Calcutta, India, 1856: After successfully banning the practice of
suttee (widow-burning), the British government in India has been mindful
of the plight of higher-caste widows, forbidden to remarry, deemed unlucky by
their families, often poorly treated, and sometimes forced into beggary and
prostitution. Many widows had been married at a very young age to elderly men;
widowed as children, theirs was the worst plight. The Hindu Widows' Remarriage
Act XV of 1856 was passed which enabled widows to marry again. This gave a
severe shock to the then conservative Hindu society. Later, in 1872, the
Special Marriage Act III of 1872 was passed which enabled one to marry out of
her own caste.
However, overall, the movement was a failure. Only about 80 widows were
remarried in Bengal over a span of 20 years.
Background
In ancient India women enjoyed equal status with man in all fields of
life, she received the same education like man, many Hindu religious books like
Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata have mentioned the names of several
women who were great scholars, poets, philosophers of the time. But in the
Medival period, the status of women went down considerably. She was considered
to be inferior to man. Widows were not treated as human beings and were
subjected to a lot of restrictions. They were supposed to live a pious life
after their husband died and were not allowed entry in any celebration. Their
presence in any good work was considered to be a bad omen. Sometimes heads of
widows were also shaved down. They were not allowed to remarry. Any woman
remarrying was looked down by the society. This cruelty on widows was one of
the main reasons for the large number of women committing Sati. In medieval
India living as a Hindu widow was a sort of curse.
