ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how the suppression of sati was actually achieved, exploring the various strategies employed by British political agents and Indian rulers, both when negotiating the prohibition of sati and when enforcing the resulting legislation. It explores the dynamics of prohibiting, preventing and punishing sati in the princely states. The chapter looks first at the strategies employed by British and Indian participants in the debate over prohibition, before going on to discuss some of the issues involved in preventing or prosecuting illegal sati cases. It explores how British ideas about the location of culpability for sati and the role of the widow within the rite shifted in the Rajput context, as ‘traditional’ Rajput ideas about the miraculous ‘true’ sati took on broader political and juridical significance, as well as looking at some of the more practical problems faced by British political agents when attempting to ensure that prohibitions against sati were enforced.
