Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/31

Rh sufficiently repugnant to them when the victim willingly immolated herself. When, however, as happened in so many cases, she was actually forced on to the funeral pyre against her will, it was impossible to stand by and permit it. Several instances had occurred in which the local officers had humanely prevented widows from being forced against their will to commit Sati, and cases brought by the aggrieved relatives had come before the courts. The practice of Sati not being illegal, the courts could only declare illegal any interference with it. The Judges were thus put, as they hastened to protest, in a most embarrassing position, being practically forced to give the 'barbarous rite' their protection and lay themselves open to the charge of unnecessarily aiding and abetting suicide. After much anxious discussion and consultation with some of the most learned pundits of the day, the Governor-General issued instructions to all officers on April the 17th, 1813. Even Ram Mohan Roy had hesitated to advise the immediate total abolition of Sati by Government. Bitterly opposed to the practice as he was, he yet dreaded compulsion in any form, trusting to persuasion and hoping that as education spread among his fellow-countrymen they would of their own free will abandon so inhuman a rite. Government's instructions to its officers accordingly were that though the practice could not be forcibly prevented where it was countenanced by Hindu religion and law, it should be