Professional paper
Sati in (Post)colonial India as a signifier of (Post)colonial conflict
Petra Benčec
Abstract
This paper deals with the Indian custom sati - the Hindu funeral rite of burning a widow at her husband's funeral pyre. The aim of the paper was to study the creation of colonial and postcolonial discourses on sati and to establish all the ways in which women, ie widows, were viewed in this historical debate. The intention was to determine how the main actors of this social conflict manipulate the notion of women's agency, ie the lack of it, thus forming the widow as an object or constructing her as a subject. The Hindu widow thus represents a place for the production of discourse, which is evident in both colonial and postcolonial debates. While British colonialists see the widow as a victim of traditional structures, Hindus portray her as an honorable woman who, through her voluntary sacrifice, brings salvation and prosperity to her deceased husband and subsequent generations. Hindus take a similar stance in the postcolonial debate, where as a new opposition emerges a feminist movement that legally recognizes a woman's agency along with those in power, ultimately turning a widow from a victim into a perpetrator.
Keywords
agency, India, colonialism, object, postcolonialism, sati, female subject
Hrčak ID:
253234
URI
Publication date:
5.3.2021.
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