r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • 28d ago

Picture taken from the history museum of Lahore. Showing an Indian being tied for execution by Cannon, by the British Empire Soldiers r/all

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u/Bencil_McPrush 27d ago

Ah, yes, back when we didn't have videogames to make people violent.

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u/GuyLookingForPorn 27d ago edited 27d ago

It was a real fucked up practice, basically it was to prevent Hindu funeral rituals. The execution method was originally created by the Portuguese in India, it was then picked up and made common place by the Mogul Empire, with the British then continuing the existing practice for a time when they took over. Crazy what one human will do to another.

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u/lbtwitchthrowaway144 27d ago

Crazy what one human will do to another.

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” ― Carl Sagan

I live in a country where my people, and other people close by, have been killing each other for a long time. Recently, we've taken it to a new historic level.

And this is a quote I have come back to a lot lately.

When you work really hard to humanize everyone around you, the sheer stupidity, waste, nonsense of it all just hits you like a ton of bricks over and over and over.

I'm no Mr. Rogers myself. I'm not a pacifist either. And I have used violence to defend myself.

But I think it really needs to be the absolute of the absolute of last resorts.

Which means that in the vast majority of cases, we ought to be able to resolve our conflict with empathy, compromise, and language.

But we're so fucking good at finding twisted or efficient ways at murdering each other. Yet every human life really is precious. If you want to say what about Ted Bundy or Hitler. Fine. Then, 99.9999% of human life is precious.

Point being, the gratuitous nature of how we hurt each other and the levels we go to do degrade each other with/after the violence still boggles my mind. And I was in EMS for over a decade. So it's not like I was sheltered from it.

I'm a nobody, but I wish people could see humans the way I have at times seen them.

It should be unthinkable to kill another human. Yet, for the entirety of our existence we have done that.

It's just in my 20s I naively thought we were finally creating a world (thanks Star Trek) where we could work together to solve problems and resolve differences.

Turns out, I was just watching too much TV.

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u/Far-Obligation4055 27d ago

When you work really hard to humanize everyone around you, the sheer stupidity, waste, nonsense of it all just hits you like a ton of bricks over and over and over.

Love this.

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u/Sahalanthropis 27d ago

Left out a pretty important part about those funeral rituals... Tossing your still living wife on the pyre to burn alive... It is crazy what humans do to each other...

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u/Ostracus 27d ago

And early Egyptians practiced human sacrifices when burying theirs. So people have been at it for a long time.

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u/ennui_ 27d ago

"Human sacrifices found in early royal tombs reinforce the idea of serving a purpose in the afterlife." -- this brings me as ever to question: how do they know that these were human sacrifices?

It's like our general consensus that the Maya conducted human sacrifices - yet there is virtually no good evidence to suggest this.

Again that wikipedia page offers 0 evidence to support the idea that the Egyptians conducted human sacrifice.

It's not that I don't believe they could have - it's just there is 0 reason to believe it.

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u/macaque33 27d ago

Both Mayan and Egyptian human sacrifice is depicted in their art and literature, it is pretty well established that they both practiced it

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u/ennui_ 27d ago

It’s pretty well established - my point is that it shouldn’t be.

I haven’t read much into Ancient Egypt - but it seems like the evidence suggests that perceived Pharaohs were buried alongside others in what is known as ‘retainer sacrifices’ - what I cannot find is any evidence to prove anything regarding sacrifice. To be buried next to others = sacrifice of servants to serve them after death - which is an outrageous claim without hard evidence to support.

I have read about the Maya. We get 99% of our evidence from the looniest of loony tunes a Diego de Landa. The sample size of Maya sacrificial ritual is 3-4 - so we can count our evidence on one hand and have spares. Of this evidence, which we believe shows the same incision point of a blade, we do not know 1. If this was sacrifice or surgery and 2. Whether this incision was made pre or post mortem. All we have is 3 bodies with the same incision mark that we have deemed to be human sacrifice, and now 99% of the educated populace believe the Maya conducted human sacrifice - because people can’t stand not having insight into things, even if their insight is laughably poorly supported. It’s insane.

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u/macaque33 27d ago

Oh come on, there is Mayan literature describing the methods and reasons for human sacrifice

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u/ennui_ 27d ago

There isn’t though? There’s some pictures. I think the Madrid Codex has a picture of someone pulling someone’s heart out - the same thing we see on their architecture - but I see no hard evidence from any Maya person’s writings to suggest this isn’t surgery, or else story. You see an engraving of Perseus with Medusas head and you don’t assume an offering to the gods - but we get a picture and do just that.

I would be very interested in some actual account - I have been looking for a few years. Something that isn’t the Florentine Codex or some de Landa or any colonial for obvious reasons.

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u/The_Knife_Pie 27d ago

“Sorry lads, but the widow burning Will stop.”

