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the scaffold ; that vast crowd returned peaceably to their houses . If Mr . Hastings' intrepid support of the claims of justice , in the face of such formidable obstacles , should continue to encourage others , and thereby prove a lasting benefit to the natives of India , more solid glory will inscribe his memory than if we had covered the plains of India with obelisks /'
A thousand difficulties necessarily occur in the government of a country acquired by such means , held on such a tenure , and ruled b y such methods as India ; difficulties through which no experience can guide , and in relation to which all maxims of wisdom are defective . From first to last , our government there has been carried on by a series of experiments , or by the occasional application of principles whose operation , certain in every other case , in the present , has issued in disappointment . One principal cause of
this miscalculation appears to us to be a misconception of Hindoo character ; and to this misconception we attribute the otherwise unaccountable reluctance of the government to interpose for the suppression of the Suttee , The earlier representations of the Hindoo character were essentially different from those with which we have been supplied by later residents among them , who have inquired more carefully into their institutions , and informed themselves concerning their results . We used to hear of the Hindoo © as
mild in their manners , simple in their habits , and highly superstitious ; and we , therefore , assumed that they were gentle and affectionate in their dispositions , and devoutly wedded to their religious institutions , because those institutions were religious . It appears that this is far from being true ; that their mildness is no more than the external form of apathy ; that their habits and manners are extremely impure ; that their religious subservience is given to their priests , not to their gods ; and that , if the Brahmuns were
once deprived of their despotic power over the minds of the multitude , the superstitions which now enslave them would be upheld by no reverence or affection . It is clear that the sway of a foreign and enlightened government should be modified by the national character of the people governed ; and that measures which would be unjust and dangerous in one country , may be most salutary in another . If the rite of the Suttee existed among a people wedded to its superstitions , and fierce in their defence , it would be
manifestly dangerous to excite insubordination by interference , and thus to risk more lives than the measure could save . But when , as in the present case , no resistance is to be apprehended , it is as cruel to countenance the waste of human life , to withhold aid from those who groan in spiritual slavery , as it is absurd to excuse our supineness on the plea of religious toleration . It is true that something like a difficulty has been interposed by ourselves , by our having already given a sanction to the rite of the Suttee in the manner
mentroned above ; but we are , therefore , the more powerfully called on to hasten the hour of emancipation ; to repair the evil we have caused , ( so far as reparation is possible , ) as well as to prevent its recurrence-The duty of all parties is evident ; and the first exertions must be made by the people at home . Let the proprietors no longer be in want of
accurate information respecting the miseries of the Hindoos , or the wishes of their more enlightened brethren . Let the documents which are supplied by the benevolent industry of such men as jhe author of the tracts before us , be studied by every man who tllinks idolatry an evil , self-sacrifice a sin , and sympathy with the whole human race , a privilege to be made use of . Let the information thus obtained be presented to the Legislature in every form . Let our periodicals seize every opportunity of adverting to the subject ; let
Untitled Article
fndia's Cries to British Humanity . 837
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 837, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/21/
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