The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act 1856 was passed on this day. This was the outcome of a ceaseless campaign by Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar and other individuals with progressive ideas. This was the first major social reform in India introduced by the British in India after the abolition of sati.
Vidyasagar had launched the campaign for widow remarriage, for which he was castigated and lampooned by conservative Hindu society, by citing an ancient Hindu text.
“On receiving no tidings of a husband, on his demise, on his turning an ascetic, on his being found impotent or on his degradation — under any one of these five calamities, it is canonical for women to take another husband,” the Parasara Samhita had said, which Vidyasagar had quoted in his defence of widow remarriage, written after a painstaking study of Hindu scriptures.
