Sambad Kaumudi - Campaign Against Sati

Campaign Against Sati

Sambad Kaumudi regularly editorialised against Sati, denouncing it as barbaric and un-Hindu. It was the main vehicle of Ram Mohan Roy's campaign against Sati. The editorial in the Calcutta Journal on February 14, 1823 observed, "The paper which was considered so fraught with danger and likely to explode over all India like a spark thrown into a barrel of gunpowder, has long since fallen to the ground for want of support; chiefly we understand because it offended the native community by opposing some of three customs, and particularly the burning of Hindoo widows, etc." Governor-General Bentinck, largely (though not exclusively) instigated by Ram Mohan Roy, responded to the growing public outcry by outlawing Sati in 1829.