[Reader-list] What Was Written in "Satyadarshini" Pamphlet

[Tapas Ray]

radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote:
> ... let me point out the system of Sati, was at the time of invaders
> of mogul army was social necessity for women, who were finding the
> rape and subjugation more horrendous than hot burning oil to jump
> into. When the invaders were vanquished, the sati practise was also
> abandoned, by the hindu society from within, the reforms came from
> within, with reformers like raja ram Mohan Roy.



Here are two notes on Radhikarajen's statement. Apologies in advance if 
I take a few days to respond to any response that may be posted.

For those who are not familiar with the name Rammohan Roy, especially
list members who are not Indians, he was an 18th century social and 
religious reformer known as the father of the Indian/Bengali 
Renaissance. Bengali, because he was born in the Bengal "province" of 
British India (of which the territory of Bangladesh was a part) and 
carried out most of his reformist activities there, sparking the 
renaissance.

My first point is about sati (or suttee). This was the practice of
burning (mostly young) widows on the funeral pyres of their (mostly
senile) husbands in families of high Brahmin sub-castes. The validity of
the statement that sati was over when Mughal invasion ended, seems
questionable. It was continuing in Bengal in 1812, when Rammohan 
launched his campaign, though the Mughal invasion of India (the last 
Muslim invasion) had taken place in the early 16th century and their 
conquest of Bengal was complete by the early 17th century under Shaikh 
Alauddin Chisti.

My second point is about Radhikarajen's remark that Rammohan's reforms 
came from within Hinduism. I think this can be said only in the sense in 
which Christianity started life as a reform movement in Judaism. 
Rammohan was born in an orthodox Hindu family but built a 
socio-religious reform movement against casteism, sati, superstition, 
idol worship, etc., and established a new religious community called the 
Brahmo Samaj, which rejected the fundamental tenets of Hinduism. It 
seems the situation remains the same to some extent - India still has 
casteism (often leading to killings), religious superstition, the 
occasional sati, etc. These are things his movement was trying to eradicate.

Tapas