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Production of an Official Discourse on "Sati" in Early Nineteenth Century BengalAuthor(s): Lata ManiReviewed work(s):Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 21, No. 17 (Apr. 26, 1986), pp. WS32-WS40Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4375595 .Accessed: 12/12/2011 01:20

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Production o f a n Official Discourse o n S a t ii n E a r l y Nineteenth Century B e n g a l

Lata ManiSeveral debates arose in the nineteenth century on the status of women in India in the context of determining

an appropriatecolonial policy on such matters as sati which wereseen to mark the depressedposition of womenin society. The reform of these practices was held to be part of the regenerating mission of colonisation. Themost sensational and the first of these debates concerned the outlawing of sati.Theliteratureon sati (and on social reform) of the period has largely adopted theframework of modernisationtheory. The paper argues that the characterisation of the official debate as one between 'preservationists' and

impatient westernersobscures a number of important issues. For instance, rather than arguefor thc 0a,icl.wingof sati as a cruel and barbarous act, officials in favour of abolition wereat pains to illustrate that abolitionwould be consonant with the principle of upholding tradition. By treating the debates on sati as a discourse andexamining its production the article contests the conclusions on sati drawn by colonial officiais.NINETEENTH century BritishIndia wasmarkedbya seriesof debateson reformingthe status of women. The first, and mostsensational public debate, was concernedwith outlawingsati: the practice,prevalentpredominantly monghighcasteHindus,ofthe immolation of widows on the funeralpyresof theirhusbands.Theseimmolationswere ometimesvoluntary ndat othertimescoerced.The official debatecentredaroundthe issue of the toleranceof sucha practicein a 'BritishIndia'.The literatureon satil and more general-ly on socialreform n thecolonialperiodhaslargely adopted the frameworkof moder-nisation heory.Reformhere s conceptualis-ed as a product both of the impulse to'modernise'that supposedly characterisedtheofficialsof this periodandthedemandsof a small but increasingly ocal 'westernis-ed' urban indigenous male elite. Officialswho initiated and defended 'progressive'legislation like the abolition of sati, havebeen loosely called "Anglicists".They havebeen marked off from their "Orientalist"forerunnersand colleagues, said to havebeen more "Hindooised" and wary of in-terventions in indigenous culture not pro-mpted by the needs of colonial rule. Theabolition of sati in 1829 s said to signaltherise of Anglicists whose victory is seen toculminate in the great debate on Englishversus Vernacular education in the mid1830s.2

However,I will arguethat a numberofimportant ssues areobscured n a charact-erisationof the officialdebateon satias onebetween 'preservationists'and impatientwesternisers.Firstly, he fact thatthedebatewas primarily about the feasibilityratherthanthedesirability f abolition s overlook-ed. Secondly,that which is common in theanalysesof Indiansociety in the argumentsof those for and against abolition remainshidden. Finally, I will argue the case forabolition is not, in fact, elaboratedon thegroutds thatsucha characterisationmplies.Rather han arguing ortheoutlawingof satias a cruel or barbarousact, as one mightexpect of a true 'moderniser',officials infavourof abolitionwereat painsto illustrate

that such a move was entirely consonantwith the principleof upholdingindigenoustradition.Theirstrategywas to point to thequestionable criptural anctionfor sati andto the fact that, for one reasonor another,they believed its contemporary practicetransgressedts originalandtherefore true'scripturalmeaning.

Discourse as an Ideological ToolIn this paperI havetreated he debate onsati as a discourse.My use of the termanda discussionof the value of this approachis presented below. Briefly, however, inanalysing he debateas discourse, focus onhow knowledgeabout sati was produced.Inparticular, examineassumptions boutsati,

Indian society and colonial subjects onwhichthis discoursedependedand also therole of indigenouspeople in its production.Several nterlockingassumptionsinformedthis discourse. Chief among these was thehegemonic status accorded by colonial of-ficials to brahmanic cripturesn theorgani-sation of social life. The corrollaryto thiswasto assumean unquestioning ubmissionof indigenouspeopleto the dictatesof scrip-ture and thus to posit an absence of con-scious individualwill. Widows n particulararerepresenteds havingno subjectivity ndas doubly victimised by their ignoranceofthe scripturesand its consequence, theirrelianceon brahmin pundits. the latter areportrayed s self-interestednterpretersf thesacred texts. As for sati itself, there is arepeated nsistenceon a scriptural anctionfor the practice,although this claim is in-creasinglycontestedas the debatedevelops.Analysis of the discourse also clarifieshow selected natives, especially brahminpundits, weredeeply implicated in its pro-duction, albeit in a subordinaterole. As Iwill illustrate,pundits' statements werein-terpreted nddeployed n waysthatproduc-ed a distinctively colonial conception ofsati.3 Examining the production of dis-course clarifies what was privileged and

what wasmarginalised n the process.Thusit becomes possible to contest the conclu-

sions aboutsati drawnby colonial officials.This paper falls within the category ofhistoricalstudies that is concernedwiththecontribution of imperialism to what isknown about colonialand ex-colonialsocie-ties; with reconstituting what B S Cohnhas called a "colonial sociology of know-ledge".4Building on the work of Foucaulton the collaboration f power/knowledgenthe productionof discourse5 nd Said6withspecificreferenceo discourses n the Orient,thisstudybeginswith the premise hatwhatis known about colonial and ex-colonialsocieties s itself a colonial legacy.This pro-blem is not merely confined to knowledgeof what is designated the colonial period'.As Romila Thapar states: "A major con-tradiction n our understanding f the entireIndian past is that this understanding sderived from the interpretationsof Indianhistory made in the last two hundredyears"7Needless to say such understandingswere forged in situations that reflect thevicissitudesof a 'colonial'representation freality and the needs of colonial power.

Acknowledgement f thecomplexhistoryof received deas is not new.Theproductionin recentyearsof 'workers' istory',women'shistory' or 'subaltern studies'8 mplies thepartiality, venbias,of existingaccounts.Anargument or women'shistory, or instance,is based on the need to remedy a situationin which history has largely meant thehistory of men. Obviously, accounts ofwomenor workersdo not function only inan additiveway but transformour under-standingof society as a whole.I suggest, however, that an analysis ofdiscourse is a differentproposition, whichgoes beyond producing indigenous'or 'op-positional' accounts, whether nationalist,marxist or feminist. Rather, discourseanalysisfocuses on that which is stableandpersistent n the orderingof socialreality neach of these accounts. Thusit canpoint toassumptionssharedby those who claim tobe opposed to each other or are concep-tualised n thismanner,whethernationalistsandcolonialists r Orientalists nd Anglicists.In a sense the term discourse as used by

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Fbucaultand Said i- sinuilarn scope to theMarxistnotion of ideology:a public, nstitu-tionalised set of constraints on what is'truth' and 'knowledge'.Discourse s, how-ever, the more useful analyticaltool: for itretains the dialogical processes implied byspeech and requiresat least two parties. Ibelieve it is useful to speak of a 'colonialdiscourse' on sati rather than a colonialideology,preciselybecauseknowledge boutcolonialsocietywasproduced hrough nter-action between colonialists-officials,scholars,missionaries-and certainselectednatives. The 'interaction'was often 'inter-rogation' and always transversedby power.Discourse signals the back-and-forth ofthese power-ladenncountersmoresensitive-ly than ideology,for the latterseems to havegathered about it notions of rigidity andmonological, even hegemonic, production.The conceptof discoursealso embodiesthepossibility f several imultaneous iscourses.It makesfor the analysisof missionary,of-ficial and indigenous discourses as auto-nomous although engagedwith each otherin relations of dialogue and struggle.Inthis paper I examine heproductionofan official discourse on sati. A completeanalysisof colonialdiscourseson sati wouldrequire,n addition, attentionto missionaryandindigenousdiscourses or both were m-portant nthe debateon abolition.Thisessayrepresentsonly the beginning of such anenterprise.Such a critical reading of historicalmaterials s not the provinceof intellecvualhistory alone. Given that these discourseswere spawned by considerationsof socialpolicy and informed practice, they are ofequal concern to social historians. As forcolonial subjects confronting the coloniallegacy,such a critical readingoffers a wayof reinterpreting tradition, history andidentity.

