SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 12 of 99

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

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Who introduced the law that abolished the practice of Sati in British India in 1829?

(a)Lord Dalhousie
(b)Lord Curzon
(c)Lord William Bentinck
(d)Lord Canning

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Lord William Bentinck, as Governor-General, issued Regulation XVII on 4 December 1829, declaring sati illegal in the Bengal Presidency.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy's campaign against the practice prepared the ground, but the law was Bentinck's → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Lord Dalhousie — Lord Dalhousie governed from 1848 to 1856, two decades after the ban. He is linked with the Doctrine of Lapse, not with sati.
(b)
Lord Curzon — Lord Curzon was Viceroy from 1899 to 1905 and is remembered for the Partition of Bengal, more than seventy years after sati was banned.
(d)
Lord Canning — Lord Canning governed from 1856 to 1862, through the Revolt of 1857, and became the first Viceroy in 1858. The sati ban came 27 years before he arrived.

Concept

Sati was the burning of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre. Reformers, Raja Ram Mohan Roy the best known among them, campaigned against it in print and in public debate, and Bentinck acted after finding the judges of the courts in favour of a ban.

Opponents of the ban petitioned the Privy Council in London against the regulation, and the Privy Council rejected the petition in 1832.

The stem says British India, but the 1829 regulation covered the Bengal Presidency, the territory then under the Governor-General's direct rule. That does not change the answer.

Key facts

Regulation XVII, issued on 4 December 1829 under Lord William Bentinck, made sati illegal in the Bengal Presidency.
The Privy Council rejected a petition against the sati ban in 1832.
Under the Charter Act of 1833, Bentinck became the first Governor-General of India.
Bentinck's term also saw the English Education Act of 1835.

Study next

The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 and Ishwar Chandra VidyasagarThe suppression of thuggee under Bentinck and William SleemanThe Charter Acts of 1813, 1833 and 1853

Common traps

Mixing up the sati ban (1829, Bentinck) with the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act (1856, Canning's first year): they are separate reforms.

Bentinck's role is also asked at 10 Sep 2024, 9:00, GA Q.7, and Ram Mohan Roy's campaign at 14 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.6.

The Doctrine of Lapse, the fact tied to Dalhousie, is asked at 13 Sep 2024, 9:00, GA Q.21.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.