Wittenberg University Journals

Tan, Isabella

鳥 (Tori)

Ameen, John

English

Working-Class Alcohol Habits in England during the Decade of Decadence: Refuting Past Investigations and Writings

Guerrieri, Josh

Context Under Pressure: The Henry Wirz Trial

Perkins, Pari

Hatsepshut, the Female Pharaoh: How a Female Acquired and Maintained the Rule of a Male-Governed Country

Aigner, Seth

An Analysis of the Mithraism/Christianity Relationship in Rome And Its Traditional Interpretation

Schelle, Jason

Lincoln, McClellan, and the Peninsula Campaign

Labrique, Françoise

38 • The Wittenberg History Journal 
"A Pioneer of Hindoo Enlightenment": 
Ram Mohan Roy's Influence on the 
Abolition of Sati, 1829. 
by Franroise Labrique 
Wittenberg Class of 1999 
Hartje Award 
Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) was regarded 
by both his fellow Indians and by the British 
officials as one of "the most remarkable 
Indians ... who might well be called the father of 
modem India. "1 Roy's persistent questioning of 
idolatry and religious superstition enabled him 
to challenge the religious validity of the Hindu 
rite of sati.2 Roy's argument that sati was not a 
religious duty for Hindu widows provided the 
British, who were concerned with maintaining 
religious toleration within the Empire, with a 
justification for abolishing this rite. 
When Roy's older brother, Jagmohan, died 
in 1811, his widow committed sati. Her death 
left Roy with the determination to end sati.3 
Upon his arrival in Calcutta several years later, 
Ram Mohan Roy became active in social and 
educational reforms. He was a staunch 
supporter of British education and wrote several 
essays against polygamy and the treatment of 
women within Hinduism. His 1818 essay, A 
Conference Between An Advocate For and An 
Opponent of Burning Widows Alive, was a dialogue 
that illustrated Roy's views and the irrational 
arguments of the supporters of sati. 
Fourteen months later, Roy published a more 
detailed A Second Conference. Taking the 
position of the "Opponent" to sati in this 
dialogue with an" Advocate" who argues that 
women lack the capability of true faith and "are 
burned in order to prevent them from going 
astray ... ", Roy argued that "if we enumerate ... 
women ... as hav[ing] been deceived by men, and 
such men as deceived by women, I presume that 
the number of the deceived women would be 
found ten times greater than that of the betrayed 
men. "4 In this second essay, Roy delved deeper 
into arguments over scriptural detail and 
women's place in Hindu society. 
Although Roy abhorred the act of sati, his 
views on how to rid India of this rite differed 
greatly from those of the British. When Lord 
William Bentinck, the Governor-General of 
India, came to Calcutta in 1828 with the 
determination to abolish sati, he mistakenly 
looked to Ram Mohan Roy, an "enlightened 
native," for support.5 Bentinck, unlike his 
predecessors who were concerned they would 
provoke religious upheaval through government 
intervention _against sati, wanted to bring 
abolition through legislation. Roy, on the other 
hand, supported a more disc.reet approach. He 
suggested to Bentinck that the "practice might 
be suppressed quietly and unobservedly by 
increasing the difficulty and by the indirect 
agency of the police. "6 Roy's concerns about 
British legislation is expressed in Bentinck's 8 
November 1829 Minute: 
He apprehended that any public enactment 
would give rise to general apprehension; that 
the reasoning would be: 'While the English 
were contending for power they deemed it 
politic to allow universal toleration and to 
respect our religion, but having obtained the 
supremacy their first act is a violation of 
their profession, and the next will probably 
be, like the Muhammadan conquerors, to 
force upon us their own religion.'7 
Ram Mohan Roy was concerned that once the 
British interfered with sati by passing legislation, 
there would be no stopping them from 
interfering with all other aspects of Indian 
religious and social life. He opposed British 
missionary work in India and angered many 
Christians with his writings onJesus.8 
Roy was caught in a complicated web of 
conflicting opinions regarding sati. Like the 
majority of the British officials in India, Roy 
"A Pioneer of Hindoo Enlightenment": Ram Mohan Roy's Influence on the Abolition of Sati, 1829. • 39 
abhorred the practice and wished to see it 
abolished. However, he was suspicious that 
British government officials and missionaries 
would eventually lose all respect for religious 
toleration and convert India to Christianity. 
Roy's campaign against sati "aroused the wrath 
of his countrymen."9 He not only accused 
Hinduism of superstition and exposing its 
women "to every misery, "10 but he was also 
viewed J:,y many Indians as a British puppet. 
Christians and Hindus publicly denounced Ram 
Mohan Roy as a heretic and atheist.11 One 
Indian writer even described him as a "fellow 
who has lost his own religion and can't find 
another. "12 He died in 1833 in England, 
