Sati in 19Th Century India

I. (A) Personal Details Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator Prof. Sumita University of Allahabad Parmar Paper Coordinator Prof. Rekha Pande University of Hyderabad Author Dr. Archana Verma Independent Scholar Content Reviewer (CR) Prof. Rekha Pande University of Hyderabad Language Editor (LE) Prof. Sumita University of Allahabad Parmar (B) Description of Module Items Description of Module Subject Name Women’s Studies Paper Name Women and History Module Name/ Title, Sati in 19th Century India description Module ID Paper 3- Module- 22 Pre-requisites None Objectives To make the reader understand the dynamics of Sati in 19th century India, especially Bengal and its historical background Keywords Women’s social reform, Colonial India, Sati, Ram Mohun Roy, William Bentinck Sati in 19th Century India Background Sati refers to the practice of a widow immolating herself on the cremation pyre of her husband. The word comes from the legend of Shiva and his first wife Sati, who went to attend her father’s Daksha’s yajna against Shiva’s wishes. and Seeing that her father had not invited Shiva, Sati threw herself in the sacrificial fire in rage. Shiva appeared in his ferocious form Virabhadra, destroyed the sacrifice in ager and wandered around with the body of Sati, her limbs dropping at various parts of India as they decayed. These places became prominent centres of Goddess worship. Sati reincarnated herself as Parvati the daughter of the king of Himalayas Himavan and got married to Shiva again after a penance. This legend doesn’t really describe the practice of Sati i.e., a widow immolating herself on the cremation pyre of her husband, but it has given rise to the connotation of this term in this particular way. We have some stray references to Sati in the Mahabharata and in the 4th century BCE, Megasthenes refers to a stray incident in the Gandhara region that Alexander had conquered. Traditionally, the popular belief was that the widow immolated herself willingly and the fire appeared cool to her. After the immolation, a memorial stone and often a shrine was erected for her and she was worshipped as a Goddess. We have such sati stones from coastal Andhra and parts of Madhya Pradesh in Central India, mostly belonging to the Vijayanagar period in the 14th century CE. Apart from this, we have some references to Sati in Rajasthan. In the 19th century, we have references to sati in Bengal. In Independent India, we have an incident of Sati of Roop Kanwar in 1987 again from Rajasthan, which was vehemently denounced and led to legal action. There is no other reference to sati in the Independent India. (John Stratton Hawley, Oxford University Press, New York, 1994, pp. 149-174). Contrary to popular belief, it is unlikely that the widow immolated herself willingly. Most likely, all incidents of Sati were forced and the element of willingness were constructed to give the incident a legitimacy in the popular minds. The act of Sati has been regarded has inhuman and scholars have debated it from various viewpoints. In the 19th century, a strong movement against the practice was led by Raja Ram Mohun Roy leading to the enactment of law against it by Lord William Bentinck the Governor-General of India in 1929. In this module we will learn about the various discourses on sati in 19th century India. While studying this issue, it is important to keep in mind a few points. First, Sati was never a widespread practice and was not practised all over India. Its references in history have been sporadic. Hence, it is incorrect to think of the entire Indian society as practising sati on a regular basis, nor is it correct to think that the anti-sati movement led by Raja Ram Mohun Roy in Bengal was for the whole of India; for the simple reason that it was not practised in many parts of India. Even in 19th century Bengal, it was practised only in landed families and again, only sporadically. It was never a regular pan-Indian practice in any period of Indian history. Hence, any scholarly study of sati should not be taken as a marker for the whole of the Indian society. The Vedas make no reference to Sati and don’t advise it. The critique of sati also didn’t arise in colonial India for the first time as is often presumed. There was sufficient criticism of it available in pre-colonial times as well. The famous author Bana made a strong critique of sati in the 7th century. He calls it a foolish mistake of the ignorant that doesn’t send the widow to heaven, but on the contrary, sends her to hell because of committing the sin of suicide. Medhatithi, the 10th century scholar, says that sati is against the shastras and against the dharma. Virata prohibits the custom and citing him, Aparaka in the 12th century also