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honourable court an extract from our proceedings, containing the reports of suttees, for the years 1822 and 1823, received from the court of nizamut adawlut, together with various other documents connected with the same subject; and a copy of the resolutions which we have this day passed, on an anxious consideration of the important questions which they involve.

We take the present opportunity of acknowledging your honourable court's letter upon this subject, under date the 17th June, 1823, and of expressing the gratification which we have derived from the confidence reposed in us by your honourable court, in leaving to our discretion the adoption or suspension of measures directed to the abolition of the barbarous practice of

suttee.

We entirely participate with your honourable court in the feelings of detestation with which you view the rite, and in your earnest desire to have it suppressed; and we beg to assure you, that nothing but the apprehension of evils infinitely greater than those arising from the existence of the practice could induce us to tolerate it for a single day.

Although, as is remarked by your honourable court, the practice varies very much in different parts of the country, both as to the extent to which it prevails, and the enthusiasm by which it is upheld, yet it cannot be doubted but that it is sufficiently general to have a strong hold on the feelings of the native population throughout the greater part of our possessions.

In fact, the whole difficulty of the question consists in determining the amount of the influence of this fanatical spirit; and it is only upon a sober and careful consideration of native modes of thinking upon the subject that any safe attempt at legislation can be founded.

Were we to be guided by the sentiments which we happen to know exist generally among the higher classes of natives, at the place most favourable for ascertaining their real sentiments, we mean at the Presidency, we should indeed almost despair of ever seeing the suppression of the practice. The well-meant and zealous attempts of Europeans to dissuade from and to discourage the performance of the rite, would appear to have been almost uniformly unsuccessful; and prove but too strongly that even the best-informed classes of the Hindoo population are not yet sufficiently enlightened to recognise the propriety of abolishing the rite.

Your honourable court will be gratified by perceiving, from the returns now submitted, that in the interior of the country the practice has been slowly but gradually decreasing.

These statements do not promise the early cessation of the practice, under the operation of existing causes; but we shall anxiously look to the future returns, to ascertain if they exhibit a continued diminution.

We do not affect to conceal that such a result would be peculiarly acceptable to us. The whole course of our proceedings has been, in conformity with the principle enjoined by your honourable court, to interfere as little as pussible; and in a subject so beset with difficulty, and in which the risk of advancing appears to us so considerable, it would be gratifying to find that the safest and most moderate course was also likely to prove an effectual one.

For the reasons assigned in our resolutions of this date, we are decidedly of opinion that the adoption of any new measures of importance is particularly inexpedient at the present moment; and we hope that the additional information obtained may eventually enable us to proceed with more confidence.

The difficulty of arriving at any sound practical conclusions, in legislating on subjects con- Your honourable court have been already nected with religious prejudice, is sufficiently apprised of the plans for the encouragement of obvious in any country; and the peculiar dis-native education, recently adopted, under the advantages under which your servants here orders of government. These measures depend, must conduct their inquiries on such subjects in no small degree, for success on the scrupulous have been so frequently and so clearly stated, exclusion of all reference to religious subjects; that it seems unnecessary to repeat them in this and it would appear injudicious to render our place. first interference with a religious rite simultaneous with the introduction of a system of general education.

We have reason, however, to believe, that in the eyes of the natives the great redeeming point in our government, the circumstance which reconciles them above all others to the manifold inconveniences of foreign rule, is the scrupulous regard we have paid to their customs and prejudices. It would be with extreme reluctance that we adopted any measures tending to unsettle the confidence thus reposed in us. In native opinion, the voluntary nature of the act of suttee diminishes the right of the government to interfere; and it must be remembered that the safety and the expediency of suppressing the practice must be judged by reference chiefly to native, and not to European habits of thinking.

We entirely concur with your honourable court in considering, that success, arising from increased intelligence among the people, (which can only be brought about, we conceive, by improved education,) would be the most acceptable form in which the cessation of the practice could be exhibited.

In the mean time, your honourable court w remark, that we have been preparing, should we deem it expedient at a favourable montent to adopt, in particular places, those measures of partial prevention which you have recommetide-d to our consideration.

Something, we hope, has been effected.

:

In 1819

650

have safely and quietly ascertained the extent | hibit a considerable diminution compared with of the practice, and have guarded against vio- the preceding year, 1818, when the ascertained. lence being offered to the victims of it; and, number, as reported by the police officers, was considering that the practice is the growth of 839, viz.:. many hundred of years, and that it was disregarded by ourselves for the first half century during which we held the government of the country, we think the progress made in nine years, in a matter of such extreme delicacy, is not altogether unsatisfactory.

