India's cries to British humanity, relative to the suttee, infanticide, British connexion with idolatry, ghaut murders, and slavery in India; : to which is added humane hints for the melioration of the state of society in British India. / By J. Peggs.

  • Peggs, James, 1793-1850.
Date:
1830
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: India's cries to British humanity, relative to the suttee, infanticide, British connexion with idolatry, ghaut murders, and slavery in India; : to which is added humane hints for the melioration of the state of society in British India. / By J. Peggs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    / British Humanity. 1* The cause of the principal prevalence of this inhuman custom in Bengal, and especially in the vicinity of Cal- cutta, is thus stated by H. Oakley, Esq., Magistrate of Hooghly, December, 1818:—“ The Suttee is supposed by some to be au act enjoined by the religon of the Hindoos ; but, if so, why does it prevail in one part more than another? and why in the immediate neighbourhood of the Presidency? The worship of the Hindoo deities is tolerably equal, wher- ever the religion extends, and the pilgrimages by which they are to be propitiated are the same throughout India ; and, it Suttee were really an act enjoined by religion, it would be universally meritorious, and equally observed wherever that religion is followed; but, as it is not, we must account for its prevalence among the Hindoos in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, not by their peculiar strictness in the observance of religious and moral duties, but by some peculiar cir- cumstances affecting their moral character. It is notori- ous that the natives of Calcutta and its vicinity exceed all others in profligacy and immorality of conduct. The idol of the drunkard and the thief (Kalee) is scarcely to be met with in the distant provinces, and none but the most aban- doned will confess that he is a follower of Kalee. In Calcutta we find few’ that are not. Her worship must harden the hearts of her followers, to whom scenes of blood and crime must become familiar. By such men a Suttee is not regarded as a religious act, but a choice en- tertainment ; and we may conclude, that the vicious pro- pensities of the Hindoos in the vicinity of Calcutta are a cause of the comparative prevalence of the custom. But I am utterly unable to assign a cause for this local depra- vity, and for the prevalence of a worship despised and ab- horred by every Hindoo of respectable character.”* Ram Mohun Roy, in a Tract entitled “ Brief Remarks regarding modern encroachments on the ancient rights of Females, according to the Hindoo law of inheritance, supposes the prevalence of Suttee in Bengal to arise from the existence of polygamy, and the dependent and unhappy circumstances in'w hich widows are left. He says—“ All the ancient lawgivers unanimously award to a mother an equal share with her son in the property left by her deceased husband, in order that she may spend her remaining days independently of her children.” But modern expounders. * Par. Papers, vol. v. p. 237.