"deserted by everyone except two or three 
Scotch friends. "13 Roy who was a lover of India 
and a proponent of women's rights in 
Hinduism14 was not credited with influencing 
the British decision to abolish sati by historians 
and scholars until the tum of the century, 
although some scholars such as Harry Field 
wrote that it was "not Hindu humanity but 
British legislation which ended suttee. "15 
Edward Thompson, in his book Suttee barely 
mentions Roy's contribution to the abolition, 
claiming "the credit is almost entirely 
personality, and it is Bentinck's. "16 Ram Mohan 
Roy disrupted British India through his 
questioning of the practice of sati and was the 
catalyst that led to its abolition. 
End Notes 
1 Rustom Pestonji Masani, Britain in India: An Account.of 
British Rule in the Indian Subcontinent (London: Oxford University 
Press, 1960), 52. 
2 Sati (Suttee), the act of self-immolation whereby a 
Hindu widow voluntarily bums herself on her husband's funeral 
pyre. For further works exploring sati and British civilizing works: 
Aruind Sharma, Ajit Ray, Alak Heib and Katherine K. Young, ed., 
Sati: Historicatand Phenom"enological Essays (Delhi: Motilal 
Banarsidass, 1988); V.N. Datta, Sati: A Historical, Social and 
Philosophical Enquiry into the Hindu Rite of Widow Burning 
(New Delhi:· Mandrar Publications, 1988). 
3 The validity of this story has been questioned by some 
scholars such as V.N. Datta, Sati: A Histon·ca/, Soda/ and Philosophiv 
cal Enquiry into the Hindu Rite of Widow Burning (New Delhi: 
Mandrar Publications, 1988), 120. This has also been supported 
by Cromwell S. Crawford, Ram Mohan Roy: Social Political and 
Religious. Reform in 19th Century India (New York: Paragon House 
Publishers, 1987), 105. who claims: "the fiery death of his sisterv 
invlaw ... forged in him a determination to save all the sisters of his 
land from this unworthy rite. n 
4 Sophia Dobson Collet, ed., The Life and Letters of Raja 
Rammohun Roy (London: Harold Collet, 1900), 34. 
5 Lord William Bentinck, "Minute.n in Lord William 
Bentbtck, ed. Demetr~s Boulger (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892), 101. 
6 "tvtinute/ 101. 
7 "tvtinute," 100. 
8 Collet, The Life and Letters, 37. In 1820, Roy wrote 
Precepts of Jesus and Appeal to the Christian Public and the next 
year, Second Appeal to the Christian Public, which questioned 
the morals of some Old Testament stories and the divinity of 
Christ. 
9 V.N. Datta, Sati (New Delhi: Mandrar Publications, 
1988), 127. 
10 Collet, The Life and Letters, 35. 
11 Jogendra Ghosh, The English Works of Raja Rammohun 
Roy (Calcutta, Oriental Press, 1885-1887), 285. 
12 Ghosh, The English Works, 287. 
13 Brojendranath Banerjee, Raja Rammohun Roy: Mission to 
England (Calcutta, 1976), XII. 
14 Roy focused his arguments against sati by defending the 
innocent women affected by the practice. The British, on the 
other hand, viewed sati as an act that violated all human decency. 
15 Harry Field, After Mother India (New York: Harcourt, 
Brace and Company, 1929), 106. 
16 Edward Thompson, Suttee (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 
Ltd., 1928), 77-78. 
40 • The Wittenberg History Journal 
Works Consulted 
Bentinck, Lord William. utvlinute.n In Lord William Bentinck, ed. 
Demetrius Boulger, 96• 111. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 
1892. 
Bose, Shih Chunder. The Hindoos As They Are: A Description of 
the Manners, Customs and Inner Life of Hindoo Society in 
Bengal. Calcutta: W. Newman & Co., 1881. 
Collet, Sophia Dobson, ed. The Life and Letters of Raja 
Rammohun Roy. London: Harold Collet, 1900. 
Crawford, S. Cromwell. Ram Mohan Roy: Social, Political and 
Religious Reform in 19th Century India. New York: 
Paragon House Publishers, 1987. 
Datta, V.N. Sati: A Historical, Soda/ and Philosophical Enquiry 
ittto the Hindu Rite o(Widow Burning. New Delhi: 
Mandrar Publications, 1988. 
Field, Harry. After Mother India. New York: Harcourt, Brace and 
Company; 1929. 
Kumar, Radha. The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of 
Movements for Women's Ri'ghts and Feminism in India 
1800·1990. London: Verso, 1993. 
Masani, Rustom Pestonji. Britain in India: An Account of British 
Rule in the Indian Subcontinent. London: Oxford 
University Press, 1960. 
Richter, Julius. lndisch Missio11sgeschichte (A History of Missions 
in India). Translated by Sydney H. Moore. Edinburgh 
and London: Oliphant Anderson. & Ferrier, 1908. 
Sharma, Aruind, Ajit Ray, Alak Hejib, and Katherine K. Young, 
eds. Sati: Historical and Phe11omenologica! Essays. Delhi: 
Motilal Banarsidass, 1988. 
Thompson, Edward. Suttee. London: G. Allen & Unwin, ltd., 
1928. 


A Pioneer of Hindoo Enlightenment: Ram Mohan Roy\u27s Influence on the Abolition of Sati, 1829

Wittenberg University East Asian Studies Journal

In Dedication

Scott, Melinda

The Politics of Misinformation: John F. Kennedy and Failure at the Bay of Pigs

Lytle, Beth

Reclaiming Tradition: American Indian Female Involvement in the Red Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s

Not a member yet