THOUGH the Hindu custom of sati in which a widow — even if she is still in her teens or twenties — is buried alive with her husband or burned to death on his funeral pyre was outlawed in India in 1987, the life of a Hindu widow remains one of misery and loneliness in many parts of the country. Showkat Shafi wrote in 2016:

The women often live in acute poverty and are ostracised by society due to various superstitions – even the shadow of a widow can wreak havoc and bring bad luck, people believe. Lack of education and any source of income forces them to beg on streets and many turn to prostitution for survival.

“My children threw me out of the house after my husband died,” says Manuka Dasi. “I try to earn money by singing devotional songs in temple and manage to get one meal for the day. I am just waiting to die so that I can be out of this life of misery.”

The barbaric treatment of widows is an indication of the falseness of the Hindu worldview. There is nothing even remotely comparable in Christian history.

See moving examples of Indian widows here.

— Comments —

Patrick O’Brien writes:

When I hear of some the horrors which various paganism afflict on their followers, I like to go back to the Documents of Vatican II to see that that council said. In the “Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” we read the following about Hinduism (and I will make a few comments as I go along):

In Hinduism men contemplate the divine mystery (no, they put their faith in numerous imaginary gods with no connection to the true God) and express it through an unspent fruitfulness of myths (what good is “fruitfulness” if all is based on nonsense or even devil worship?) and through searching philosophical inquiry (ditto — all based on nonsense.) They seek release from the anguish of our condition through ascetical practices (Christians don’t practice asceticism for this reason) or deep meditation (on nonsense or nothing) or a loving, trusting flight toward God. (Really How could the Council Fathers have approved such blather? Hinduism leads one to God?)

Enough. Thanks for your article. It forced me to refresh my memory on that disaster called Vatican II.

Laura writes:

Thank you for your insight.

With its toxic relativism and denial of objective truth, Vatican II has done incalculable damage to the pagan peoples of the world — and brought the Western world to the brink of civilizational collapse.

Henrique Nunes writes:

I’d like to add that the Portuguese general and admiral (for lack of a better, juster term) Afonso de Albuquerque, abolished this barbarous practice back when he governed Goa, in the early 16th century.

You can find more about this fascinating man in his Wikipedia entry.

Again, it’s always a pleasure reading your blog and your readers’ contributions.

Afonso de Albuquerque

Laura writes:

Thank you.

Pan Dora writes:

British military personnel dealt with this issue during their occupation of India.

Charles Napier, the British Army’s Commander-in-Chief in India, faced with local complaints about the abolition of Suttee, replied:

‘You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And we will follow ours’

Can’t help but wonder if we couldn’t use a bit of Napier’s methods today.

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