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possible measure has been adopted with the best intentions ; and that it is better to take no more notice of the custom , than to use any interference short of entire prevention . There are now but two parties on the question , those who advocate an immediate abolition by law , and those who would leave the custom to die away under the influence of progressive civilization . There can be no doubt that the latter method will be efficacious in course
of time , as all barbarous institutions are destined to decay and ultimate oblivion ; but why such delay ? It is sufficiently evident that when the widow is released from the obligation to a life of austerity , she will be more willing to live ; that when , by an improved social constitution , her relatives are relieved from the charge of her maintenance , they will be less eager to get rid of her ; that when self-destruction is regarded as a disgrace , natural tenderness towards her offspring will at length prevail in the heart of the victim ,
and that when the craftiness of the priests and the jugglery of their religion are exposed , every inducement to the practice of the Suttee will be dona away . All this is evident enough ; but it is also clear that a long course of years must roll on before prejudices and superstition like this can be uprooted , and that an enormous waste of life must in the meanwhile take place , which it is the duty of Government to prevent , if it be practicable . While the average number of Suttees in the three Presidencies of Bengal , Madras , and Bombay , is 663 in a year , it is appalling to think to what the sum of
human suffering may amount , before the curse can be removed by the gradual spread of civilization . All this is very true , we are told ; but can the abolition by law take place ? It can . There can be no reasonable doubt of it . Listen to the united testimony of Bishops , Judges , Magistrates of every grade , residents of every rank , and of enlightened Brahmuns and other natives themselves . Look at what has already been effected with ease by the Government in cases somewhat similar , and ascertain whether any peculiar obstacles exist to the prohibition of this abomination . We have no room for
more than a reference to the strong body of testimony collected in the work before us ; but the belief is repeated in every various form of expression , that " little resistance would be opposed to the suppression of a practice so repugnant to the common feelings of humanity ; " that if the British , in
imitation of the Mo ^ ul Government , were to lay a positive inhibition upon it , it must totally die away ; " that the only opposition would proceed from the heirs of the widow and from the Brahmuns ; " that " any law abolishing the Suttee would be attended with no other effect than the immediate and due observance of its enactments ; " that the Government has the
povtfer of abolishing not only this , but also every other sanguinary practice of the Hindoos , without endangering either the popularity or the security of its supremacy . *'—We have something better than opinions to rely on ; we have facts ; a abundance . The Mogul Government has uniformly discountenanced the practice of burning widows alive , and in no part of Hindoslau is the rite less practised than under this sway . The Moslems checked the practice in many cases , and in some provinces abolished it altogether . The
Portuguese imposed a positive prohibition ; and ••¦ when Alfonso de Albuq uerque -look the kingdom of Goa , he would not permit that any woman thenceforward should burn herself ; and although to change their custom is equal to death , nevertheless they rejoiced in life , and said great good of him , because he commanded that they should not burn themselves . " The Dutch , the Danish , the French Governments , uniformly refused to sanction the custom . * ' The British Government is the only European power in India . that tolerates the practice of burning widows alive on the funeral pile . " Yet
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Imlla x s Cries to British Humanity . 3-35
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 835, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/19/
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