IISati: A Legislative History9

As a subjectcoveredby criminal aw,col-onial policyon sati was formulatedbetweenthe Governor General and Council andOfficials at various levels of the criminaljustice system n Bengal:magistrates,policeofficials, the provincial court-NizamatAdalat-and the superior court-SadrNizamatAdalat.Also involvedwas the PrivyCouncilat the apexof East IndiaCompanyhierarchyn London. Finally,given the sup-posed scriptural sanction for sati, brahminpundits also became crucial participants.Appointedto the civil courts under WarrenHastings in 1772to interpret criptural awin civil matters-marriage, divorce, in-heritance, succession-pundits werecalledupon to elaborate the dictates of scriptureon all aspectsof sati. Residentsof Calcuttawerebeyond he purviewof this debatesincethecity fell under thejurisdictionof Britishlaw and sati had been outlawed there in1798.

The history of legislation on sati isrelativelystraightforward. n all, only oneregulationandthreecircularswereactuallypromulgated between the first recordedquery on the official position on sati inFebruary 789and itsprohibitionn Decem-ber 1829. The first official position on satiwas articulated n response o a clarificationsought byM H Brooke,Collectorof Shaha-bad District. In the absence of any officialinstructions on the subject, and on thestrength of its illegality in Calcutta city,Brooke had prohibited the burning of awidow andsought government pproval orhis decision. The Governor Generalcom-mended his action but urged him to useprivate influence rather than officialauthority in dissuading natives from sati,claiming:The public prohibition of a ceremonyauthorised y thetenetsof the religion f theHindus,andfromthe observance f which

they have neveryet been restricted y therulingpowerwould n allprobabilityend oincrease ather han diminish heirvenera-tion for it.10He continued that he hoped in the courseof time natives would "discernthe fallacyof the principlewhich havegiven rise to thispractice,and that it will of itself graduallyfall into disuse"" The Governor Generalcites nosupport for his claim of a religioussanction for sati.The issue was raised again in 1805 whenElphinstone,acting magistrate f the Zillahof Behar,reportedhis interventionn a casewhereanintoxicated welve-year-old asbe-ing coerced into the pyre. Like Brooke, hesought instructions from the GovernorGeneral and his Council. The secretaryofthe government referred the issue to theNizamatAdalat,askinghow farand in whatwaysthepracticeof sati was founded n thescripture, tatingthat if scriptural anctionprecluded abolition, measures might betaken to preventcoercion and such abusesas the intoxication of widows.The NizamatAdalat in turnreferred hematter o its pundit, GhanshyamSurmono.Thepunditrespondedn March1805butnotuntil April 29, 1813,some eight years ater,was his expositionof thescriptural ositionon sati issuedin the form of instructions othe District Magistrates.Basedon an officialreading f Surmono'sinterpretationof the texts, the instructionsdeclared ati to be a practice ounded n thereligiousbeliefs of Hindus. It was clarifiedthat the practicewasintended to be volun-tary and, if performed, was expected toensure an after-lifetogether for the widowand her husband. The circular also statedthat a widow who had taken a vow to com-mit sati was permitted to change her mindwithout oss of caste,providing he perform-eda penance.Thepreface o the instructionsclarified that given the scriptural tatusonsati and the government'scommitment tothe principle of religious tolerance, satiwould be permitted:

in those cases in which it is countenancedbytheir religion; and [prevented] n others inwhich it is by the same autho. ity pro-hibited.12Sati was thus to be prohibited n all casesin which the widow was less than sixteenyearsof age, or was pregnantor intoxicatedor in any other way coerced. Magistrateswere also instructed to transmit to theNizamatAdalat detailsof each sati commit-tedin their urisdictions, ncludingany pro-hibitivemeasuresthey might have taken.This circularpromulgatedon April 29,1813,was the only significantregulation n-troduced until the practice was outlawed.Threemore circularswere ssued, but thesewere merelyfurther refinementspromptedby the queries of District-Magistratesonwhat constituted a legal sati. Its 'legality'supposedly onferredbyits scriptural riginhad been confirmed by the regulationof 1813. Queries were forwardedby theNizamatAdalat to theirresidentpundits,re-questing hem to providevyawasihasn con-formity with the scriptures.'3Thus a cir-cular was promulgated n September1813,thatauthorisedogis (a tribeof weavers up-posedly the survivorsof wanderingmen-dicants) to burytheir dead, since the scriv-tures reportedly forbade burning in theircase.4 It was similarlydecreed n 1815 hatwomen with children under three mightcommit sati only if arrangements hadbeen made for the maintenanceof theirchildren.'5The 1815 circularalso specifiedthatbrahminwomen couldonly burnalongwiththeir husbandsby performing he riteof sahamarana,whilewomenof othercasteswerealso permitted noomarnana, n whichthe widow burnedat a laterdate togetherwith an article belonging to the husband.Finally,this circular nstructedmagistratesto submitan anndlal eportof satis in theirdistricts o the SadrNizamatAdalat,speci-fying for each sati: the name of the widow,her age,hercaste,the nameandcasteof thehusband, he dateof burningandthepolicejurisdiction n which it occurred.An addi-tional column was providedfor recordingany remarks that the magistrate thoughtdeserving of attention. A third circular,issued in 1822, instructed hat informationon the husband's profession and circum-stances also be included for each sati.16Althoughno further egulationswere ssued,the followingyearswitnessedntensedebateon abolition.The debatewasrekindled veryyearwhenthe NizamatAdalatanalysed heannualreturns f sati andexamined oreachincident the conduct of the districtmagis-trate and police officers.aIhe quiestion of abolition raised therelated ssuesof desirabilityand feasibility.Colonial officials were unanimous on thedesirability of abolition in the abstract,although they werefearfulof violating theprinciplcof religious olerance.Needlesstosay, the latter concern was itself linkedtothe feasibilityor political costs of interven-tion. Given their belief in the centralityof

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religion in the lives of Hindus, officialsfearedthat any interferencewouldproducerepercussions hat mightendanger he EastIndia Company's economic and politicalstakes n India. The tacticof gathering crip-tural evidence was thus an attempt tochallengesati in such a way as to precludea threat to public order. Indeed it hadbecomeclearin consultingwith the punditsthat the older scripturesmade no mentionof sati, but rather glorified asceticwidowhood. Even morerecent exts did notenjoinsati but merelyrecommendedt. Theuse of scripturesbyofficials for andagainstabolitionwillbe discussedmorefullybelow.Meanwhile, dramatic ncrease n sati lenturgency o the debate.Inthe first threeyearsof data collectionalone the numberof satisnearly ripled rom 378 to 839. Although hefiguresdeclinedafter 1819-20, heynever ellto the levelsfirst recorded n 1815,but fluc-tuatedbetweenan annual incidenceof 500and 600.Over the -years he Nizamat Adalat pro-posedvariousexplanations or this rise. In-itially it claimed that the rise could merelyreflect more refinedcounting. In 1817-18targued,somewhat weakly,that the figuresreflected the cholera epidemic that hadravaged parts of Bengal. Some officials,however, roposeda moreconvincing,albeitsinister, explanationpointing out that thegovernmentircularmighthavemadepeopleawareof more circumstancesunder whichsatimightbeperformed.Suspiciongrew hatthe rise wassomehow linked to governmentinterposition. W Ewer, acting Superinten-dent of Police in the Lower Provinces,argued hat"authorising practice s not theway to effect its gradualabolition".7Court-ney Smith, Nizamat Adalat judge, echoedEwer's entiment hatgovernmentattentionhad given "a sort of interestand celebrityto the sacrifice".8He recommended hat all,irculars be rescinded since they had atendency"to modify, systematiseor legalisetheusage"and madeit appearas though "alegal suttee was... better than an illegalone. 19Not all officials agreed with Ewer andSmith. Some Nizamat Adalat judges likeC T SealyandA B Toddresisted heimplica-tion that the circularswere interventionistand insistedthat they merely implementedthe law asembedded n thescriptures.Othersasked or an evenmorerigorous nforcementof scriptural law. For instance, in 1828Cracroft,Magistrate f Dacca, evenwent sofar as to recommend hatonly widowsfromfamilies with purecastestatus be permittedto perform ati. Cracroft uggested hat sucha rigorous interpretation of caste wouldreduce sati by ninety per cent since fewfamilies if any would meet this standard.20In 1823,Harringtonproposedcircumventingthe scriptures, uggestingthat sati need notbe outlawed outright but that brahminpunditsandrelativesmight be prosecuted sprincipals or accomplices in homicide.