1820

1321

.597
.654

In the resolutions of government, under date the 17th July, 1821, it is observed, “that the " governor-general in council has no sufficient "means of estimating the causes which may

We do not wish to pledge ourselves for the future, even by sketching any specific plan for the approbation of your honourable court. We have operated in producing the more favourhope we have satisfied your honourable court "able results in the years 1819 and 1820, comthat we anxiously desire to see the abolition of "pared with those of the two preceding years. the practice; that reasonable doubts may be "For some time after the first promulgation entertained of the safety of suppressing it; " of the rules requiring returns of the number that the present moment is particularly unsuit-" of suttees, the information obtained would able to such an attempt; that something has" naturally be defective; and it may safely be been effected by us; that the subject continues" inferred that fewer cases have been omitted in to receive its full share of our attention; and the returns of the last two years than in those that we shall keep our minds open to avail" which preceded them. The greater prevaourselves of favourable circumstances or useful" lence of the cholera morbus, by augmenting information. Further than this we are not at "the general mortality in the country in any present prepared to go; and we have the gratifica-" given period beyond the ordinary extent, will tion to believe that these sentiments are conformable to those expressed in the despatch of your honourable court to which we are replying. Fort William, We have, &c.

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“have naturally increased the number of sut"tees in a corresponding proportion; and it appears, from information recently obtained, "that the cholera was more generally fatal in "these provinces during the year 1818 than in EDW. PAGET. "the year preceding it, or in the two last years. JOHN FENDALL." His lordship in council, however, is disposed "to ascribe the recent diminution of the num

3d December, 1824. (Signed) AMHERST.

going Letter.

Mr. Harington's Minute, enclosed in the fore-"ber of suttees, in some degree, to the opera"tion of the rules now in force in regard to the performance of the rite."

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The beneficial influence of the existing rules is further adverted to in the following extract from the resolutions of government, dated 15th August, 1822, and passed upon the suttee reports of 1821.

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The Hindoo rite of suttee, or female sacrifice, and the actual number of females annually sacrificed in observance of this rite within the limits of British India, have recently excited much interest in England; and in consequence of an order passed by the house of commons on the 10th July, 1821, the whole of the correspond"It is of course a primary obligation to preence of this government, and of the governvent compulsion, and to assure to the unforments of Fort St. George and Bombay, with "tunate victims a power of receding to the last the honourable court of directors on the sub-minute, as well as a secure retreat in comfort, ject, including the official statements of suttees "if not with credit, in case of a retraction of ascertained to have taken place under this Pre-" the vow, or of the widow breaking from the sidency in the years 1815, 1816, 1817, and 1818, "pile, from inability to endure the flames. If and the proceedings of the governor-general in "the limited interference at present exercised council to the close of the year 1819, have been" by the officers of government is instrumental printed. "in securing these objects, when the safety of A short time before I left England, on my "the widow would else be doubtful in the return to this country, the president of the" slightest degree, the result is matter of graboard of control did me the honour to ask my "tulation. In this view, his lordship in counopinion upon the general question of allowing a "cil cannot contemplate without satisfaction continued toleration of this practice under the" that the number of victims saved from the British government, and I annex (No. 1) a "flames, after ascending the pile, was, in 1821, copy of the remarks which were submitted by" five; while those induced by persuasion to me to the right honourable C. W. W. Wynn "retract their vow amounted to four, making in consequence, dated the 30th May, 1822. "altogether nine instances of preservation from Since my arrival in India I have examined" self-immolation, whereof one only was not the reports of suttees received through the court "effected by the instrumentality or assistance of nizamut adawlut, for the years 1819, 1820," of the police."

and 1821, and am happy to find that they ex- But on a review of the number of suttees

ascertained to have occurred in each district, as "wishes of those inclined to discourage it. stated in the reports of the police officers from" Nevertheless, his lordship in council does 1817 to 1821, the governor-general in council" not despair of the best effects resulting from (in the resolutions last mentioned, under date" the free discussion of the matter by the the 15th August, 1822) recorded his opinion," people themselves, independently of Eurothat the comparative result " did not afford any pean influence and interposition; and the “satisfactory ground for assuming the practice" resolution having been already adopted by "of concremation to be generally on the de-" government of not, for the present, inter"cline;" though, in particular districts, and" fering authoritatively for the suppression or especially in the Moorshedabad division, there" better regulation of the custom, it seems to appeared to have been an annual consecutive" his lordship in council that it only remains "for him to watch carefully the indications of

decrease.

