Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries and the Changing Colonial Discourse

Contents: Preface. Section A:  1. The backdrop. 2. Sati as described in foreign accounts. 3. Early British appreciation of Indian civilization.  4. State of English society at home and in India.  5. The evangelical movement. 6. The evangelical-utilitarian alliance. 7. Baptists in Bengal. 8. Evangelical-missionary attack on Hinduism.  9. Missionaries gain official entry:  the charter act of 1813. 10. Missionaries and sati. 11. Abolition of sati. 12. Sati - an infrequent occurrence. Section B: Some Foreign Accounts of Sati: 1. 326 BC to AD 1499. 2. AD 1500–1699. 3. AD 1700–1799. 4. AD 1800–1845. 5. Some missionary accounts. 6. Sati - a rare phenomenon. Appendices. Index. 

Lord Bentinck’s Regulation XVII of 1829, which declared sati a criminal offence, marked the culmination of a sustained campaign against Hinduism by British Evangelicals and missionaries anxious to Anglicize and Christianize India. The attack on Hinduism was initiated by the Evangelist, Charles Grant, an employee of the East India Company and subsequently member of the Court of Directors. In 1792, he presented his famous treatise, Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain. A harsh evaluation of Hindu society, it challenged the then current Orientalist policy of respecting Indian laws, religion and customs set in motion by the Governor General, Warren Hastings. Grant argued that the introduction of the language and religion of the conquerors would be “an obvious means of assimilating the conquered people to them”. He was joined in his endeavours by other Evangelicals, and Baptist missionaries, who began arriving surreptitiously in Bengal from 1793. 

This is not a work on sati per se. It does not address, in any depth, issues of the possible origins of the rite; its voluntary or mandatory nature; the role, if any, of priests or family members; or any other aspect associated with the actual practice of widow immolation. Its primary focus is the colonial debate on sati, particularly the role of Evangelicals and Baptist missionaries. It argues that sati was an “exceptional act,” performed by a miniscule number of Hindu widows over the centuries. Its occurrence was, however, exaggerated in the nineteenth century by Evangelicals and Baptist missionaries eager to Anglicize and Christianize India.