In answer to Carey's third memorial Lord Wellesley took the first
step, on 5th February 1805, in the history of British India, two
centuries after Queen Elizabeth had given the Company its mercantile
charter, and half a century after Plassey had given it political
power, to protect from murder the widows who had been burned alive,
at least since the time of Alexander the Great. This was the first
step in the history of British but not of Mohammedan India, for our
predecessors had by decree forbidden and in practice discouraged the
crime. Lord Wellesley's colleagues were still the good Udny, the
great soldier Lord Lake and Sir George Barlow. The magistrate of
Bihar had on his own authority prevented a child-widow of twelve,
when drugged by the Brahmans, from being burned alive, after which,
he wrote, "the girl and her friends were extremely grateful for my
interposition." Taking advantage of this case, the Government asked
the appellate judges, all Company's servants, to "ascertain how far
the practice is founded on the religious opinions of the Hindoos.
If not founded on any precept of their law, the Governor-General in
Council hopes that the custom may gradually, if not immediately, be
altogether abolished. If, however, the entire abolition should
appear to the Court to be impracticable in itself, or inexpedient,
as offending any established religious opinion of the Hindoos," the
Court were desired to consider the best means of preventing the
abuses, such as the use of drugs and the sacrifice of those of
immature age. But the preamble of this reference to the judges
declared it to be one of the fundamental principles of the British
Government to consult the religious opinions of the natives,
"consistently with the principles of morality, reason, and
humanity." There spoke Carey and Udny, and Wellesley himself. But
for another quarter of a century the funeral pyres were to blaze
with the living also, because that caveat was set aside, that