THE

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8023

SUTTEES' CRY TO BRITAIN;

CONTAINING

EXTRACTS FROM ESSAYS PUBLISHED IN INDIA
AND PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS

ON THE

Burning of Hindoo Widows :

SHEWING THAT THE

Rite is not an Integral Part of the Religion of the Hindoos,

BUT

A HORRID CUSTOM,

OPPOSED TO THE INSTITUTES OF MENU, AND A VIOLATION

Of every principle of Justice and Humanity:

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED TO THE CONSIDERATION OF ALL WHO ARE
INTERESTED IN THE WELFARE OF

BRITISH INDIA;

AND SOLICITING THE INTERFERENCE OF THE BRITISH
GOVERNMENT, AND OF THE HONOURABLE THE COURT
OF DIRECTORS OF THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA
COMPANY, TO SUPPRESS THIS SUICIDAL PRACTICE.

BY J. PEGGS,

Late Missionary at Cuttack, Orissa.

"In childhood, must a female be dependent on her father; in youth, on her husband;
her lord being dead, on her sons; if she have no sons, on the near kinsmen of her hus-
band; if he left no kinsmen, on those of her father; if he have no paternal kinsmen, on
the Sovereign."
INST. OF MENU.

"The burning of widows is a mere excrescence from the corrupt stock of polytheism."
FRIEND OF INDIA.

London:

SEELY AND SON, FLEET-STREET; W. BAYNES AND SON, AND
WIGHTMAN AND CRAMP, PATERNOSTER-ROW; WESTLEY,
STATIONERS' COURT; BLANCHARD, CITY-ROAD: SOLD ALSO
BY WILKINS, DERBY; BENNETT, NOTTINGHAM; NOBLE,
BOSTON; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.

1827.

Winks, Printer, Leicester-road, Loughborough,

THE

Suttees' Cry to Britain,

&c., &c.

SECTION I.

Remarks on the horrid nature of the practice of burning Hindoo Widows, and on the causes that tend to prevent its suppression or occasion its perpetration.

It is a melancholy reflection, that the religion which influences the population of the vast regions of India, is totally unfavourable to the exercise of every principle either of humanity or virtue. Many of its precepts are so afflictive and unnatural, that they seem to have sunk by common consent into complete disuse; and if every point of the Hindoo ritual were literally enforced, not only would it be impossible to carry forward the ordinary business of life, but all those social relations, to which we are indebted for so much of our happiness, would be completely obliterated, and the whole frame of society dissolved. There are still, however, many usages subversive equally of benevolence and morality, which have been perpetuated for ages. Among these is the burning of widows, a practice, the enormity of which would strike even the Hindoos themselves, did not a blind attachment to the vices of their forefathers overcome every natural feeling. In all the annals of human depravity it will be difficult to discover a custom so horrible in its nature, or so destructive in its consequences both on individual and public happiness. It forms one of the blackest pages in the history of Hindooism; and were this feature of its character alone to remain on record, it would be of itself sufficient to hand it down to the execration of the latest ages. That a practice, which would reflect a stigma on the most barbarous tribes, should have been sanctioned by men of thought and penetration, and perpetuated among a people whose mildness of disposition is proverbial, shews to what a state of degradation the mind may be reduced under the influence of an unnatural superstition. This is not the case

A 2