Episode 2 of 2
Passage of the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act
- When
- 16 July 1856
- Where
- Jurisdictions under East India Company rule
Lord Dalhousie finalized the bill, which was passed by Lord Canning on 16 July 1856, legalizing widow remarriage in British India.
The Act XV of 1856 was drafted by Lord Dalhousie and passed by Lord Canning before the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It provided legal safeguards against inheritance loss for remarrying widows, though they forfeited inheritance from deceased husbands. It was the first major social reform legislation after the 1829 abolition of sati.
Sources
- Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-03-25
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.