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Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India by Lata Mani.

With the abolition of Sati in 1829, Historians had engaged the issues in various
ways. However, they have not addressed properly on the issue of women in the performance of
the practise. Lata Mani in this work Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India has
highlighted and argued that women were essentially marginalised in this discussion of Sati. The
book explores the position of women in the nineteenth century by carefully examining the
discussion on the practise of sati by the colonial officials, the Bhadralok of Bengal and the
missionaries from 1780-1833.
In the first chapter, Equivocations in the Name of Traditions: The Official
Debate on Widow Burning, Lata Mani explores the records in the administration of the State,
and analyse the Sati legislative history. The matter on sati was forwarded to the Nizamat Adalat
which was dealt by its pundit. On this foundation, the Company considered sati to be part of the
Hindu religion. The 1813 circular highlighted the differences between what consist of a legal
and an illegal sati. Lata Mani points out that the official discussion on sati eradication was
arranged on its desirability, and feasibility. The issue on sati abolition rests on its claim in
scriptural position. The officials considered it on three grounds: the centrality of religion, the
submission of the indigenous populace to its dictates, and the religious basis of sati. Vyawastha
was explained in a specific manner whereby the notion of sati created in official dialog was
colonial.
In the second chapter, Abstract Disquisitions: Bhadralok and the Normative
Violence of Sati, focus was on the works of bhadralok on sati. Pamphlets, Petitions, newspaper
reports were thoroughly analysed. Lata Mani argues that supporters as well as challengers of the
practise of sati were involved totally in a modern procedure. It is not the contest among
tradition and modernity as it was a tussle of competing versions of modernity. Whatever their
differences on the issue of sati, both supporters and opponents agreed to the point that scripture
superseded custom, evidence from the scripture as more superior and overall, the ancient text
was the highest. This was connected with the notion that the Hindu people had gone apart from
its earlier period of the Golden Age. It had been pointed out that tradition was not the arena
where the position of women was debated. However, women became the place whereby
tradition was discussed and reinvented.
In the third chapter, Missionaries and subalterns: Belaboring Tradition in the
Marketplace, examines the accounts of Christian missionaries especially their teachings in the
non institutional site in the streets of Serampore. The missionary works were not legal in the
company territory until 1813. The chapter examines more about the missionaries evaluation of
the society, the scriptural position in it, and the suggestion about the link in individual and
religion. These matters were crucial to the missionary on their view of sati which was shaped by a
proselytizing mission. The missionaries posed queries about scripture in relation to the
particular practice, and they considered the people as ignorant. The missionaries tried to consider
a specific practice as valid solely in terms of connection with the scripture. During the course of
interacting with the public, the missionaries had encountered difficulties in dealing with them
and misapprehension developed.
In the fourth chapter, Travelling Texts: The Consolidation of Missionary
Discourse on India, discuss the strengthening of the missionaries stance after 1813. The focus
was shifted to the writings meant for publications. Lata Mani made a comparison and studies the
works of Wards Account of the Writings, Religions and Manners of the Hindus, (1811), which was later
edited in 1822 as A view of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos. Modification was
noticed as the later version saw stronger claim that the society filled with religiosity in all their
aspects of life which generate harmful social results particularly to women, and authoritative
presentation was noticeable. She also analyse the Missionary Register, and Periodical Accounts. It was
also shown that the development of the missionarys position was uneven. In spite of the
differences among journals and letters and the Missionary Register, they agreed on some common
grounds which consist of giving the prime importance to religion, passive relation that the
people have with it, scriptural significance and the superior position of the Brahmins. It was
argued that context and constituency are crucial in determining the diverse emphasis of the
missionaries.
In the last chapter, The Female Subject, The Colonial Gaze: Eyewitness Account
of Sati, examines the accounts of the people who had witness the performance of Sati. She
studies the structure of the account and the emphasis of these depictions was moulded by the
British discourse on the practise of sati and those involved in it. These had shown the practise as
basically a spiritual rite, ignored the pains of the women performing the act, and often noticed
that it was either a horror or fascination of the English, the women were either depicted as
either a victim or a heroine. In addition to scrutinising these account, the experiences and
evidences of the widows, Lata Mani argues and contest the idea that the performance of sati was
voluntary, a practise whereby the women devoted herself to the husband and explains its
material basis. She had tried to renovate women as subject, to restore to the centre the traces of
active suffering, resistance, and coercion elided or marginalised in these narratives. It was argued
that if the colonial religious notion which consist of sacred and secular was discarded, then it
may have been accepted that an action chiefly with material basis was given forms in terms that
were religious. It has been pointed out that the widows never derived scriptural basis for the
performance of sati in contrast to the rewards to be obtained on its performance as argued by
the supporters of sati. Instead the widow statement reiterated the material hardship and social
dimension of widowhood. Nevertheless, the British idea of religion as the organising norm of
society signify that though discovered initially in the debate, proof of the material basis was not
able to replace the claim of it essentially religious appeal. This claim overlapped with the
ambivalence toward sati which postponed its abolition.
The Book provides an insightful contribution to our understanding of the
position of women in the discussion on sati. It clearly illustrates women status and subordination
in a patriarchal societal setup. Lata Mani had carefully brought out those missing points which
earlier interpretations had ignored or give little attention to and provided a distinct analysis.

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