PhD defence Maninder Järleberg: Sati in Britain

On Wednesday 25 September, Maninder Järleberg will defend her PhD dissertation ‘Sati in Britain, 1850-1900: An Evolving Site of Memory’.

Widow burning

This dissertation offers an exploration of sati, an Indian practice of widow burning, as an evolving site of memory in the period between 1850 and 1900 in Britain. The study shows how sati influenced various social and cultural discourses in Britain, highlighting the bidirectional influence between the coloniser and the colonised.

Influence of sati

Using insights from memory and postcolonial studies, Järleberg offers a fresh perspective on how colonised cultures impacted cultural narratives in the colonising society. She expands the conversation on sati by exploring its influence across a range of British discourses through previously unexamined materials. This approach shifts the focus from Britain’s influence on the discourse of sati to how sati shaped British discourses.

This study explores how sati influenced the advocacy for women’s subjugation and state intervention, and its role in debates on women’s agency and British womanhood. It also investigates sati’s impact on educational reforms for women in Britain and India.