How was Sati practiced in India?

Sati or suttee a practice found chiefly among Hindus in the northern and pre-modern regions of South Asia, in which a widow sacrifices herself by sitting atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre.

The extent to which sati was practised in history is not known with clarity. However, during the early modern Mughal period, it was notably associated with elite Hindu Rajput clans in western India, marking one of the points of divergence between the Rajput Islamic cultures, which allowed widow remarriage. The British East India Company, initially tolerated the practice; William Carey, a Christian evangelist, noted 438 incidences within a 30-mile (48-km) radius of the capital Calcutta, in 1803, despite its ban within Calcutta. Between 1815 and 1818, the number of incidents of sati in Bengal doubled from 378 to 839. Opposition to the practice of sati by Christian evangelists, such as Carey, and Hindu reformers such as Ram Mohan Roy, led then Governor-General of India Lord William Bentinck to enact the Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829, he followed it up with other legislation, thought to be interrelated issues involving violence against Hindu women, including Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856, Female Infanticide Prevention Act, 1870, and Age of Consent Act, 1891.

Isolated incidents of sati were recorded in India in the late 20th century, leading the Indian government to promulgate the Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, criminalising the aiding or glorifying of sati.

More Info: en.m.wikipedia.org

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32 Comments

Richard D. Boyle

LunaAtlas, A bit absurd and sickening regardless of kids. Another cultural custom that does not deserve to be respected or tolerated...think honor killing or female genital mutilation.

Jas Newman

Brtish General Charles James Napier, told a village near his camp was going to perform a sati, ordered the village elders to stand down. The elders protested that sati was an old tradition and the British should not interfere with local traditions. Napier replied that he understood their reasoning and would honor it; however, he explained an old British tradition of hanging anyone culpable of burning a widow. He could not prevent the villagers from following their old traditions, and the villagers could not prevent him from following his old tradition. The widow was spared from sati.

Larry Jones

Would anyone other than me care to call this practice barbaric? Or are human lives not as precious as animal lives?

Jas Newman

jonbroberts, When I lived in India, the sati of Roop Kanwar was. definitely not voluntary. Witnesses said she tried to escape the conflagration, but members of the funeral party forced her back into the flames.

Jas Newman

George Oliver Prince, Right. And the recent remake completely changed the narrative, apparently for PC reasons.

Char

I'd heard of this before but her picture brought it back to my present day though..I was thinking it was enforced so in not sure on it being this religion. In Egypt the tomb builders were buried alive with their master so not a new concept..

Char

Richard D. Boyle, we all are fighting hard on the latter you mention. Its hard to believe they allow such a thing in the USA Doctor done too..what the?

Char

Wendy Petersen, exactly

Char

Teresa Green, The same to you and a Happy New Year xxx

David Coe

Gee, you think the picture might be a teeny-weeny clue ?

Howard Groopman

It was the only logical answer, as all the others were too kind to women, which I didn't expect to be historically correct. Too many cultures discriminate against women.

William Laughlin

Richard D. Boyle, Exactly. It's a despicable practice that places little value on women beyond being the property of men. I doubt any husbands were ever burned when their wives died first.