Sources

Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/contentious-traditions-the-debate-on-sati-in-colonial-india.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/contentious-traditions-the-debate-on-sati-in-colonial-india

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-contentious-traditions-the-debate-on-sat,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/contentious-traditions-the-debate-on-sati-in-colonial-india},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Lata Mani is a scholar of colonial South Asian history, and this University of California Press book is her academic study of the colonial-era debate over sati, ritual widow immolation, in early nineteenth century Bengal. Its strength is a specific and influential argument, that the debate as it actually unfolded was conducted between British officials and Indian male elites over the authority of Hindu scripture and the proper role of the colonial state, with the women who were burned themselves largely marginal to the argument being made in their name. Its limit is that it is a study of this specific colonial Bengali debate and its textual record, so a claim about sati's practice or meaning outside this particular controversy, in another region or period, needs a different, more general source.

Facts

Assessment

Reliability Tier

A university press study arguing that the colonial debate on sati was conducted over the authority of scripture and the proper role of the colonial state, with the women who burned marginal to that debate.

Notes

Argues that the colonial debate on sati was conducted over the authority of scripture, the nature of Hindu tradition and the proper role of the colonial state, and that the women who burned were marginal to it.

Citation

Author

Lata Mani

Publisher

University of California Press

Publication Year

1998

URL

https://archive.org/details/contentioustradi0000mani

Source Type

academic monograph

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Mani the Prophet

This source names Mani the Prophet directly: "Lata Mani is a scholar of colonial South Asian history, and this University of California Press book is her academic study of the colonial-era debate over sati, ritual widow immolation, in early..."

Source Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial IndiaLata Mani

Sati

This source names Sati directly: "study of the colonial-era debate over sati, ritual widow immolation, in early nineteenth century Bengal."

Source Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial IndiaLata Mani

Claims Backed By This Source (45 claims)

This source backs 45 claims across the atlas. As facts: 31 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate, 1 open question. As cited relationships: 4 holds, 1 connected. Plus 6 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Sources, 10 claims: 8 well-attested, 2 holds.
Open Questions, 9 claims: 7 well-attested, 1 connected, 1 general references.
Deities, 6 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 general references.
Studies, 6 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 open question, 1 general references.
Articles, 5 claims: 5 well-attested.
Religious Legal Instruments, 4 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Religious Events, 3 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Empires & Polities, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.