Officials advocating further legislation,however,were n a minority.Thegeneral iewwas that in the context of a sustainedhighincidence f sati, anything hortof totalpro-hibitionwouldbe unwise.Yet hisappearedout of thequestion. Inthemeantime, t washopedthat the spreadof educationandtheexampleof the highcaste,educated,wester-nisedHindus would serveto maketheprac-ticeunpopular. ndigenous pposition o satihad been growing since 1818,when Ram-mohun Roy, chief campaignerand symbolof thenative obby againstsati publishedhisfirst tractagainst the practice.However, in general, faith in the pro-gressive influence of higher caste, bettereducated Hindus was misplaced, for thepractice was predominantly theirs.2'Theregionaldistributionof sati also made t dif-ficult to sustain in the hope that a greatex-posureto western nfluence would result nis declining popularity.For sixty-threepercent of satis between 1815 and 1828 werecommitted n the Calcutta Division aroundCalcuttacity,the seatof colonialpower.In-deed this high figure may in part be ac-counted for by Hindu residentsof Calcuttagoing outside the city to commit sati, whichwas illegal within its boundaries.Theregionally keweddistribution f satisprompted omemagistratesike H B Melvillein 1823andW B Bayley n 1827to proposeabolition n certaindistricts.Othersusedtheregionalvariation as evidence that sati wasa localised, temporalphenomenon and nota universal eligiousone. Further, lreadyby1818, t had become evident that the scrip-tural sanction for sati was not clearcut. InMarch 1824,the Court of Directorssittingin London, drawingalmost exclusivelyonofficial correspondence ndNizamatAdalatproceedingson sati came to the conclusionthat these papers themselves were repletewithargumentson thebasisof whichaboli-tion could be justified. In particular,thedirectors ighlighted he following: heques-tionable scripturalstatusof sati, the viola-tion of scripturalrules in its performance,theinefficacyof current egulation, hesup-port for abolition among Indians,the con-fidenceof some magistrates hat sati couldbe abolished safely, the incompatibilityofsati withprinciplesof morality and reasonThe Court of Directorshoweverconcededthat the final decision must rest with theauthorities in India since only they couldevaluate he political consequencesof suchaction.

Indeed it was in India that legislation tooutlaw sati was finally initiated by Gover-nor General Lord William Bentinck inDecember1829.Bentinckhadlittlemore n-formation than his predecessors,either onsati or on the probable effects of suchlegislation, although he had gatheredmilitary intelligence that such legislationwould not provoke disquiet among thearmed forces. What Bentinck did possesswas a combinationof the will to outlawsati

and the benefits of a greater politicalstabilityof the East IndiaCompanywhosecontrol had now been extended acrossRajputhana,Central ndiaandNepal.A fewconfidenceandenergywasreflected n Ben-tinck's Minute on sati:Now that we are supreme,my opinion isdecidedlynfavourof anopen,avowed ndgeneralprohibition, esting ltogether ponthe moral oodness f the act andourpowerto enforce t.22Thedesirability f abolitic nad neverbeenat issue. Its feasibilityhad proved o be thethorny question. Bentinck settled the issueonce and for all.Sati either by burning or burial wasoutlawed and made punishable by thecriminal courts. Zamindarsand talukdarswere maderesponsible or immediatecom-munication o the police of intention o per-formsati, any lapsebeingmadepunishableby a' fine or imprisonment. The NizamatAdalat was authorised o impose the deathsentenceon activeparticipants n sati if thecrimewasgruesomeenough to render hemunworthyof mercy. t is not knownto whatextent the legislative act succeeded in put-tingout the flamingpyres.Statisticswerenolongercollectedand thusit is impossible oevaluate heeffectsof abolition.Whataboli-tion did achievewas an official resolutionin one instance of the conflict betweenpolitical expediencyand the civilising mis-sion of colonisation.

IIIThe Discourse and Its

AssumptionsTheonefeature hat is cleareven rom hisbrief legislativehistory s that the abolitionof sati wascomplicatedbyofficial insistenceon its scriptural tatus.Whatever heirviewson the feasibilityof abolition, all colonialofficials sharedto a greateror lesserdegreethree nterdependentdeas: the centralityofreligion,the submissionof indigenouspeo-ple to its dictatesand the 'religious'basisQfsati. Those against abolition argued thatprohibitionof sati waslikely to incite nativeresistance.As the Nizamat Adalat put it:Sucha measurewould, nallprobability,x-cite a considerabledegreeof alarmanddissatisfactionn the mindsof the Hindooinhabitants f theseprovinces.23Officials in favour of abolition alsodevelopedargumentsreflectingthe viewofHindu society generated by these sameassumptions.Forinstance,JudgeE Watson'sargument for the feasibility of abolitionrestedon theprecedent f Regulation8 1799which,bydeclaring emale nfanticide, hildsacrificeand the burial of lepersbe capitaloffences, had similarly, n his view,violatedreligious principles. It is in this sense thatI assert that officials on both sides ofthe debate shared the same universe ofdiscourse.WalterEwer,Superintendent f Police inthe LowerProvinces,made a differentkind

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of argumentfor abolition. As a thoroughand systematicanalysiswhich sumsup theargumentsof officials over the years, it isworth detailed attention.24Ewer took theposition that the contemporarypracticeofsati borelittle resemblance o its scripturalmodelas a voluntaryact of devotioncarriedout for the spiritual benefit of the widowand the deceased.Rather,n his view,widowswerecoerced and sati was performedmostoften for the material gain of survivingrelatives.Ewersuggested hat relativesmightsave the expenseof maintaining he widowand irritation of her legal right over thefamily estate.Also said to apply pressure nthe widow by extolling the virtues andrewardsof sati were 'hungry brahmins'greedy for the money due- to them forofficiating on such occasions.Evenif the widow succeeded n resistingthe combined orceof relativesand pundits,Ewerheld that she would not be spared bythe crowd. According to him, "the entirepopulation of the village will turn out toassist ndraggingherto the bank of theriver,and in keepingher down on the pile"25 orthe crowd,sati was said to offer the lure ofa spectacle.Noneof theholyexultationhat ormerly c-companiedhedeparturef a martyr, utallthesavagemerriment hich, n ourdays,ac-companies boxingmatchor a full-bait.26Ewer thus concludes that "the widow isscarcely vera freeagentat theperformanceof the suttee".27According to Ewer,suchscriptural ransgressionsas the coercion ofwidows or the performance of sati formeterialgain could either be the result ofignoranceof scripturesor reflect consciousdesignon the partof relativesandpundits:in the formercase sati could be abolishedwithout provoking indigenous outrage; inthe lattercase,sati could not be considereda sacredact and could safely be abolished.It is clearthat, accordingto Ewer,whenHindus acted"religiously",heydidnot actconsciously. notherwords, rue"religious"action wassynonymouswith a passive un-questioningobedience.Thus, if the widowis construed as a victim of pundits andrelatives, hey in turn areseen by Ewer toact in two mutually exclusiveways:either"consciously", that is "irreligiously",or"passively",hatis "religiously".enceEwernowhere uggeststhatpunditsandrelativescouldmanipulate eligion o theirownends.As for the widow, she is not offered anypossibilityof everexercisingher will. Ewersubmitted that left to herself, the widowwould"turnwith natural nstinctandhorrorfrom the thought of suttee".28 owever, nhisview,givenher gnorance ndweakmen-tal and physical capacity, t took little per-suasion to turn any apprehension nto areluctantconsent.Ewer resolvedthe issue of the feasibilityof abolition furtherby problematising heassumptionof a scriptural anctionforsati.He pointed to the heterogeneity of the

