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- The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856, also Act XV, 1856, passed on 16 July 1856, legalised the remarriage of widows in all jurisdictions of India under East India Company rule.The act was enacted on 26 July 1856. It was drafted by Lord Dalhousie and passed by Lord Canning before the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It was the first major social reform legislation after the abolition of sati pratha in 1829 by Lord William Bentinck. To protect what it considered family honour and family property, Hindu society had long disallowed the remarriage of widows, even child and adolescent ones, all of whom were expected to live a life of austerity and abnegation. The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856, provided legal safeguards against loss of certain forms of inheritance for remarrying a Hindu widow, though, under the Act, the widow forsook any inheritance due her from her deceased husband. Especially targeted in the act were child widows whose husbands had died before consummation of marriage. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was the most prominent campaigner. He petitioned the Legislative council, but there was a counter petition against the proposal with nearly four times more signatures by Radhakanta Deb and the Dharma Sabha. But Lord Dalhousie personally finalised the bill despite the opposition and it being considered a flagrant breach of customs as prevalent then. "Second marriages, after the death of the husband first espoused, are wholly unknown to the Law; though in practice, among some communities, nothing is so common." — William Hay Macnaghten (1862) "The problem of widows—and especially of child widows—was largely a prerogative of the higher Class people among whom child marriage was practised and remarriage prohibited. Irrevocably, eternally married as a mere child, the death of the husband she had perhaps never known left the wife a widow, an inauspicious being whose sins in a previous life had deprived her of her husband, and her parents-in-law of their son, in this one. Doomed to a life of prayer, fasting, and drudgery, unwelcome at the celebrations and auspicious occasions that are so much a part of many communities of any religion family and community life, her lot was scarcely to be envied. On the other hand, particularly Sudra caste and dalits —who represented approximately 80 percent of the Hindu population—neither practised child marriage nor prohibited the remarriage of widows." — Lucy Carroll (1983) (en)
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- 10907 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger)
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- #D0F0C0 (en)
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- A widow in India was not allowed to wear a blouse or choli under her sari. The sari was required to be of coarse cloth, preferably white. (en)
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- "Second marriages, after the death of the husband first espoused, are wholly unknown to the Law; though in practice, among some communities, nothing is so common." (en)
- "The problem of widows—and especially of child widows—was largely a prerogative of the higher Class people among whom child marriage was practised and remarriage prohibited. Irrevocably, eternally married as a mere child, the death of the husband she had perhaps never known left the wife a widow, an inauspicious being whose sins in a previous life had deprived her of her husband, and her parents-in-law of their son, in this one. Doomed to a life of prayer, fasting, and drudgery, unwelcome at the celebrations and auspicious occasions that are so much a part of many communities of any religion family and community life, her lot was scarcely to be envied.
On the other hand, particularly Sudra caste and dalits —who represented approximately 80 percent of the Hindu population—neither practised child marriage nor prohibited the remarriage of widows." (en)
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- THE WIDOWS' RE-MARRIAGE ACT, 1983 (en)
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- — Lucy Carroll (en)
- — William Hay Macnaghten (en)
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- The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856, also Act XV, 1856, passed on 16 July 1856, legalised the remarriage of widows in all jurisdictions of India under East India Company rule.The act was enacted on 26 July 1856. It was drafted by Lord Dalhousie and passed by Lord Canning before the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It was the first major social reform legislation after the abolition of sati pratha in 1829 by Lord William Bentinck. "Second marriages, after the death of the husband first espoused, are wholly unknown to the Law; though in practice, among some communities, nothing is so common." (en)
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- Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 (en)
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