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The following remarks were added in the "a change of sentiment amongst the people, 9th, 10th, and 11th paragraphs of the resolu-" that may at times be afforded, and to entions adverted to. courage to the utmost every favourable dis"Next to Goruckpore, the adjacent district" position." "of Ghazeepore seems to be that in which the

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sure proposed by the second judge of the "nizamut adawlut; and he is of opinion, that "the authoritative interposition of government,

The resolution to which a reference is made "practice of self-immolation is most prevalent. in the last paragraph above cited, was passed "Indeed, these two districts, with the neigh-on the 17th July, 1821, in the following terms: "bouring ones of Shahabad and Sarun, form a "The governor-general in council cannot con"tract of country in which the population" cur in the policy or expediency of the mea 66 seems nearly as much addicted to the custom "as in the zillahs immediately adjoining to the "Presidency. Elsewhere the rite is of so rare occurrence as to suggest the inference, that" with a view to abolish the rite of suttee, "when it occurs it is adopted by the widow" either in the manner recommended by Mr. "under some paroxysm of grief and despair," Smith, or by the adoption of the partial mea"that would probably lead to self-murder under "sures respectively suggested by Mr. Leycester 66 any circumstances; while the relations are "and Mr. Dorin, would not only fail of suc"interested rather in dissuading than in "cess, but would tend to excite a spirit of "urging the victim to immolation. Where," fanaticism, and eventually to produce very "however, the difference in the number of "instances is so marked, as in these districts, "and throughout the Calcutta division, there "is too much reason to conclude that a sort of "pride attaches to the performance of the ceremony; and that the women are taught "from infancy to believe that by consenting to "the immolation they perform an act, if not of "imperative duty, at least one that will "redound to their own credit, and raise the "reputation of their families; on the other "hand, that a refusal involves the reproach "of cowardice, or of the want of true devotion "to their husbands.

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"It is impossible to look upon the returns "for the Calcutta division without being "satisfied that a fanatic spirit of this kind "must have had influence in producing the "numerous cases reported for every district of "it, excepting Midnapore. In this view, it is "matter of infinite concern to his lordship in "council to observe that there is yet no sym"ptom of a diminution at any of the principal "places; but that, on the contrary, the total "number of the division still maintains its "proportion of nine-sixteenths, or something "more than half of the grand total for the "whole territory subject to this Presidency.

"The divided sentiment that exists among "the Hindoos themselves on the subject of "suttees, is, doubtless, calculated for a time to "stimulate the activity of the partisans of the "rite, and thus to counteract the benevolent

injurious consequences."

After this declaration, it might be considered presumptuous on my part to offer an opinion of a different tendency; and I do not mean, at present, to bring forward any proposition for abolishing the suttee practice; but I am desirous of putting upon record some consider. ations which appear to merit attention in any future deliberation upon this important question, and which, I acknowledge, have produced in my own mind a strong belief, if not a full conviction, that whenever it may be judged expedient to suppress this barbarous practice by legal prohibition, instead of restricting it to what is sanctioned by the shaster, at at present, it will not be found impracticable, or, as far as I can judge, be attended with any serious political danger.

With respect to the practicability of putting a stop to the immolation of Hindoo widows by legal prohibition and penal enactment, if, as appears from the expositions of the shaster, given by the pundits of the sudder dewanny adawlut, the assistance of brahmins and others be requisite to enable the widow to devote herself in the prescribed or customary mode, whe ther of sahamarana or anoomarana, it would surely be possible to prevent such aid being given by a public interdiction, with a decis ration that any person hereafter causing, aiding, or in any manner promoting a female sacrifice, such as that commonly denominated a suttee, shall be liable to a criminal prosecution, as principals or accomplices, for homicide; and

that, on conviction, it will not be held any justification of the homicide, that the person so convicted was desired by the deceased to cause, aid, or in any manner to promote her death, or that the deceased became a suttee by a voluntary act of self-devotion.

which, though not commanded as a religious duty, or generally regarded as such, is encou raged by some authors held in estimation by certain classes of our Hindoo subjects, especially in Bengal, as a meritorious act, to be rewarded by a long period of happiness in a future state, not only to the devoted individual, but to the deceased husband, and to his and her own relatives.