scriptureson the issue; Manu "the parentof Hindoo jurisprudence" did not evenmentionsati, but instead glorified asceticwidowhood. It is important to note thatwhatunitesboth the 'temporal'and 'scrip-tural' aspects of Ewer'sarguments is the-privilegingof religionand the assumptionof a completenativesubmission o its force.Thisanalysis was not that of Eweralone.Maloney, Acting Magistrate of Burdwan,similarlyemphasised that the decision ofwidows to commit sati stems notfrom heirhavingreasonedhemselvesntoa convictionof thepurityof the act itself,as from a kind of infatuationproduced ytheabsurdities oured nto theirearsby ig-norantbrahmins.29For Maloney, as for Ewer, the widow isalways a victim and the pundit alwayscorrupt.Maloney, ikeEwer,also concedesthepossibilityof a 'good' sati that is volun-tary and the productof reason;but only inthe abstract. In reality, the widow is un-educated and'presumed o be incapable ofboth reason and independent action.This accent on 'will' in the analysis ofEwer and Maloney, testifies to the am-bivalancewhichlies at the heart of the col-onial attitude o sati. It suggests hat withinthe general and avoweddisapprovalof thepractice, there operatednotions of 'good'and 'bad' satis. 'Good' satis were those thatwereseen to be true to an official readingof the scriptures.And the critical factorindeterminingofficial attitude was the issueof the widow's will. Thus the NizamatAdalat instructedmagistrates o pay closeattention o the demeanourof the widow asshe approachedthe pyre so that officialscould interceptat the merestsuggestion ofcoercion.Magistratesaccordinglyrecordedin the annual returnson sati such remarksas the following: "the widow voluntarilysacrificedherself'" ascendedhepyreof herown free will", burnt "withoutin any wayinebriated and in conformity with theShaster"'Suchguardedacceptanceof 'good' satisis also evident in the suggestions of Harr-ington and Elliot that legislation shouldcovernot thewidow,whoshould be left freeto commit sati, but brahminsand otherswho aided or unduly influenced her.Suchanact it wasarguedwouldprevent oercion,with the additional meritthat:No lawobligatory n theconsciences f thelHindooswillbe infringed, nd the womendesirousof manifestinghe excessof theirconjugal ove will be left at liberty o do

so.30Officialslike Elliot, quoted above, approv-ed of sati as longas it was an actof freewill.This view was also reflected in a non-horrifiedannouncementof two satis in theCalcutta Gazette as late as 1827, by whichtimeit wasofficiallymaintained hat feasibi-lity was the onlv reason for toleratingsati.It described the widows respectively as"havingabandonedwith cheerfulnessand

herownfreewill, thisperishablerame' andas "having burnt herself with him in theirpresencewith a swellingheart and a smilingcountenance.'31Other officials dismissedout of hand the possibility of such volun-tarysatisandinsistedwith Ewer hatwidowswere ihcapable of consenting and mustthereforebe protected.It is evidentthat the arguments n favourof prohibitingsati werenot primarilycon-cernedwithits crueltyor 'barbarity'houghmany officials did maintain that sati washorrid, evenas an act of volition. It is alsoclear that officials in favour of legislativeprohibition werenot interventionists,con-temptuous of indigenous culture nor ad-vocatesof change in the nameof 'progress'or Christianprinciples.Onthecontrary, f-ficials in favourof abolition werearguingthat such action was consistent with thepolicy of upholding indigenous religioustradition, ven hatsucha policy'necessitatedintervention.And indeed this was how theregeneratingmission of colonisation wasconceptualised:not as the imposition of anew Christian moral order but as therecuperation ndenforcement f the 'truths'of indigenoustradition. In this regard, t isinteresting hat Elliot suggesteda preambleto the legislationoutlawingsati, explaininggovernmentpolicy on indigenous customsand appealing to scripturalauthority forabolitionthroughappositequotationsfromthe texts. In his opinion this would,... remove he evil fromthe less learned,whowouldthusbe led to lament he ignoranceinwhich heyhavehitherto eenheldenslay-ed bytheirbigotedpriests,and at the sametimeto rejoice n themercyandwisdomofa governmentwhichblendshumanitywithjustice, ndconsults tonce he nterests ndprejudices f its subjects,byrecalling hemfrom practicesrevolting,and pronouncederroneous venbytheirownauthorities.32This conception of colonial subjectsheld the majority to be ignorant of their"religion".Religionwasequatedwithscrip-ture.Knowledgeof the scriptureswas heldto be largely hemonopolyof brahminpun-dits. Theirknowledgewas howeverbelievedto be corruptand self-serving.The civilis-ing mission of colonisation was thus seen

to lie in protectingthe 'weak' against the'artful'; in giving back to the natives thetruths of their own "little read and lessunderstood Shaster".33Theargumentsof abolitionistswere husdeveloped within the ambit of "religion".Theprosandcons of sati were ystematicallydebatedas doctrinalconsiderations. n thissensethedebateon abolition mightbe fruit-fully interpreted s, in part, a conflict overscripturalnterpretation.nemploying crip-tures to supporttheirview the abolitionistsin effectresurrectedhe vyawasthasof pun-dits that had been marginalised n earlierofficial readingsof the scriptures.In par-ticular, heyre-examinedhediscussionsbet-weenofficialsandpundits eading o the for-

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mulation of the 1813 regulation. Thesepreviously marginalised vyawasthas werenow reactivatedby officials both as testi-mony of the safety of abolitionand as indexof the ignoranceof natives.Officialdebttothe pundits n interpretinghe texts was notacknowledged.This gives us a clue to therole of the pundits in the production ofofficial knowledgeaboutsati, a theme thatwill be taken up in the next section.In the meantime, as we already know,official commitment o enforcing ndigenousfaith and penalising its violation in thepracticeof sati did not lead to a decline inits incidence. This was regardedas nativemisunderstanding f colonial intentionandconstrued as further evidence of Hindu'bigotry'. Proposals were made for closersupervisionalthough n theeventnone wereimplemented. t is striking hat officials didnot acknowledgethe 'inconsistencies'bet-ween their interpretationof the place o-fscripture in native life, and natives' ownbehaviour, let alone revise their view. Ifanything, it appears as though such in-consistencies served to reaffirm theirassumptions.Insummary, he official viewof sati restedon three interlocking assumptions: thehegemony of religious texts, a total in-digenous ubmission o theirdictatesand thereligious basis of sati. However, a re-examination of Parliamentary papersmakesit possible to contest each of theseassumptions.To begin with, the insistence on textualhegemony is challenged by the enormousregional variationin the mode of commit-ting sati. The vyawasthas of pundits hadelaborated ifferences y villageanddistrict,even caste and occupation in the perfor-mance of sati. "Incertainvillages of Burd-wan a district in Bengal the following cere-monies are observed".34 Or, 'In somevillages situated in Benares, the followingpracticesobtain among the widows of mer-chants and other traders'35Local influencepredominatedn everyaspectof sati. For n-stance the pundits pointed out, "She thenproceeds o the place of sacrifice... havingpreviously worshipped the peculiar deitiesof the city of village'36In the face of suchdiversity he pundits concluded "Thecere-moniespracticallyobserved,differas to thevarious tribes and districts'37Colonial of-ficials acknowledged these differences andinstructedmagistrates o allow natives "tofollow the establishedauthority and usageof the province in which they reside'38However, such diversity was regarded as'peripheral' o the 'central'principleof tex-tual hegemony.Similarly, regional variation in the in-cidence of sati was not takenas a challengeto the assumption, of the hegemony ofreligioneventhoughit didcountas evidenceof a materialbasis for sati. Colonialofficialsdid not completely ignore the fact of suchvariation.The regulationof 1813recognised

