



During the years of British colonial rule in India an aspect of Indian culture that could not be ignored where the “8,134” instances of Sati that had taken place within lower Bengal area. The British colonial officials acted as the governing force within India that brought “concern for the status of women in India”. Sati is the act of a recently widowed Hindu woman who voluntarily or through forced coercion immolates herself on her husband’s pyre. In the Lata Mani’s article and in Raja Rammohun Ray’s writings on anti-Sati it underscores the various interpretations between Hindu scriptures by the “pundits” who sought to clarify sati for the colonials.   In addition the assumption by British colonials on central textual authority of the Hindu scriptures and Rammohun`s writings on ascetic widowhood as a justified alternative to Sati will be the focus of my response.
When examining the vastness of Hindu scriptures there are many overlapping ideas and there is plenty of room for misinterpretation when reading the many teachings. In Mani`s article he highlights how the British colonials where taking steps to understand Sati by questioning `pundits` and having them reply in ``conformity with the scriptures`. This colonial authority to collect information about Sati by pundits was the British’s method of justifying abolition of Sati. Furthermore the response by the ``pundits` was an authoritative one in which this analysis helped the colonial officials determine what was an illegal Sati and was a legal Sati. This was all an aim by the British colonials to a shape an authentic Sati which only allowed devoted Hindu women to act voluntarily. This process of trying to reform Sati by the British which Mani writes about in her article reveals how pre-colonial India was vastly different from the British Christian colonials who sought to protect the victimized women. The colonial officials believed that these acts of...