There was a time in India when being a woman meant you’ll be exposed to all kinds of pains and sufferings that are there in human life. The women were treated as the shadow of their husbands and were expected to plan their lives revolving around them. The position of a woman in society was reduced to being a housewife and a devoted caretaker. The literacy rate was at an alarming state and so was the state of women’s rights and empowerment.  

Then came the revolution introduced by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. He was strictly against the flailing state of women in that era and fought for decades before he was able to introduce modernised ideas in that era. The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856 by British General Lord Dalhousie. 

The Sati System

The ancient Indians followed a funeral system specifically for the widows namely the Sati system. As mentioned above, women were supposed to plan their entire life surrounding their husbands which were taken quite literally. Society expected the women to end their lives as their husbands’ lives ended. The women were either forcefully or voluntarily made to jump into the funeral pyre of their husband and were burnt to death which made them Sati, a Hindi word meaning she is pure. This system was criticised all over the world as it violated the most basic right to life of the women who became widowed and were expected to give their lives unwillingly and untimely. 

Injustices for Widows in India

In the India of that century, the lives of widows were the worst lives one can ever imagine being. The widows were expected to give up the joys of life and were excluded from society. They lived an extreme life in which they were not allowed to wear colours, makeup and eat good food. They were excluded from all the joyous occasions and were expected to wear the saree made from coarse materials. The widows were forcibly made to give up the comforts in life and live life like saints and hermits. 

As child marriages were very prevalent at that time, marrying a teenage daughter to a middle-aged man was a common practice. When the husband died as the age closed in, the girl who did not even live half of her life by that time was either forced to give up all the comforts of life and live like a hermit or she was expected to jump in the funeral pyre of her husband and burn to death. 

Ishwar Chand Vidyasagar

Vidyasagar was born in a small village of West Bengal in 1820 and was a pivotal figure in abolishing the distressing Sati system and pioneer in leading the wave of change regarding the conditions of widows in society. A man ahead of the times he was born in, he fought vicariously to put an end to the system of child marriage and introduced the concept of making education accessible to women in society. A Sanskrit prodigy, he also targeted the caste-based discrimination and opened the gates of the school he was principal at to all the lower caste children. He was one of the individuals who actively campaigned for the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856.

Hindu Widow Remarriage Act 1856

The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856 with immense support from the English. The Indian society was suffering from several social evils which discriminated against women and the lower castes. The injustices done to the widows were one amongst many of them. In 1856, the law finally passed which made the remarriages of the Hindu widows legal in the books and an attempt to legalise it in societies as well. The passed law also made several rules about women’s rights on the property of her deceased husband. The main features of the law are:

• The law made the Hindu widow remarriage legal in the country. It mentioned that no Hindu marriage will be deemed illegitimate because the woman was previously married to a person who was dead at that time. It nullified the Hindu traditions which said otherwise
• The law also allowed the widowed woman to get an inheritance and rights which she may have had at the time of her first marriage
• If the remarried widow or any other person does not express the want to get the guardianship of the children which the widowed woman has with the deceased husband, then the father or paternal grandfather or mother or paternal grandmother of the deceased husband can petition in the court to get the guardianship of the children
• The woman will receive the inheritance from the deceased husband even if she’s childless at the time of his death. Any such ritual existing before the passing of the law was nullified
• The ceremonies performed to validate a marriage will not undergo any change in case of widow remarriage
• In case the widowed woman is marrying a minor who has not consummated his marriage to date, the woman will need the permission of his father or any male relative in order to get married

Role of British in Passing Hindu Widow Remarriage Act 1856

The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 had huge support from the British as at that time the English East India Company was in power. The country was deeply filled with social injustices and evils which primarily discriminated against the lower class. Before passing this act, the British abolished the Sati system which was passed by Lord Bentinck. 

The Widow Remarriage Act was drafted by Lord Dalhousie himself and was passed by the then Governor-General of the Country Lord Canning. 

Conclusion

India has suffered from a large number of social evils and the Satu system was one of them. Injustices against the widow were numerous and there was no prominent voice against stopping them before the advent of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856 and had the huge support of the British. The law was drafted by Lord Dalhousie and was passed by Lord Canning.