Discuss in detail the widow remarriage movement in l9th centuary Maharashtra.
Answers
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.[1] It was drafted by Lord Dalhousie, but it was passed by his successor 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.[8] The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856,[9] provided legal safeguards against loss of certain forms of inheritance for remarrying a Hindu widow,[8]though, under the Act, the widow forsook any inheritance due her from her deceased husband.[10] 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,[11] but there was a counter petition against the proposal with nearly four times more signatures by Radhakanta Deband the Dharma Sabha.[12][13] But Lord Dalhousie personally finalised the bill despite the opposition and it being considered a flagrant breach of Hindu customs as prevalent then