Consider the following statements about the condition of widows in the 18th century India: 1. Raja Sawai Jai Singh of Amber promoted widow remarriage. 2. Maratha General Parshuram Bhau promoted widow remarriage. 3. Raja Ram Mohan Roy opposed Sati. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)1 and 3 only
- (c)2 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. All three statements reproduce the standard account of attempts to improve the position of widows. Sawai Jai Singh of Amber, the ruler who built Jaipur and the observatories and who reigned until 1743, is remembered among other reforms for having tried to encourage the remarriage of widows — an effort that ran into the resistance of his own contemporaries and left little behind. Parshuram Bhau Patwardhan, the Maratha general of the later eighteenth century, made the same attempt in the Maratha country, with the same result. Statement 3 is the most secure of the three: Rammohun Roy campaigned against sati from 1818, publishing tracts arguing that the practice had no scriptural warrant, organising vigilance at the burning grounds, and giving the Governor-General the support of an Indian constituency for the regulation of December 1829 that made the rite a criminal offence; when the orthodox appealed to the Privy Council against that regulation, he went to England and the appeal was dismissed in 1832. So all three stand.
- (a)1 and 2 only — Drops the statement about Rammohun Roy, which is the best-documented of the three; his campaign against sati from 1818 onwards is a fixed point of the period.
- (b)1 and 3 only — Drops Parshuram Bhau, whose attempt to promote widow remarriage in the Maratha country is recorded alongside Jai Singh's in the standard accounts of eighteenth-century society.
- (c)2 and 3 only — Drops Sawai Jai Singh of Amber, who is regularly cited as an eighteenth-century ruler who tried to encourage widow remarriage.
The condition of widows in eighteenth-century India was governed by custom rather than by law: remarriage was barred for widows of the higher castes, and in parts of Bengal, Rajputana and the Maratha country the widow of a man of rank might be burnt with him. Individual rulers and commanders occasionally tried to change this, but the change came only in the nineteenth century, with the sati regulation of 1829 and the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856 carried by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's campaign.
Note the stem's framing before you answer. It asks about the condition of widows in the eighteenth century, and two of its three statements are eighteenth-century, while Rammohun Roy's campaign is a nineteenth-century one — he was born in 1772, so his life begins in the eighteenth century but his public work against sati runs from 1818 to 1830. The examiner is treating him as continuous with that earlier period, which is fair enough as social history but loose as chronology; the statement itself, that he opposed sati, is unambiguously true, so the item is unaffected. The wider lesson is that reform attempts here run from individual rulers in the eighteenth century to organised campaign and legislation in the nineteenth.
- Sawai Jai Singh of Amber, who founded Jaipur in 1727 and died in 1743, is credited with attempting to promote the remarriage of widows.
- Parshuram Bhau Patwardhan, a Maratha general of the later eighteenth century, made a similar attempt in the Maratha country.
- Rammohun Roy campaigned against sati from 1818, publishing tracts against its scriptural basis and mobilising opinion.
- The Bengal Sati Regulation of December 1829, under Governor-General William Bentinck, made the rite a criminal offence; the orthodox appeal against it was dismissed by the Privy Council in 1832.
- Widow remarriage among the higher castes was legalised only by the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856, following Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's campaign.
- Early eighteenth century — Sawai Jai Singh of Amber attempts to encourage widow remarriage; it does not take hold
- Later eighteenth century — the Maratha general Parshuram Bhau makes a similar attempt, with the same result
- From 1818 — Rammohun Roy campaigns against sati, arguing that it has no scriptural warrant
- December 1829 — the Bengal Sati Regulation makes the rite a criminal offence; the Privy Council dismisses the orthodox appeal in 1832
- 1856 — the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, carried after Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's campaign
Two isolated eighteenth-century attempts, then organised campaigning and legislation in the nineteenth.
- Rejecting statement 3 because Rammohun Roy is a nineteenth-century figure; the statement itself is true, and the stem's period label is loose rather than wrong.
- Confusing the abolition of sati in 1829 with the legalisation of widow remarriage in 1856 — different measures, a generation apart.
- Assuming eighteenth-century rulers made no attempt at social reform; a few did, and the point of the question is that they failed.
As a statements item pairing individual eighteenth-century reform attempts with the better-known nineteenth-century campaigns.
Who among the following founded the Hindu Dharma Sabha in the 19th century?
- (a) Radhakanta Deb
- (b) Ram Mohan Roy
- (c) Dwarkanath Tagore
- (d) Keshab Chandra Sen
Answer(a) Radhakanta Deb
The other side of the same argument. Radhakanta Deb's Dharma Sabha was founded in 1830 precisely to resist the abolition of sati and to petition against it, so it is the organised opposition to the campaign named in statement 3 here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Bengal Sati Regulation, which made the practice a criminal offence, was enacted in which year?
- (a)1813
- (b)1829
- (c)1856
- (d)1891
Answer(b) 1829 — under Governor-General William Bentinck, with Rammohun Roy's public support.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856 was passed largely as a result of the campaign led by
- (a)Rammohun Roy
- (b)Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
- (c)Keshab Chandra Sen
- (d)Dayananda Saraswati
Answer(b) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar — whose scriptural arguments and petitioning carried the measure.