{{Short description|Indian organization}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} '''Dharma Sabha''' was an organization formed in 1830 in Calcutta by Radhakanta Deb. The impetus of forming the organization came from a new law enacted by the colonial British rule which banned the practice of burning widows alive (sati) in the country; the focus of the new association was to repeal the law which was seen as an intrusion by the British into the religious affairs of the indigenous people by some sections of the Hindu community.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Social ideas and social change in Bengal, 1818-1835|last=Ahmed|first=A.S|publisher=Ṛddhi.|year=1976}}</ref> The Dharma Sabha filed an appeal in the Privy Council against the ban on Sati by Lord William Bentinck as, according to them, it went against the assurance given by George III of non-interference in Hindu religious affairs; however, their appeal was rejected and the ban on Sati was upheld in 1832.<ref name="Muthiah2008">{{cite book|author=S. Muthiah|title=Madras, Chennai: A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbR_LLkqdI8C&pg=PA484|access-date=7 May 2020|year=2008|publisher=Palaniappa Brothers|isbn=978-81-8379-468-8|pages=484–}}</ref><ref name="Bates2013">{{cite book|author=Crispin Bates|title=Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857: Volume I: Anticipations and Experiences in the Locality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ-HAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48|access-date=9 May 2020|date=26 March 2013|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-81-321-1336-2|pages=48–}}</ref> It published a newspaper called Samachar Chandrika.

The Dharma Sabha campaigned against the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act, 1856 and submitted a petition against the proposal with nearly four times more signatures than the one submitted for it by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. However <ref>{{cite journal | title=THE REVOLUTION BEHIND THE REVOLT (A comparative study of the causes of the 1857 uprising) | author=H. R. Ghosal | journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress | year=1957 | volume=20 | pages=293–305|jstor = 44304480}}</ref><ref name="Asthana1974">{{cite book|author=Pratima Asthana|title=Women's Movement in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AxAqAAAAYAAJ|access-date=17 December 2018|year=1974|publisher=Vikas Publishing House|isbn=978-0-7069-0333-1|page=22}}</ref> Lord Dalhousie personally finalized the bill despite the opposition and it being considered a flagrant breach of Hindu customs as prevalent then, and it was passed by Lord Canning.<ref name="Gupta2015">{{cite book|author=Amit Kumar Gupta|title=Nineteenth-Century Colonialism and the Great Indian Revolt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yt6oCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT30|access-date=17 December 2018|date=5 October 2015|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-38668-1|pages=30–}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=A Wind of Change: The New British Colonial Policy in Post-Revolt India | author=Belkacem Belmekki | journal=AEDEAN: Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-americanos | year=2008 | volume=2 |issue = 2| pages=111–124|jstor = 41055330}}</ref>

The organization soon morphed into a 'society in defense of Hindu way of life or culture'.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kopf |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ovyXFr0RoYC&dq=%22Dharma%20Sabha%22&pg=PA271 |title=British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 1773-1835 |publisher=University of California Press |publication-date=1969 |pages=271 |language=en}}</ref> Its executive body included a president, a board of directors, a secretary, and a treasurer, and its members regularly organized committees for special purposes.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Gupta |first=Bela Dutt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BMchAAAAMAAJ&q=%22a%20president,%20a%20board%20of%20directors,%20a%20secretary,%20and%20a%20treasurer%22 |title=Sociology in India: An Enquiry Into Sociological Thinking & Empirical Social Research in the Nineteenth Century, with Special Reference to Bengal |date=1972 |publisher=Centre for Sociological Research |pages=41 |language=en}}</ref> Furthermore, the organization conducted its meetings strictly according to the rules of parliamentary procedure, a form of Westernization adopted through interactions with the British.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> All of which serves to demonstrate the organization's deep-seated Western orientation.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

== References == {{Reflist}}

Category:Political organisations based in India Category:1829 establishments in India Category:Hindu organizations Category:Hindu nationalism Category:Defunct Hindu organizations

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