This, in fact, is already declared in substance, by a regulation now in force, (section 3, regulation viii., 1799, re-enacted for the ceded pro- Were this practice universal, or prevalent to vinces by section 16, regulation viii., 1803,) a great extent amongst all classes of Hindoos, in although the intention of this regulation has not every part of our territories, there might be been considered applicable to suttees; and if some ground for apprehending that a sudden inany new enactments were deemed objectionable, terdiction of it would produce an alarming deit would, I conceive, be sufficient to issue pro-gree of discontent, and possibly of combined clamation through the country, declaring the resistance. But we know the fact to be, that the section referred to prospectively, applicable to custom prevails chiefly in Bengal, being founded all persons convicted as principals or accom- principally on authorities that have a local estiplices of wilful homicide, in the instance of a mation in that province. The official reports Hindoo widow, sacrificed by the rite of sahama- further shew, that it has but a partial prevalence rana or anoomarana, as in all other cases of even in Bengal, few or no suttees having occurillegal homicide, and, consequently, that all red for several years in some districts, particupersons present, aiding and abetting in any larly in the Moorshedabad division. The aggresuch homicide, would be liable to criminal pro- gate number also, in the whole of the provinces secution and punishment, according to the na, under this presidency, large as it justly appears ture and degree of their offence. on the separate valuation of individual human life, is but small, when we compare it with the total number of Hindoo females who annually become widows in the provinces; or with the number who survive their husbands from year to year in opposition to the more limited usage of self-devotion.*

It may be added, that a difference of opinion exists amongst the Hindoos themselves, on the lawfulness and merit of the sacrifice. Whilst some, on special authorities, hold the suicide if voluntary to be praiseworthy and entitled to re

It is probable that a proclamation to this effect would not at once prove completely effectual: secret immolations would still take place occasionally, and, in some instances, the widow, under a paroxysm of grief, and the delusion of superstition, might be expected to devote herself on her husband's funeral pile, or otherwise, even without brahminical assistance; but such cases would be rare in comparison with the number of sacrifices which now take place annually, either with or without the knowledge of the police officers; and after a few examples forward, others, on the highest authorities of Hinwilful deviation from the rule newly promulgated, (which should of course be made with tenderness in the early infliction of penalties,) I have no doubt that the practice would be soon abandoned as unsanctioned by government, and subjecting the aiders and abetters to punishment by the criminal courts.

But the most important part of the question is, whether it would be perfectly safe and consistent with the regard due to our national security in India, to prohibit and put down by legal penalties a practice of immemorial antiquity,

• Sec. 3, Regulation VIII. 1799.

doo law and religion, condemn it as illegal, and sinful in its nature, being founded on a preference of temporary and sensual enjoyment, to that which is esteemed more pure, and extending to eternity.t

It is further obvious, but material to notice, that the motive for the British government's interposition to suppress a cruel practice, involving,

⚫ It is not easy to form any accurate calculation; but supposing the entire Hindoo population of the territories under this presidency to be 50,000,000, and the annual deaths to be 1 in 33, or above 1,500,000, a sixth of this

number, or 250,000, might, on a general computation, be assumed as the annual number of Hindoo females becoming widows, of whom little more than 600 devote them

+ See Tracts of Rammohun Roy, and "Translation of "a Bewasta received from Mortoonge, pundit of the su"preme court," included in the printed collection of papers on the subject, page 119. The latter, after citing a text from the Metachera, which tends to prove "that

"After the period fixed for the enforcement of this regu-selves on the death of their husbands. "lation, it shall not justify any prisoner convicted of wilful ** homicide, that he or she was desired by the party slain to "put him or her to death; and in the event of the prisoner "being convicted of the fact to the satisfaction of the niza"mut adawlut, and of their seeing no circumstances in the "case which may render him or her a proper object of mercy. they shall sentence him or her to suffer death, "whatever may be the futwa of their law officers under "the Mahommedan law, which in this instance also, “although it withholds kissaus, gives a full latitude to the "magistrate in the discretionary punishment of tazeer or "set; and experience has shewn the necessity of in"flicting the punishment for murder in such cases, to preserve the lives of many from the effects of passion" also contemplate with indifference the bliss of absorption. ** or revenge, aided (especially in the province of Benares) "A great difference of opinion is now observed to exist "by the erroneous prejudices of superstition." "relating to this subject."