that in somedistricts ati had almostentirelyceasedwhile n others t was confinedalmostexclusivelyo certain astes.Despite his, col-onial officials decided o pursuea courseoftolerancebecausein their opinion, in mostprovinces,"allcastes of Hindoos would beextremelytenacious of its continuance"39Whateverthe justification for concludingthus in 1813, such insistence was hardlytenable once systematic data collection onsati was begun n 185. For t quicklybecameapparent hat 66 per cent of satis were car-ried out betweenthe districts surroundingCalcuttacity and the Shahabad, Ghazipurand Sarundistricts.Thisindicates ither hatsati was not a solely 'religious' practice asthe officials maintained,or that religionwasnot hegemonic-another colonial assump-tion-or both. However, fficials nterpretedregionalvariation o implythatalthough atiwas primarilya religiouspractice,other fac-tors mightbe at play. Therefore,as late as1827, with eleven years of data at hand,W B Bayleycould continue to be puzzledby what he called "anomalies"n theannualreportof satis. He wrote o the court seekingan explanation

in regardto the following extraordinarydiscrepancies n the results exhibitedbythe present statement.In the district ofBackergune63 instances of suttee arereported, andin the adjacehtdistrict ofDacca Tetalpore nly 2.40These could only be "extraordinarydiscrepancies" ecauseBayley,ikeother of-ficials continued to maintain, despiteevidenceto the contrary, hat religion hada uniformlypowerful nfluence n native ife.If the hegemonyof religioustexts and itscorrollary,an unthinkingnative obedienceto scripture, is called into question byregionalvariation n the incidenceand modeof performing sati, the representationofwidows as perennial victims is similarlydebatable.For one thingthe Parliamentarypaperscontain severalaccounts of womenacting on their own behalf. Some of themdid so whentheyresistedbeing coerced ntothe pyre.Theannualreportsof sati includemany instances of women being coerced.Representations f such incidents,however,stressnot the resistanceof women but thebarbarityof Hindumalesin their coercion.Womenalsoexpressedheirwillwhentheyresistedbeingprevented rom-jumping ntothe flames. One such case reported bymagistrateW Wright in 1819 is worth re-counting.A childwidow,MussummatSeeta'hadsuddenly decided at age 15, som.enineyearsafterhusband'sdeath to commitsati.She resolved to die through the rite ofanoomarana with a stringed instrument thathadbelongedto herhusband.According oWright, her parents, in-lawsand police of-ficerssoughtin vainto dissuadeher.Wrightrecords that the widowcontinuallymadeuse of theexpression:All

yourremonstrancesreperfectly navailing;it is nownecessaryor me to become uttee;

if you persist in your remonstrances I willcurse you"'41The relatives, supposedly fearing the legen,dary curse of the sati, are said to have com-plied with her wishes and built the pyre. Herparting words were reported to have been,"Set fire to the pile; if you refuse to do so,I will curse you"'42Colonial officials syste-matically ignored such evidence of thewidows as subjects with a will of their own.Although they conceded the possibility of.a 'voluntary' sati, these were interpreted notas evidence of the will of the widow, buttestimony of her subjection to religion. Thewidow thus nowhere appears as a full sub-ject. If she resisted, she was considered a vic-tim of Hindu male barbarity. If she ap-peared to consent, she was seen to be a vic-tim of religion. Colonial representations fur-ther reinforced such a view of the widow ashelpless by "infantilising" the typical sati.The widow is quite often described as a"tender child". Analysis of sati by age failsto confirm such a picture, for a majority ofsatis were undertaken by women -well pastchildhood. In 1818, for example, 64 per centof satis were above 40 years of age.In highlighting the absence of women'ssubjectivity in colonial representations ofsati, my intention is not to imply that womenacted voluntarily or argue that sati could bean act of "free will". Their subjectivities wereprobably complex and inconsistent. In anycase they are not accessible to us. As forwhether or not relatives were self-interestedor brahmins bigoted, such questions can alsoonly be addressed with reference to specificcases. My purpose in raising the issue of thewidow's subjectivity is rather to point outthat the ubiquitous characterisation of thewidow as victim was not borne out by theexperience of colonial officials as recountedby them in the Parliamentary papers.It is not the widow alone who is repre-sented as passive, for all colonial subjects,male and female, are portrayed as finallysubordinated to religion. The NizamatAdalat stated this view quite dramatically inthe context of discussing the Hindu practiceof burying lepers. Reviewing a case that hadcome to their notice, they exclaimed, "noexample can be of any avail. Their motiveswere above all human control!43IVProduction of Knowledge aboutSati: Interaction and Interrogation

Information about sati was generated atthe instance, one is tempted to say insistence,of colonial officials posing questions to pun-dits resident at the courts. The pundits wereinstructed to respond with "a reply in con-formity with the scriptures"44The workingof colonial power is nowhere mQrevisiblethan in this process. It is worth examiningone such interaction in detail.In 1805, as noted earlier, the question ofscriptural sanction for sati was first put to

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thepunditsof the NizamatAdalat. Specifi-cally they were aksedwhether womans enjoinedby theShastervoluntarilyo burnherselfwith the bodyofherhusband, r is prohibited;ndwhataretheconditionsprescribed ythe Shaster nsuchoccasions?45The pundit respondedas follows:Having ulycopsideredhequestion ropos-ed bythecourt,I nowanswer t to thebestof myknowledge:-verywomanof thefouxcastes brahmin, hetry, uesand soodur)spermittedo burnherselfwith thebodyofher husband,provided he has no infantchildren,noris pregnant,nor in a stateofuncleanness, orunder heageof puberty;or in any of whichcases she is not allowedto burnherselfwithher husband's ody.46The pundit specifiedthat women with in-fantchildren ouldburnprovided heymadearrangements or the care of such infants.Further, he added that coercion, overt orsubtle, was forbidden. In support of hisopinion, he quoted the following texts:This rests.upon the authorityof Anjira,Vijasaand Vrihaspati,Mooni."Thereare threemillionsand a half ofhairs upon the human body, and everywomanwhoburnsherselfwith thebody ofherhusband,willresidewithhim n heavenduringa likenumberof years.""In the samemanner, s a snake-catcherdrags snake romhishole, o doesa womanwhoburnsherself,drawherhusband ut ofhell;and she afterwardsesideswithhim nheaven"The exceptionsabove cited, respectingwomen n a stateof pregnancy r unclean-

ness, andadolescence,werecommunicatedbyQorub ndothers o themotherof SagarRaja.47The question posed to the pundit waswhethersati was enjoined by the scripturaltexts.Thepundit n effectrespondedhat thetexts did not enjoin but merely prmitted satiin certain instances, drawing on quoteswhichspoke of the rewards ati would bringto widows and their husbands. That thescripturespermitsati can only be inferredfromthe above passage.Nevertheless n thebasis of this rather elusive response theNizamat Adalat concluded:The practice, enerally peaking,being husrecognised nd encouraged y the doctrinesof the Hindoo religion, t appearsevidentthat he coursewhich he British overnmentshould ollow,accordingo theprinciple freligious olerance... is to allowthe prac-tice nthosecases nwhicht is countenancedbytheirreligion; ndto preventt in othersin which it is by the same authoritypro-hibited emphasismine).48Twomoveshavebeen madefrom thepun-dit's actual words to atrive at this conclu-sion. Thepunditclaims hathe has answeredthe question"to the best of my knowledge."However, his response is treated as analtogether authoritativeone. Further,per-mission by inference is transformedinicscriptural "recognition" and "encourage-ment" of sati. Colonial policy on sati was

