Comment by SHIT_TALKER

10 years ago

The British created your grandparents' country and you should be thankful to them for it. It was nothing but fortunate for India to have sensible men like Charles James Napier working to put an end to barbarism like Sati:

A story for which Napier is often noted involved Hindu priests complaining to him about the prohibition of Sati by British authorities. This was the custom of burning a widow alive on the funeral pyre of her husband. As first recounted by his brother William, he replied:

"Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs."[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_James_Napier#Service_i...

17 comments

SHIT_TALKER

Reply
jacquesm  10 years ago

The fact that colonialism had some beneficial side-effects does not make it right and does not oblige anybody to be thankful.

  • SHIT_TALKER  10 years ago

    When you are weak, you take what you can get. It was much better to have been colonized by the British, who actually had an interest in nation-building and respect for law and human rights (to the extent they deemed their subjects capable of handling them), than, say, to have become the personal fiefdom of Leopold II of Belgium.

    • jacquesm  10 years ago

      That's a false dichotomy if there ever was one. The alternative to being colonized by the British was not to be colonized by Belgium but not to be colonized at all.

      6 replies →

geofft  10 years ago

Napier is one of my favorite historical figures, but wasn't sati banned based on the requests of (native) Hindu reformers, and Napier merely spoke in favor of the ban when other Hindu priests complained? It seems like a stretch to argue that it was Napier who worked to put an end to sati.

  • SHIT_TALKER  10 years ago

    None of the other sensible men like Napier gave such a pithy and powerful quote on the topic.

    • geofft  10 years ago

      Ah, yes, pithy and powerful quotes! I should be thankful for colonialism for providing pithy and powerful quotes. Take up the white man's burden of speechwriting.

      Seriously, there are much better arguments for the position you're espousing. I can come up with half a dozen without trying. If you're really interested in contributing to discourse, try making them.

      3 replies →