Cultural Differences In British Imperialism

In the period of British Imperialism specifically during the latter half (1750 until 1857) there were many areas of disagreement between the Indians and the British due to religious and cultural differences. One major controversy caused by those differences was the practice of Sati/Suttee. As is the case in most cultures, religious views justify actions and morals. When one group of people interact with another group of people with a different cultures or religion, there is bound to be disagreement about where north on the moral compass lies. The practice of self-immolation by widows was accepted by Hindu society because of the religious and cultural belief of what constituted a virtuous women. When British colonizers did not understand this …show more content…
This ultimately stemmed from Christian morals as well as the demonization of Hinduism. In the journal, Creating the 'Problem Hindu': Sati, Thuggee and Female Infanticide in India, Daniel J. R. Grey writes about the beliefs of many in British colonies towards Hindu women, “The enduring belief that Hindu women and girls were, in essence, eternal victims to the vicarious whims and violent abuses of their male relatives stretching across the lifecycle from cradle to grave was already a well-established viewpoint in colonial circles by the end of the eighteenth century.” With this problematic way of thinking, the British took it upon themselves to intervene in order to protect the women of India from the “violent abuses of their male relatives” which they ultimately thought came from the barbaric religion that was Hinduism. In order to promote Christianity over Hinduism, there was a need to demonize Hinduism. The British already thought themselves superior to the Indians an example of that is located in Gardiner’s English History, which is an English history textbook edited for use in American high schools in 1881, “[t]here was…much suspicion and angry feeling among the native soldiers, [during the Indian Rebellion which was from 1857 until 1858] and when ignorant men are suspicious and angry they are apt to break out into deeds of unreasoning fury.” It’s …show more content…
The blatant ignorance due to the assumed cultural superiority on the part of the British towards Hindu rituals shows how important tolerance towards different belief systems is and how evidently lacking it was in this situation. The acceptance of self-immolation by widows in Indian society is one that makes a great deal of sense considering the belief system that is Hinduism. Different religions and cultural backgrounds lead to different beliefs as to what is moral and what is not, when the British encounter different morals then their own there was no attempt at understanding, despite the very good cultural and religious reasons behind the morals of Indian