Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India

by Lata Mani

Contentious Traditions analyzes the debate on sati , or widow burning, in colonial India. Though the prohibition of widow burning in 1829 was heralded as a key step forward for women's emancipation in modern India, Lata Mani argues that the women who were burned were marginal to the debate and that the controversy was over definitions of Hindu tradition, the place of ritual in religious worship, the civilizing missions of colonialism and evangelism, and the proper role of the colonial state. Mani radically revises colonialist as well as nationalist historiography on the social reform of women's status in the colonial period and clarifies the complex and contradictory character of missionary writings on India.

The history of widow burning is one of paradox. While the chief players in the debate argued over the religious basis of sati and the fine points of scriptural interpretation, the testimonials of women at the funeral pyres consistently addressed the material hardships and societal expectations attached to widowhood. And although historiography has traditionally emphasized the colonial horror of sati , a fascinated ambivalence toward the practice suffused official discussions. The debate normalized the violence of sati and supported the misconception that it was a voluntary act of wifely devotion.

Mani brilliantly illustrates how situated feminism and discourse analysis compel a rewriting of history, thus destabilizing the ways we are accustomed to look at women and men, at "tradition," custom, and modernity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, India, School

260 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1998

Reviews

[Blessy Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I as a young postgrad student read one of the chapters on the Sati debate between Indian gentry and colonial officials, I have to admit that it was one of those crucial texts that determined for me why I wanted to be a historian. Years later, I found Lata Mani's Contentious Traditions in a thrift shop and out of sheer nostalgia and admiration for this visionary work, I bought it immediately. Now that I have read the book, I can convey that it still has the same power to inspire with its keen methodological approach, its convincing arguments, and overall powerful prose. Mani's contribution to gender history, subaltern history and overall South Asian studies is unparalleled. Her impactful argument that widow/women in fact became the site at which traditions and religious discourse were debated and contended, really refigures the status and agency of women when contesting their emancipation, empowerment and rescue against a social context coded in religious patriarchy and communal ideas of honor. I think this argument is even relevant today when one debates about emancipating hijabi women, leading to contest between religious discourse and 'secular' civil law without paying attention to whether the women involved have any say in it. The presentation of their external status becomes simultaneously a mark of communal and religious honor and paradoxically a symbol of that community's degradation and otherness in eyes of the state. These power plays in discourse formation while robbing the subaltern of their agency continues to be evoked even today. Mani's work is important because it tries to recover the voice or agency of the subaltern crushed under the weight of the work presented by male narrators, colonial and native. However, I do feel a slight ambivalence as to how far Mani succeeds in allowing her women to come through in the sources. Given the difficult nature of reading against the grain in order to glean subaltern presence in sources that are filled heavily with male perspective and fantasy, it would be definitely hard to read more about the widows themselves. Nevertheless, I still feel that the term 'widow' remains insufficiently interrogated. In the discussions on discourse and context, the focus still remains on the men who debated the sati problem rather than on the women. At the end of book, one still cannot determine the caste and other forms of social location of these women who were being sacrificed at the pyre other than the fact whether it was voluntary or not. Just clubbing them as upper caste women seemed reductive. Moreover why sati was common in certain areas but not in other, also needs to be reexamined in context of caste and whether sati initiated a brahmanization among lower castes leading to a higher incidence of sati. In addition, I was curious as to how the 1829 banning of sati had an impact on this ritual and how it affected other social reform movements like widow remarriage and property laws. The book does a thorough examination of pre 1829 social scenario but its abrupt end at 1829 leaves the reader feeling a bit unsatisfied. But despite these minor flaws, I remain a huge admirer of Lata Mani's work and especially in awe of how she tries various methodological approaches to examine her sources. As an aspiring historian, her work is certainly a must read, no matter the area of research, especially for its methodological skills.

[Joshita · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Contentious Traditions" analyzes the debate on sati, or widow burning, in colonial India. It illustrates how situated feminism and discourse analysis compel a rewriting of history, thus destabilizing the ways we are accustomed to looking at women and men, at 'tradition', custom, and modernity.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those books you have to read for a class in college, but it was one of the first that really made me interested in history that was completely beyond my sphere of understanding. It was a fascinating read, and really influenced the approach I took to my Senior Thesis.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant theory of wife burning in a colonial construct.