Question

1. What was the new amendment in the law in 1856 passed by the East India Company?
1. Every new person who took up employment in the Company’s army had to pay a tax and
2. Every new person who took up employment in the Company’s army will be paid only a low salary
3. Every new person who took up employment in the Company’s army had to agree to serve overseas if required.
4. Every new person who took up employment in the Company’s army had to collect the revenues set by the British.

Answer 1

Answer:

1.)The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856, also Act XV, 1856, enacted on 26 July 1856, legalised the remarriage of Hindu widows in all jurisdictions of India under East India Company rule. It was drafted by Lord Dalhousie and passed by Lord Canning before the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It was the first major social reform legislation after the abolition of Sati by Lord William Bentinck.

To protect what it considered family honour and family property, upper-caste Hindu society had long disallowed the remarriage of widows, even child and adolescent ones, all of whom were expected to live a life of austerity and abnegation.The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856,provided legal safeguards against loss of certain forms of inheritance for remarrying a Hindu widow,though, under the Act, the widow forsook any inheritance due her from her deceased husband. Especially targeted in the act were Hindu child widows whose husbands had died before consummation of marriage.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was the most prominent campaigner. He petitioned the Legislative council, but there was a counter petition against the proposal with nearly four times more signatures by Radhakanta Deb and the Dharma Sabha.But Lord Dalhousie personally finalised the bill despite the opposition and it being considered a flagrant breach of Hindu customs as prevalent then.

Answer 2

Answer: 3. Every new person who took up employment in the Company’s army had to agree to serve overseas if required.

Explanation:

In 1856, the Company approved a new legislation requiring every new individual who joined the Company's army to pledge to serve overseas if necessary. Such regulations went against the sepoys' religious and cultural beliefs. The Hindu faith prohibited the Sepoys from crossing the "black water." The East India Company issued an Act in 1856 requiring every new recruit in the army to sign a promise to service overseas. The British gave the idea that they were attacking their faith. They felt threatened by their faith and violated the feelings of the sepoys who worked for them. Hence the new amendment in law in 1856 which was passed by the East India Company was that every new person who enrolled in the army would have to give an undertaking  to serve oversees if situation arises.

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