ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the various ways in which the British negotiated the disjunction between their confessed ‘moral’ imperative to end sati and the complexities of their diverse political relationships with princely states across north and central India, exploring the different ways in which this debate played out in states under the jurisdiction of the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies and under Rajput, Maratha, Sikh and Muslim leadership. The survival of sati in many of the states of princely India represented both a humanitarian and political conundrum for the British. Although the prohibition of sati in most states was actually achieved with varying degrees of British pressure, British officials involved preferred to see sati reform in the Indian states as the result of their moral, rather than their political, influence.
