Production of an Official Discourse on Sati in Early Nineteenth Century Bengal

in Early Nineteenth Century Bengal Lata Mani Several debates arose in the nineteenth century on the status of women in India in the context of determining, an appropriate colonial policy on such matters as sati which were seen to mark the depressed position of women in society. The reform of these practices was held to be part of the regenerating mission of colonisation. The most sensational and the first of these debates concerned the outlawing of sati.