ram mohan roy abolished the custom of sati in india.
ram mohan roy abolished the custom of sati in india.
who abolished the custom of sati in india?
ram mohan roy
the 1846 abolition in jaipur was regarded by many british as a catalyst for the abolition cause within rajputana; within 4 months after jaipur's 1846 ban, 11 of the 18 independently governed states in rajputana had followed jaipur's example. one paper says that in the year 1846–1847 alone, 23 states in the whole of india (not just within rajputana) had banned "sati". it was not before 1861 sati was legally banned in all princely states of india, mewar resisting for a long time before that time. the last legal case within princely states was from 1861 udaipur the capital of mewar, but as anant s. altekar shows, local opinion had then shifted strongly against the practice. all the widows of maharanna sarup singh flatly refused to become "sati" when asked, and the one who was burnt with him was a slave girl. later the same year, the general ban on "sati" was issued by a proclamation from queen victoria.
sati (practice)
the opinion of lakhani, that non-hindus are responsible for sati, is not supported by historical facts. the practice of sati was prohibited many times between 15th and 18th centuries by muslims and christians. in 1500, mughal emperor akbar outlawed sati, and in 1663, aurangzeb tried to end it again. even the portuguese, french and british, who came to india during the european colonial period, tried to stop sati. in 1850, the british hardened their rules against the practice. sir charles napier ordered the death by hanging of any hindu priest who presided over a widow burning. the princely states of india during that time were also pressurised to rule out sati completely. the ancient hindu tradition called ‘sati’ (or ‘suttee’), wherein a widow would burn herself to death on her husband’s pyre, was initially a voluntary act that was considered to be quite courageous and heroic, but it later became a forced practice.according to ancient hindu customs, sati symbolised closure to a marriage. it was a voluntary act in which, as a sign of being a dutiful wife, a woman followed her husband to the afterlife. it was, therefore, considered to be the greatest form of devotion of a wife towards her dead husband. with time, it became a forced practice. women who did not wish to die like this were forced to do so in different ways. traditionally, a widow had no role to play in society and was considered a burden. so, if a woman had no surviving children who could support her, she was pressurised to accept sati. historical records tell us that sati first appeared between 320 to 550 ce, during the rule of gupta empire. incidents of sati were first recorded in nepal in 464 ce, and later on in madhya pradesh in 510 ce. the practice then spread to rajasthan, where most number of sati cases happened over the centuries. women who committed sati were said to have died chaste, which, people believed, meant she would have good karma and a much better life in her next birth. but this justification didn’t work for brahmin women as they already belonged to the highest caste, so karmically they couldn’t benefit from sati and thus did not have to practise it. https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/the-dark-history-behind-sati-a-banned-funeral-custom-in-india/
bride burning