Sati-Pratha: Project for Establishment of Christianity

The word “Sati-Pratha” (forcible widow burning) was coined by British and foreign Missionaries in India and it was a Pre-planned Activity by Christan Missionaries. The data shows that there is no evidence of self-immolation in the Ramayana. In the Vedic period, Sati was an exceedingly uncommon practice. But As the Evangelical Christian movement started gaining more prominence in India starting from 1800, the enumeration of Sati incidents sky-rocketed. The sudden increase in the documented rate of Sati under the British government can be due to the data being unreliable and fabricated, exaggerated to support missionary propaganda and justify the civilizing mission of the British. The Colonizers could now show a legitimate reason for ruling over India and continue their “civilizing mission” and the Christian Missionaries could continue their program to convert the heathens. The Sati-Pratha that we know of today in our social studies textbooks, being suddenly brought into the spotlight and sensationalized so as to shame, control, and convert the Hindus. William Carey wrote: “For the first time during 20 centuries… the waters of the Ganges flowed unblooded to the seas”.