Empire of Hypocrisy: Sati was Rare in India but Mass Female Burning Was Common in Europe
Som Misha · 12/16/2025 - Sati was an extremely rare, often voluntary practice confined to small elite groups, yet British colonial discourse portrayed it as widespread to justify intervention.
- Europe’s witch hunts, by contrast, executed up to 60,000 people — mostly women — many of them burned at the stake in systematic, state-driven campaigns.
- Missionaries and administrators inflated sati statistics to secure moral authority and distract from the economic exploitation and social devastation of colonial rule.
- Evidence from travelers, inscriptions, and early Company officials shows sati was optional, declining over time, and unsupported as an obligation in core Hindu texts.
- The colonial focus on sati served as propaganda, allowing Britain to claim civilizing superiority while overlooking its own far more brutal history of burning women alive.
Som Misha
Som Misha is an investment banker. After hours, he sometimes wears his writer's hat and writes on current affairs topics. He has a passion for crafting compelling narratives that impact people's lives.
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