thus formulated on the basis of an inter-pretationof the pundit'sreplies by the-of-ficialswho put the questions.It wasa resultof this encounterwhich producedthe onlylegislativeenactmenton sati until its even-tual abolition. The statement tselfwas alsorepeatedly recalled by officials arguingagainst abolition. Certainly,permissiontocommitsati was moreexplicitelsewhere nthe scriptures.However,at issue here s notthe scriptural accuracy of the pundit'sresponse so much as the arbitrariness otypical of the official interpretation ofvyawasthas.This example mbodiesmanyof thebasicprinciplesby which a body of informationabout sati was generated.Questions o pun-dits were ntended,o establishclarityon allaspects of sati. Pundits were requiredtocomb the scripturesand produce unam-biguougscriptural upport.Forinstance, nApril 1813,a punditwasrequired o specifythe meaningof thephrase"tenderyears" nhis statement hat "a womanhavinga childof tender years is wholly inhibited frombecominga suttee"49nferential onclusionswereonly acceptablewhereexplicit docu-mentationwas impossible.Thus, for exam-ple,the SadrNizamatAdalathadto becon-tent with inferentialscripturalsupport forthe burial of jogis. The matter had beenreferred o the SadrNizamatAdalatbythemagistrateof the provincialDacca court,since the pundit at that court had in theirview unsatisfactorilyclaimedthat "Thisisan act which is founded merely on prac-tice.'50The Sadr NazamatAdalat punditsproduced inferential support in theirresponse. In this context they also arguedthat the scripturesthemselves gave equalsupport to custom and usage. However,despiteofficial insistenceon faithfulness othe scriptures,colonial officials continuedto preferexplicit scriptural njunction.5' twas for this reasonthat the Sadr NizamatAdalat reprimandeda district pundit forreferring"tothe customof a country,upona point which is expresslyprovidedfor byla/'52Over the years, through such continualandintensivequestioning, riteria oran of-ficially anctioned atiweregenerated. thadto be voluntary.Brahminwomenwereper-mitted only sahamarana. Non-brahminwomencouldburn throughsahamaranaoranoomarana.Sati was forbidden o womenundersixteenand to womenwithinfants essthan threeyears. Womenof thejogi tribewere permittedto bury themselves.

Althoughscriptural uthoritywasclaimedfor this model, a careful reading of theParliamentary papers tells quite anotherstory.Forexample, olonialofficials treatedvyawasthas s truthfulexegesesof the scrip-tutes n an absolute ense andenforced hemlegally.By contrast, t is clearfromreadingthese vyawasthas h4tpundits ssuingthembelievedthem to be interpretive.However,

not all vyawasthas were accorded suchlegitimacy; rather, colonial officials selec-tively privileged some and marginalisedothers.Pundits attested to the interpretive natureof vyawasthas in several ways. Vyawasthaswere often prefaced with such declarationsas:Having inspected the paperdrawnup by thechief judge of this court we proceed to fur-nish a reply to the best of our ability (em-phasis mine).52Having consideredthe question proposedbythe court I now answer it to the best of my'knowledge (emphasis mine).53Similarly, they characterised their replies asopinions: "The authorities for the above opi-nion are as follows". The interpretivecharacter of the vyawasthas was also evidentfrom the way in which the scriptures wereused:In support of the above may be adduced

the following authorities(emphasis mine).55In the above sentence by using the words"shewho ascends" the author must havehadin contemplation those who declined to doso (emphasis mine).56From the above quoted passages of theMitateshura,t wouldappear hat thiswasan act fit for all women to perform (em-phasis mine).57It is clear from the above that vyawasthasdid not claim to pronounce either scripturaltruth or the only possible response to a givenquestion.58The corpus of texts designated 'the scrip-tures' also made such a claim difficult tomaintain. The scriptures were an enormousbody -of texts composed at different times.They included the srutis, the dharmashastrasor smritis and nibandhas.The srutis werebelieved to be a pre-scriptural transcriptionof a revealed oral discourse anterior to thecategory of historicity. The dharmashastrasor smritis were mnemic and historico-socialtexts supposedly transcribed'by the sagesunder the authority of Hindu kings. Theprincipal shastras are products of namedand thus 'historical' subjects: Manu, Yajna-valkya and Narada. The commentaries anddigests, were treatises interpreting and ex-pounding the shastras and mainly produc-ed between the llth-18th century. Differentcommentaries were held to be authoritativein different regions. It is no wonder then thattwo pundits could issue vyawasthas on thesame point and quote different texts or dif-ferent passages from the same text to sup-port their statements.

The fact that the various texts wereauthored at different periods also accountedfor their heterogeneity on many points, notleast of which was the scripturalsanction forsati. Colonial response to such heterogeneitytook three forms. Sometimes diversity wasselectively recognised, as in the determina-tion and enforcement of the appropriatemodes of committing sati for brahmin andnon-brahmin widows. At other times it was

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acknowledged or practicalreasonsbut not'resolved' as in the considered oleranceofregional variation in the mode of conduc-ting sati: whether the widow's body wasplaced to the left or right of corpse, thedirection of pyre, and so on. A thirdresponsewas to marginalise ertainvyawas-thas. A telling example of such strategicmarginalisation s the fate of MrityunjoyVidyalankar'svyawastha, relegated to theappendixof theNizamatAdalatproceedingsof 1817,with no more than a mention n themain text. This vyawastha systematicallycalled into question the colonial rationaleof 'a scripturalsanction for sati and ques-tioned its status as an act of virtue. Vidya-lankarpointed out that as a form of suicideit was debatablewhether ati was consonantwith the srutis which forbade any wilfulabridgementon life. Furtherhe noted thatthe ultimategoal of all Hindus was selflessabsorption in a divine essence, a unionwhich was said to flow not from action likesati, performedwith a view to reward,butfrom devotion and contemplation of thedivine.Given his a lifeof austerityof sexualabstinence, as implied by ascetic widow-hood, emergedas an equally if not moremeritorious act.Vidyalankar'svyawastha contained suf-ficientscripturalustification or prohibitingsati. It was however ignored. Continualreinscriptionof sati into a scriptural radi-tion despiteevidenceto the contrarypointsto thearbitrariness f meanings mposed bya colonialreadingof vyawasthas. f tne con-struct of sati thus producedis specifically'colonial'.t can also be argued hat'religion'in this discourseemergesmerelyas that partof culturethat colonial powerchooses notto interdict. f forsome reason t was decidedto prohibita practice he strategywasto dis-count its claim to being 'religious' n a col-onial readingof the scriptures.In the endthis is whathappened n thecaseof sati. Ofcourse it was not quiteas simple as this foras we haveseen, sati's scriptural tatuswasproblematised ong before the practicewasprohibited. Ultimately abolition was legis-latedwhenit was deemedfeasible.However,thiswasnot thebasison whichthe discoursewas articulated.

In the meantime,while sati was still con-ceptualised as 'religious' official policy,whatever ts claim to non-interference,wasto ensure adherence o the official concep-tion of a 'true' sati. A coherent, unam-biguous definition of sati was an essentialprerequisite o this policy.Wehave alreadytracedhow suchclaritywasachieved.Atten-tiveness o the detailsof practicewas anotheraspect of this policy. Official watchfulnesswasmadepossible by the systematiccollec-tion and tabulation of dataon each sati. Inadditionto personaldataon the widow andher deceasedhusband, the time, place andmode of burning, magistrates were alsogiven explicit nstructions o "not allow themost minute particularto efscapeobserva-