life ought not to be expended for the sake of arriving at "a paradise of temporary and inconsiderable happiness," adds, "few instances, therefore, are to be met with in the "Poorawnas, and other authorities, of the eminently "virtuous women of former ages sacrificing themselves, "either by sahamarana or anoomarana; but the practice "is frequent among modern women, whose desires are "confined to such pleasures as the world can afford, and

in the course of years, so wide a destruction of brahmins, as well as all other persons, are subhuman life, cannot possibly be mistaken. Whilst ject in every other part of the country, being the experience of more than half a century has repugnant to the principles of equal justice, and proved to the conviction of every Hindoo and having operated to-prevent the infliction of adeMoosulman our complete toleration of their re-quate punishment in some atrocious cases of spective religions, with a cautious abstinence murder which came before the Benares court of from all interruption of their established cus- circuit and nizamut adawlut, the section above toms and observances, as far as sanctioned by mentioned was prospectively rescinded by section their own laws and consistent with the funda- 15 of regulation xvii., 1817. Brahmins, theremental principles of society (insomuch that in fore, are now universally liable to the same sencivil cases the regulations in force since the year tence for murder as others convicted of that 1772 prescribe, that "in suits regarding suc- heinous offence, within any part of the provinces "cession, inheritance, marriage and caste, and under this presidency. But neither before or "all religious usages and institutions, the Ma- since the promulgation of the regulation last "homedan laws with respect to Mahomedans, mentioned, has any tumult, or other token of "and the Hindoo laws with regard to Hindoos, popular discontent, been occasioned by so deep "are to be considered the general rules by an encroachment upon the tenets and prejudices "which the judges are to form their decisions"), of the Hindoos as that of subjecting to capital it is impossible that a legislative enactment to punishment persons of their sacerdotal class, prevent assistance being hereafter given in the suttee immolation, with a view to preserve the lives of a number of miserable women from suicide, in a state of affliction from the recent death of their husbands, and to put a stop to the horrible abuses and cruelties, which, unsanctioned by the Hindoo laws, have too frequently attended an involuntary perpetration of this sacrifice, could be imputed to any other motives than what would really govern such an enactment, and which, therefore, might be fairly and fully declared, without danger of its being misconstrued into any thing like a general design to put down by authority, the religious system with which the inhuman practice referred to is imperfectly connected.

whom they had been accustomed to revere as sacred, and whose lives were inviolate under their own laws, which declared the killing of a brahmin to be one of the five great sins.

It may be added, that the supreme court of judicature at Calcutta has invariably adopted the same indiscriminate principle of punishment, on conviction, with respect to brahmins; and that the execution of rajah Nunkomar, a brahmin of rank, wealth, and influence, for a crime not before capital amongst the natives of India, is a single instance of the quiet submission of the people to the sentences of our courts of justice, however repugnant to their own feelings, habits, and usages.

The practice of sacrificing children, by exWe have, indeed, a means of forming a cor- posing them to be drowned or devoured by rect judgment upon this point, by adverting to sharks, at the island of Saugor and other places, what has already taken place in other instances, which was declared by regulation vi., 1802, to wherein the general principle of tolerating and be wilful murder, and punishable on conviction maintaining the religion and established cus- with death, may be considered to bear little toms of our native subjects has been necessarily analogy to the suttee immolation, inasmuch as relaxed in the administration of criminal justice. the preamble to that regulation states the prac It is well known that the life of a brahmin is tice referred to in it to have been found on held sacred by the Hindoos, according to Menoo inquiry not sanctioned by the Hindoo law, nor (or Menu): no corporal punishment should be countenanced by the religious orders, or by the inflicted on him for any crime: he is revered people at large; but it appears from the same as an image of the deity, and an oath is some-authority, that it was a prevalent custom arising times administered by touching his body. Yet from superstitious vows; that it continued to our rules for administering criminal justice make no distinction between brahmins and others in the declared penalties for crimes, extending to death; nor are they exempted by our courts from the actual infliction of this punishment, when convicted of capital offences. The city of Benares being the principal seat of the Hindoo religion, it was provided by section 9, regulation xvi., 1795, “that no brahmin shall be punished “with death. In cases in which a brahmin "shall be declared by the law liable to suffer “death, he shall, in lieu of such punishment, “be subject to be sentenced by the nizamut "adawlut to transportation." But this exemption of brahmins in the province of Benares from the legal punishment of murder, to which

prevail not only at Saugor, but also at Bansbaryah, Chogdah, and other places on the river Ganges; and that such sacritices were made at fixed periods, namely at the full moon in November and in January. As far, therefore, as the new regulation (which has been enforced at Saugor by the presence of a military guard,) opposed an established usage originating in super. stition, it may be considered a precedent for prohibiting and punishing other inhuman prac tices of a superstitious nature; and as I have never heard of any resistance being offered or objection made to the execution of the penal law above mentioned, I cannot but think it affords some ground of presumption that other superstitious and inhuman practices, such particu=

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