[Marxism] forwarded from Rahul Mahajan on Sati

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Opposition to Sati, culminating in passage of an ordinance against it by
> the British, was galvanized by Raja Rammohun Roy, a "native." He had a
> great deal of difficulty interesting the British in doing anything about
> it, since their instinctive approach (later codified as overt colonial
> policy) was not to interfere with the cultural traditions of colonized
> people, indeed sometimes to strengthen them subtly, so that nothing would
> cause trouble that might get in the way of economic reconfiguration for
> surplus-extraction.
>
> Like so much of the narrative of civilizing imperialism, this notion of
> the British anti-sati crusade is largely mythological. I am at a loss to
> understand why Spivak didn't mention Roy and chose to repeat this
> particular myth; it's especially puzzling since every educated Bengali
> knows about him.


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