tion"59Suchdetails ensured hat no infrac-tion whether on the part of officials ornatives, could escapethe official eye.Thus,for instance, n the reviewof satis for 1819,themagistrateof Shahabadwasreprimand-ed for preventingan illegal sati by persua-sion where he could have employed force.Magistrateswere also censured for beingover-zealous.Thus in 1819,the magistratefor Bheerbhoosndistrict was criticised forrequiringprevious ntimation for perform-ing sati when there was no order to this ef-fect on the statutebooks. Given the impor-tanceof detail to such "apenalmappingofthe social body",60 magistrateswere com-pelledto recorddetailsandreprimandedorreports that were "totally destitute ofremark'61The consistency of the NizamatAdalat on this score drew the approvalofthe GovernorGeneraland his Council whocommendedthem in 1820 on the "minute-ness with which the Nizamat Adauluthaveenteredon the examination of the returnsfrom the severaldistricts."62There s no doubtthat despite heprofess-ed colonial policy of religious non-inter-ference, he processby whichknowledgeonsati wasproduced or legal enforcement n-sured hat the conceptof sati generatedwasdistinctly 'colonial'.As the examplesaboveindicate,despite hf involvement f brahminpundits, the privilege of the final authori-tative nterpretation f theirvyawasthaswasappropriated y colonialofficials. For t wasNizamat Adalat judges,' the GovernorGeneral and his Council who determinedwhichvyawasthaswere essential' nd which'peripheral'.The position of the brahminpunditswas ambiguous. The fact of beingnative simultaneously privileged anddevalued hem as reliable ources.Theywerecritical to making the scripturesaccessibleto colonial officials. But they werealso the"artful lasses"againstwhomit was themis-sion of colonisationto protect"thesimple".This process by which this construct ofsati wasproduced xemplifies hetextualisednatureof the discourse. Here I drawon theworkof Paul Ricoeur.63Ricoeurillustratestheprocessof textualisation, nalysingwhathappens to 'discourse'or 'speech' when itbecomes 'textualised' for instance, inlanguage, action or ritual. Contrastingdiscoursewithlanguage,Ricoeurpoints outthat discourseis realised emporally, t hasa subject who speaks, "a world which itclaims to describe, to express or to repre-sent",MInd a person who is being address-ed. In the example at hand, the pundit'svyawastha is analogous to discourse.Vyawasthas, like speech, had as theirreferencea specific context,as opinions ex-pressedbythe punditson specific situationswhich took into account particularneeds.The textualisation of such discourse,according o Ricoeur,results n the fixationof meaning, its dissociation from anyauthorial intention, the display of non-ostensivereferences nda universal angeof

addresses. The colonial rewriting/reinter-pretation of the pundits' vyawasthas as in-variant scriptural truths and their enforce-ment as law is analogous to the textualisa-tion of discourse. Opinions pronounced onparticular cases became rules applicable toall cases. Thus the meaning of sati became'fixed'; in other words, a sati that met cer-tain criteria could be identified as authen-tic. Once 'textualised', in this instancethrough systematic writing, colonial officialscould and did interpret the vyawasthas inways that both reflected and did not reflectthe intentions of pundits. Given that a state-ment of the particular became generalised,it obviously no longer had as its referencethe initial interaction that produced it.Finally, the enforcement of vyawasthas aslaw automatically extended their relevancebeyond those whose situation had initiallyelicited them.The textualisation of the pundits' dis-course on sati also had as a consequence theelimination of human agency. If vyawasthasgrounded in specific contexts were madeautonomous the result was also to create an'imaginative construct' that did not repre-sent any particular sati. This ideal typicalrepresentation of sati denied the possibilityof sati as the conscious enactment of a socialpractice. Such erasure of human agency ef-fectively put the operation of Hindu cultureinto a timeless present in which passivenatives remained eternally yoked to religion.In this context it is interesting that many ofthe descriptions of sati written and used byabolitionists in their arguments are nar-ratives of sati the phenomenon, not of anyspecific incident.The following description of a 'typicalsat? by the magistrate R M Bird, is a perfect-ly textualised example:

If it were desired to portray a scene whichshould thrillwith horrorevery heart, not en-tirelydead to the touch of human sympathy,it would suffice to describe a father, regard-less of the affection of his tender child, inhaving already suffered one of the severestmiseries which flesh is heir to, with tearlesseyeleadingforth a spectacleto the assembledmultitude, who with barbarouscries demandthe sacrifice,and unrelentinglydeliveringupthe unconscious and unresistingvictimto anuntimely death, accompanied by the mostcrpel tortures.65Bird here describes sati in which the widow,relatives and spectators all play parts whichare predictable given what has been said hereabout colonial representation of each oftheir roles. That such textualisation alsodenies the widow subjectivity has also beennoted.In Ricoeur's expanded sense of the term'textualisation', cultures are 'textualised' ina number of ways. Myths, folklore, epics,rituals and other artifacts express andreiterate to a society ifs cultural values.

Ricoeur and Geertz66 among others haveinterpreted such cultural expressions in theWS-38


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manner of texts. In arguing that the colonialdiscourse textualised sati, I am not sug-gesting that Indian society was not textualis-ed in the pre-colonial period, merely that thecolonial mode of textualising was one thatprivileged writing and that such writing pro-duced consequences of domination, in-cluding those discussed in this paper.Finally, of course, the discourse on satiis a discourse of power. It illustratesdramatically Foucault's compelling thesisthat knowledge is produced within thematrix of power and that power operatesthrough the deployment of knowledge. Therelationship between the colonial officialand pundit was clearly interwoven by powerwhile the production and accumulation ofknowledge about sati enabled both attentionto detail and the redefinition and redistribu-tion of sati into its 'legal' and 'illegal' forms.

VConclusionIn this paper I have examined the first ofthe nineteenth century debates on the statusof women in India. These debates arose inthe context of determining an appropriatecolonial policy on such matters as sati whichwere seen to mark the depressed position ofwomen in Indian society, the reform ofwhich was held to be part of the regeneratingmission of colonisation. I have treated thedebate as discourse and focused on theassumptions about Indian society crucial tothis analysis-the hegemony of religioustexts, native obedience to its injunctions, anda scriptural sanction for sati-all of which

are problematised by material in the Parlia-mentary Papers.For instance, diversity in the mode ofcarrying out satiand regional variation inits incidence highlight the fact that textualtraditjon was actively negotiated. Similarly,both the resistance of some widows to coer-cion and what appears as the willingness ofothers to commit sati signal the fact thatwomen had a will of their own and actedon their own behalf. Finally, whatever theofficial claims for sati as a practice foundedin the Hindu faith, attention to the processby which knowledge about sati was produc-ed illustrates that officials interpreted theresponses of pundits in particular ways, withthe consequence that the construct of satithat was legally enforced was specifically'colonial'. Officials employed a number oftactics in reading the vyawasthas of pundits.Among these are the following: they privileg-ed vyawasthas based on religious texts overthose that drew on custom. They also in-sisted that pundits produce explicit scripturalinjunction and would accept inference onlywhere such unambiguous support could notbe generated. Of course, such tactics werenot used with any consistency. Some vyawas-thas (like that of Vidyalankar) were simplyignored. Thus, whatever their insistence onhaving arrived at a concept of sati that wastrue to the scriptures, we can state with

assurance hat the processattests mainlytothearbitrarinessf meanings mposedby of-ficial readings of vyawasthas.However arbitraryor contingent nine-teenthcenturyofficial interpretationsmighthave been, some of these assumptionsremain with us today,both in the scholar-ship on sati or more generally in ourunderstandingof Indian society. It is theremarkablendurance f someof these deasthatconfirms.the ontemporaryelevance fthis investigation.Forexample,much of thescholarly work on sati reproduces he no-tion of sati as an essentiallyreligiousprac-tice.67Oneconsequenceof this is to assumea transhistorical ignificance or thepheno-menon,a perspectivehatpreclude hepossi-bility of sati being the productof differentfactorsat different imes.DorothySteinevengoes so far as to suggest that the conceptof sati might be more important than itspractice.68 Such as approach lacks ex-planatoryvalue; t cannot, for example,ex-plainregional variation n the incidence ofsati. Not all academic work shares thisperspective.Although he does not say sohimself, Sharma'sarticleon the history ofwestern response to sati conclusivelydocuments irst, hat themeaningof sati washistorically variable and second, that itsmeaningwasbitterlycontestedin the nine-teenth century.69Also, in Ashis Nandy'swork, we have hebeginningsof ananalysisof sati as a practicerootedin temporalandspatial contexts.70Thediscourseon satiwasbyno means hefirst ime colonialofficialsaccordedprimarysignificance o religion.Thecodificationofscripturalaw as civil aw in 1772hadalreadyenshrined its importance.7'The enforce-ment of scriptural law as civil law hadextended the applicability of brahmanicscripturehithertolimitedto the twice-borncastes to all colonial subjects. Thus wasestablished particular elationship etweenscriptureand society, a relationshipwhichwasbolstered ach time, as in thecaseof satiin Bengal, colonial officials privilegedas authentic the scriptural tradition andmarginalised he importanceof custom.