criticises it and reiterates the sin of committing suicide incurred by the widow. Devanabhatta from South India says it’s an inferior practice and doesn’t recommend it at all. The tantras upheld the power of women. The Mahanirvana Tantra prescribed one day fast for men who disrespected a woman and prohibited even female animal’s immolation. The Shakta sect as a whole banned sati (John Stratton Hawley, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, p. 171). During Mughal times, we have the Emperor Akbar’s example, who tried to introduce social reforms in his Empire. Although he didn’t formulate any law against it, he ordered his officials throughout the Empire to stop the immolation of a woman if they saw that she was being forced. (John Stratton Hawley, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, p. 151). He also offered pension, gift and rehabilitation to the widow to stop the practice (Maja Daruwala, Central Sati Act, Online Website - http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Gender/sati.htm). This didn’t completely eradicate the practice of sati, but certainly contributed to its reduction . Sikh Guru Amar Das condemned the practice in the 15th – 16th centuries. The Marathas also banned it in their region. The Dutch, Portuguese and the French also banned Sati in their colonies in India. The above background of this issue shows that this was never a widely practised phenomenon, nor was colonial Bengal the first to attempt to critique it. Thus, Bengal’s history of sati should not be taken as the history of the whole of India. At the same time, this should not be taken as a reason to feel contented about India’s past, because the very fact that the critiques of this practice existed throughout history, suggests that it was sporadically practised in some regions of India. The context in which it was practised has been widely debated amongst scholars. Sati in 19th century Bengal In the 19th century, Bengal had the maximum number of sati immolations, in contrast to most other regions of India, where it was either absent or sporadic (Long George (Ed.), C. Knight, London, 1842, p. 359). Lord Bentinck was spurred on to Legislation by the unacceptable rise in Sati practices in his province Bengal. In the 10 years between 1815 and 1825, the figure had doubled to 639 deaths by burning. He was certainly egged on by the constant entreaties of the missionaries and encouraged to action by the change in attitudes amongst an influential section of Hindus led by Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Brahmo Samaj. Raja Ram Mohun Roy was engaged in social reforms related to women and made a vehement attack on sati in Bengal. He made representations to the British government to ban the practice. He began this opposition against sati in 1912 on seeing his own sister-in-law being forced to burn herself. He began visiting the Calcutta cremation ground and formed opposition watch groups to stop the immolation cases. He also wrote and distributed articles to argue that it was against the scriptures. Despite this, Bentinck approached the question with caution. He sent circulars to 58 of his administrators to discover whether the army would revolt, whether legislation was advisable and whether Hindu resistance could be contained. The consensus of opinion was that the army would pose no problem. Finally, within 18 months of having assumed the governorship of Bengal, Lord William Bentinck passed the Sati Regulation, XVII of 1829 on 4 December (C. H. Philip, Oxford University Press and School of Oriental and African Studies, Oxford, 1977, online resource – http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/103.html). The regulation was clear, concise and unequivocal in its condemnation of Sati, declaring it illegal and punishable by the criminal courts. It made zamindars, petty land owners, local agents and officers in charge of revenue collection especially accountable for immediate communication to the officers of their nearest police station of any intended sacrifice of the nature described. In case of wilful neglect the responsible officer was liable to a fine of Rs.200 or 6 months in jail for default. Immediately on receiving intelligence that a sacrifice was to take place, the police daroga accompanied by others was to go to the spot and declare the gathering illegal, prevail upon the crowd to disperse, explain that any persistence was likely to make them all liable to a crime and if necessary prevent the Sati from taking place or go and inform the nearest magistrate of the names and addresses of all those present. If the sacrifice was over, a full and immediate inquiry had to be undertaken in the same way as for any unnatural death.

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