Marriage, duty and civilization: Keshab Chandra Sen and the Cuch Bihar controversy in metropolitan and colonial context

Abstract

The marriage in 1878 of Suniti Devi, the thirteen-year-old daughter of the Bengali Brahmo religious and social reformer Keshab Chandra Sen, to the Maharajah of Cuch Bihar constituted one of the most controversial matrimonial events in late colonial India. The marriage controversy was significant not only in terms of its effect on religious and social reform organizations in Bengal, but also in terms of the ways in which it served to challenge British attitudes towards the proper regulation of female sexuality in the empire. The British press took considerable interest in the marriage, celebrating it as an instance of the continued ability of the empire to spread civilization to India. However, this celebratory account served to occlude deeper contradictions. The contradictory character of the marriage fractured Keshab's relationship with the English Unitarians, Nonconformists and reformers who had long acted as his champions, and led to the demise of Keshabite Brahmoism as a force for national transformation in India. Through an exploration of responses to the marriage in both Bengal and Britain, this article demonstrates that varied and mutable conceptions of what constituted a male 'civilized subject' were intertwined deeply with discourses surrounding the regulation of female sexuality in both metropole and colony.

Liberalism's distinctive policy for governing Muslim populations: Human rights, religious reform, and counter‐terrorism from the colonial era until the present

“…64–116; Rodogno, 2016; Stearns, 2012, pp. 86–123; Stevens, 2016; also see Van Bemmelen & Grijns, 2019; Weitz, 2008).…”

“…Thus, by the early nineteenth century, imperial policymakers were promoting human rights (moral progress) by promoting the reform of Hinduism in India (e.g., British collaboration with the reformers Ram Mohan Roy, Justice Ranade, and Keshab Chandra Sen to ban/restrict Hindu widow‐burning and child marriage) (Heimsath, 1964; Jones, 1989, esp. 30–39; Stevens, 2016). By the mid‐nineteenth century, imperial policymakers were doing likewise with Islam, offering encouragement and support to indigenous Muslim reform movements (Blunt, 1882; Lelyveld, 1978; Nakissa, 2022; Snouck Hurgronje, 1916, pp.…”

“…206–207), prohibit child marriage and mandate women's education (Brumberg, 1982; Donaldson, 1990, esp. 429–431; Stevens, 2016, p. 404). Some liberals (e.g., Immanuel Kant) explicitly advocated for the continuous reform of all religions in keeping with moral progress (i.e., shifting human rights standards).…”

“…64–116; Stearns, 2012, pp. 86–123; Stevens, 2016). It is also held that legal violence should be made ever more mild and humane (e.g., ending torture, restricting corporal punishment; Ishay, 2004, pp.…”

“…These violations included restrictions on religious freedom, slavery/caste‐servitude, polygamy/concubinage, and minor marriage, which were endorsed by many nineteenth‐century Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists with support from their religious traditions (see Brumberg, 1982; Burton, 1994, esp. 7–8; Makdisi, 2008; Stevens, 2016; Wickramasinghe, 2010; Woodberry, 2012).…”