I suggest hat thisdesignation f thescrip-tural tradition as 'true' was to have animportantbearingon thenineteenth enturydebates on the status of women. Forthesedebateswerea modethroughwhichcolonialpowerwas bothenforced ndcontested.Col-onial officials soughtto justify interferencein indigenous tradition, even colonial ruleitself, on thebasis of women's ow positionin indigenous traditionas also in contem-porarysociety. Divergent ndigenous maleeliteresponses o thischallengewere o argueeither hatsuchpoortreatmentwascontraryto tradition-Roy's strategy n the case ofsati-or thatwomenapproved f their radi-tional lot-the conservativeHinduresponse-or that this traditionwas bankrupt-theviewamongothers of HenryDerozio. In allthree nstances, heofficialequationof tradi-

tion withscripturewasreproduced.notherwords, arguments for and against socialreform were articulated, at least in part,upon a peculiarlycolonial constructionoftradition.Putanotherway,officialdiscourseshaped the nature of indigenous counterdiscoursesin quite specific ways.Finally,analysisof the official discourseon sati suggestsa less sharpdistinction hanhashithertobeenproposedbetween Orien-talists and Anglicists. The commonalitiesunderlying heirperspectives resignificant.As such, the issue is raisedof the extenttowhich the Anglicist programme or socialengineeringwas determinedby Orientalistanalysis of Indian society.Notes

1 For a straightforwardhistory of colonialstate policy, A Mukhopadhyay, 'Sati as aSocial Institution in Bengal', Bengal Pastand Present, 75:99-115;K Mittra, 'Suppres-sion of Suttee in the Province of Cuttack',Bengal Past and Present, 46: pp 125-31;G Seed, 'The Abolition of Suttee inBengal', History,October,1955,pp 286-99.For a 'colonial' account, E J Thompson,"Suttee: A Historical and PhilosophicalEnquiry nto the Hindu Riteof WidowBur-ning",London, Allen and Unwin, 1928.Fora general but very suggestive history ofwestern responses, A Sharma, 'Suttee: AStudy in Western Reactions', in this"Threshold of Hindu-Buddhist Studies",Calcutta, Minerva, 1978, pp 83-111.For aprovocativepsycho-socialanalysis,A Nancy,'Sati: A Nineteenth Century Tale ofWomen,Violenceand Protest'9 p V C Joshi(ed); "Rammohun Roy and the Process ofModernisation n India"'Delhi, Vikas, 1975,pp 168-94. For contemporary feministanalyses, D K Stein, 'Women to Burn:Suttee as a Normative Institution', Signs,1978, 4(2): pp 253-68; M Daly, "Gyn/Ecology", Boston, Beacon, 1978.2 For a succinct formulation of this perspec-tive as it relates to sati, C A Bayley, 'FromRitual to Ceremony:Death Ritualin HinduNorth India', n J Whaley(ed), "MirrorsofMortality: Studies in the Social History ofDeath".London, Europa, 1981,pp 173-74.3 I am arguing that this conception wasdistinctly 'colonial' not by means of com-parison with some pre-colonialconceptionof sati but rather,as will become clear inthe course of the paper, with referencetothe way a particularknowledge about satiwas produced under colonialism.4 B S Cohn in a lecture at University ofCalifornia, Santa Cruz, February 1981.5 M Foucault, "Disciplineand Punish",NewYork, Vintage,.1979.6 E Said, "Orientalism"', ew York,Vintage,1979.7 R Thapar, "The Past and Prejudice',National Book Trustof India, 1975, p 3.8 R Guha (ed), "SubalternStudies1:Writingson South Asian History and Society"'Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1982.

9 There is a substantial literature on thehistory of law undercolonialism, a discus-WS-39


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sion of which is beyond the scope of thispaper. See especially: J D M Derret,"Religion, Law and the State in India",London, Faber and Faber, 1968, Chs 8, 9;Lloyd I Rudolph and Suzanne H Rudolph,"The Modernity of Tradition",Chicago,Universityof Chicago Press, 1967, Part III;B S Cohn, 'Anthropological Notes onDisputes and Law in India, AmericanAnthropologist, 67, December 1965,pp 88-122;D A Washbrook,"LawStateandAgrarian Society in Colonial India",Modern Asian Studies, 15, 3, 1981,pp 649-721. Also noteworthy is A Appa-durai's discussion of law in his "Worshipand Conflict under Colonial Rule",Cam-bridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981.10 Parliamentary Papers on Hindu Widows(hereafter PP), 1821, xviii, p 316.11 Loc cit.12 Ibid, pp 322-6.13 Vyawasthasere the writtenlegal opinionssubmitted by pundits in response to suchquestions. See also Note 58.14 PP, 1821, pp 332-3.15 Ibid, pp 335-8.16 PP, 1824, xxiii, p 353.17 PP, 1821, p 513.18 PP, 1824, p 378.19 Loc cit.20 PP, 1830, xxviii, pp 1009-11.21 Analysis of sati by caste for 1823 is asfollows: brahmin:234; kayasth: 25; vaisya:14;sudra:292 (PP, 1825). It is clearthat thepracticewas disproportionatelyhigh amongthe numerically smaller brahmin caste.22 J K Majumdar(ed), "RajaRammohun Royand Progressive Movements in India: ASelection from Records, 1775-1845",Calcutta, 1941, p 141.23 PP, 1821, p 321.

24 Ibid, pp 521-3.25 Loc cit.26 Loc cit.27 Loc cit.28 Loc cit.29 Ibid, p 529.30 PP, 1830, p 918.31 PP, 1828, xxiii, p 169.32 PP, 1830, p 918.33 PP, 1821, p 532.34 Ibid, p 410.35 Ibid, p 411.36 Loc cit.37 Ibid, p 412.38 Ibid, p 424.39 Ibid, p 321.40 PP, 1830, p 906.41 PP, 1821, p 506.42 Ibid, p 507.43 Ibid, p 404.44 Ibid, p 400.45 Ibid, p 322.46 Loc cit.47 Loc cit.48 Ibid, p 325.49 Ibid, p 322.50 Ibid, p 406.51 The underminingof custom and customarylaw was not particular to sati but was a

general eature of colonial ruleand has beennoted among others by Derrett, op cit,

Rudolph and Rudolph, op cit; Appadurai,op cit.52 Ibid, p 134.53 Ibid, pp 408-9.54 Ibid, p 322.55 Ibid, p 407.56 Loc cit.

57 Loc cit.58 In this context it is interesting to note thatthe dictionary definition of vyawasthatellsits own tale of colonial legacy. Vyawasthais variously defined as 'settlement, 'deci-sion'. 'statute, 'rule', law' 'legal decision' oropinion applied to the writtenextracts fromthe codes of law or adjustment of con-tradictory passages in different codes.Source:A Sanskrit-EnglishDictionarycom-piled by Sir Monier Williams.59 PP, 1821, p 327.60 Foucault, op cit, p 78.

61 PP, 1821, p 344.62 PP, 1823, xvii, p 354.63 P Ricoeur, 'The Model of the Text:Mean-ingful Action Considered as a Text',SocialResearch, 1971, 38:3.64 Ricoeur, op cit, p 531.65 PP, 1825, xxiv, p 243.66 C Geertz, 'Deep Play: Notes on the BalineseCockfight', Daedalus, 1972: 101: pp 1-37.67 Mitra, Mukhopadhyay,Seed, Stein,Thomp-son, op cit.68 Stein, op cit.69 Sharma, op cit.70 Nandy, op cit.71 B S Cohn, 'Notes on the History and Studyof Indian Society and Culture, in "Struc-tureand Change in Indian Society",Singerand Cohn (eds), Chicago, Aldine, 1968,p 10.

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