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'Sati was not regressive, Ram Mohan Roy was British Chamcha': Payal Rohatgi's statements spark Twitter fury
New Twitter outrage due to Rohatgi's remark.
DNA Web Team | May 28, 2019, 01:46 PM IST
1.Twitter slams Payal Rohatgi
Many Twitter users took strong exception to Rohatgi's remarks.
What a time to be alive in India - one former Bigg Boss contestant and one anonymous Twitter account are trying to demolish Raja Ram Mohun Roy, leading light of the Bengal Renaissance, and in turn the Brahmo Samaj, ideological home of the Tagores. Peak intellect on Twitter.
— HindolSengupta (@HindolSengupta) May 27, 2019
@Payal_Rohatgi @twilightfairy
— DEBKANCHAN MITRA (@DEBKANCHAN) May 27, 2019
The Commission of Sati prevention Act 1987 bars the glorification of Sati with a punishment upto 7 years of imprisonment.
National commission for women should take suo motto action and file a legal complaint against this degenerate.payalRohatgi
This is where are country is heading to.. @PritishNandy, we may be the 1st country which insults n abuses our history n historians.
— RiA (@RiaRevealed) May 27, 2019
This is like condemning what we've learnt from generations n our forefathers.
Shame on us ungrateful ppl who can't save our history from such abuse.
Holy smokes! Where did this one come from? Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the great reformist, is now a “chamcha” of the British! Wonderful. Here come new India’s historians. https://t.co/ToBeE68Hme
— Pritish Nandy (@PritishNandy) May 26, 2019
2.'True Indology' supports Payal's claim
Here's what popular Twitter handle True Indology said:
Raja Ram Mohan Roy's mother- "My son has given up his Hindu identity. He is an apostate and infidel. I want to disinherit him"
— TrueIndology (@TrueIndologyliv) May 27, 2019
All those people who has been abusing me since yesterday must start abusing Raja Rammohan Roy's mother immediately. Come on. pic.twitter.com/OfR5Dz0iDB
A publicly allegiance to Christianity would have meant that Roy would have lost his hereditary property rights. He would have been reduced to null.
— TrueIndology (@TrueIndologyliv) May 28, 2019
According to Roy's friend Tucker, "Roy used his status as a Brahman to help promote his writings on Christianity" pic.twitter.com/sNu8lYxCq1
Although Roy was a reformer, he continued to follow caste rules. He never dined publicly with Europeans.
— TrueIndology (@TrueIndologyliv) May 28, 2019
According to Zastoupil,it was his fear of breaking caste. Roy was a Brahman and a public conversion would have made him an outcast in the society and decimated his influence pic.twitter.com/Jf7lmNGpZC
A 'balanced' take on Roy:
Do read this MAGNIFICENT treatise on Ram Mohun Roy (pp 47-74), very balanced and objective - no wonder it is cited & recommended by RC Majumdar.
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) May 28, 2019
Doubtless, RMR was a great reformer, but as the treatise concludes, a troubled, eclectic, and estranged being. https://t.co/7AbOYGRwiw pic.twitter.com/z4OcTMXZTt
3.Recorded history of Sati
There have been recorded instances of sati across the Indian subcontinent, from the plains of Punjab and Rajasthan to Bengal, the central Indian kingdoms and the Tamil Cholas.
In a number of places, sati or similar practices like Rajasthan's jauhar, were responses to invasions. Women would court death voluntarily rather than be captured by the invading armies. However, this choice of not being captured was more pronounced in Rajasthan when the invading armies were Muslim.
The practice of sati was largely voluntary as records and articles from the early colonial era suggest, but there were definitely instances where the woman was forced. But there seem to be very little doubts in these early colonial records that sati was not a widespread practice.
