THE REV. JAMES JACKSON writes:

One often hears of the importance of respecting national customs. This respect is demanded by immigrants to Western countries, over anything from foot washing facilities to honor killings. General Sir Charles Napier, the British Army’s Commander-in-Chief in India in the mid-19th century had quite a response to this sort of thinking. The response was to a contingent of Hindu priests complaining to him about the prohibition of sati by British authorities. Sati was the custom of burning a widow alive on the funeral pyre of her husband. As first recounted by his brother William, the general replied: “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation also has a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”

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