How Raja Rammohun Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar helped abolish the sati system and 'permanent widowhood'.
Business
Standard : Indian society is witnessing the commission of
abusive, discriminatory and violent acts, both verbal and physical,
against women from different strata and walks of life. What is
abhorrent is that these acts of sexual predation have received wide
social approval and acceptance, reflected through the deep apathy
existing within institutions, irresponsible and insensitive remarks
of community leaders, and tacit support by those in powerful
positions. Although the recent opposition to these acts and the
society’s acceptance of them has been quite loud, these reactions
are partisan and piecemeal, often ignoring the crucial issues that
are central to the discussion of the ‘women’s question’ in
India.
At
this crucial juncture, it is pertinent to analyse, first, how social
reformers like Raja
Rammohun Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar understood and raised
the women’s question in 19th century India; second, what legal and
educative mechanisms they employed to tackle social evils like sati
and ‘permanent widowhood’; third, lessons learnt from their
initiatives that may be relevant today and applied to address
contemporary issues reflected through the #MeToo
movement.
Roy
and Vidyasagar understood the women’s question through their own
family experiences, acquired knowledge and inherent personal
convictions about differentiating the right from the wrong. They
studied the socio-religious, economic and political factors that gave
impetus to cruel practices like the sati and the harsh rules of
widowhood. For instance, Roy is said to have been shattered when he
witnessed his sister-in-law burn herself alive on the funeral pyre of
her husband. This experience made him realise the adverse impacts of
such practices on the society, particularly women, in the long run.
First,
women were stereotyped as servile and submissive beings wholly
incapable of having an individual identity, independent existence and
autonomy.
Second, males in the Indian society had understood that
religion was a very important tool that had enabled them to keep
their women’s social and economic position intact, thereby limiting
chances of a potential challenge to male superiority. Third, the male
patriarchs had realised that making education inaccessible and
unavailable to the Indian women was the best way to prevent an
awakening among the women folk, thereby continuing with male
dominance in the society. As such, the dominating Indian male would
never let the balance of power tilt in favour of the women folk. To
that extent, they vociferously resisted the blooming of the seeds of
social transformation in the Indian society.
Roy
and Vidyasagar adopted a technique of gradualism, taking one step at
a time. They designed and raised the women’s question with extreme
care and caution. The reformers did not seek to offend and oust the
Indian patriarchy in the process of uprooting practices like sati and
widowhood. Rather, they sought to make them active participants in
the social movements for the upliftment of Indian women... Read
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