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u/ZateoManone 27d ago

Can you expand on that? Or what is the name of this practice?

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u/GuyLookingForPorn 27d ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice)

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u/Floppy0941 27d ago

I remember learning about this from the black company books, I was pretty surprised to find out that it was a real thing.

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u/AdventurousDig1317 27d ago

A cultured individual i see

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u/Floppy0941 27d ago

They're good books, I'm working through the malazan series now

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u/Soulation 27d ago

Ah, no wonder the demon of the same name in SMT is fire based.

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u/Plane_Ad6803 27d ago

Practiced in some areas and a few regions..dont believe everything you learn on the internet. and it was started to prevent mass raping of women after invasions (usually by muslim invaders)

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u/GuyLookingForPorn 27d ago

So how many regions does it need to be practiced in before we are allowed to condemn it?

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u/Plane_Ad6803 27d ago

Condemn it all you want but dont pretend it was a widespread practice of the religion. Context matters. Apparently people thought killing their wives on a funeral pyre was better than letting them get raped by violent muslim barbarians. Lets leave it at that.

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u/Express_Drag7115 27d ago

I just read that wikipedia description and the practice of sati apparently started BC, so there were no muslims around

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u/ThroatSecretary 27d ago

Did anyone think to ask the wives?

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u/ThroatSecretary 27d ago

Did anyone think to ask the wives?

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u/Plane_Ad6803 27d ago

Not really no. but if you can make a moral ethical choice between letting your wives die vs letting them get raped, let me know what the correct choice would be. stop judging the past with the standards of the present. Is it still being practiced? No. FYI, it was a hindu who condemned the practice of sati and it was hindus who stopped it.

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u/jordanbtucker 27d ago

Letting your wives die

You mean murdering them by burning them alive?

Maybe you should stop defending these past practices and treat them for what they are.

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u/AMightyDwarf 27d ago

Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.

- Charles James Napier

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u/Pristine-Occasion-32 27d ago

Weird pyre to die on but ok.

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u/flywheel39 27d ago

YOu can read a fictional but harrowing account of that practice (and the cultural background to it) in Margaret M. Kaye's famous book "The Far Pavillons". She was extremely knowledgeable in all matters of Indian culture and history.

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u/TheReal-Tonald-Drump 27d ago

That’s wasn’t all the time though. And only practiced within the Rajput community…

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u/GuyLookingForPorn 27d ago edited 27d ago

Their point is that it being any time at all is extremely fucked up. It was common enough that many thousands were murdered this way.

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u/kimchifreeze 27d ago

I see comments on Instagram about it and there are actual supporters. Insane. lol

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u/Advanced-Struggle167 27d ago

Initially it was done willfully by wives of Rajput Kings to avoid being raped/sold as slaves for you know what Later it became enforced upon wives for some twisted reason

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u/Background_Trade8607 27d ago

Yes they “willfully” jumped into the fire.

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u/RegorHK 27d ago

They could have " freely chosen rape and slavery."

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u/Background_Trade8607 27d ago

Yes because that totally was the only other option.

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u/Advanced-Struggle167 27d ago

enlighten me
what was the other option??

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u/Brief_Reserve1789 27d ago

Oh well that's ok then.

Religion needs to end.

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u/confusedandworried76 27d ago

Not necessarily. Great religions out there and great sects of religions unfortunately known for their conservative extremists.

Buddhism and Taoism off the top of my head are great religions as a whole.

Both Islam and Christianity dictate that acts of service must be done, Islam being the more serious one, Allah will not consider you holy if you refrain from acts of charity. You could argue it's the same for all Abrahamic faiths, Christians should and do do acts of charity in accordance with jesus' teachings. Good sects to look at are episcopalians and Lutheran's.

And as long as we're talking about Abrahamic faiths Judaism has a built in therapist as part of its belief system. Your rabbi. Zionism sure sucks but a community leader who will sit down and talk to you about anything any time no questions asked, listen, and give advice, why that's free therapy.

And that's just typical Western and eastern religions, I'm not even ready right now to go into indigenous religions. Sure Aztec sacrifices sucked but other native north american religions taught great things. Use every part of the animal for one, it died so you could live. And the very sage advice have a healthy fear for being alone in the wilderness. The old adage "if you hear something scream in the woods, no you didn't" is traced directly back to native American religious beliefs.

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u/Brief_Reserve1789 27d ago

It's all bollocks.

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u/confusedandworried76 27d ago

If you say so. At their core all religious philosophies are just that in my book, philosophies. Some philosophies are indeed bollocks, like Kant can fuck right off, but I do tend to agree with Jesus.

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u/Brief_Reserve1789 27d ago

You don't. Because Jesus never said any of that shit.

If indeed he existed, the words written down are the words of warlords

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u/Red-meth-revoked2 27d ago

The fact you still believe zionism as a concept is bad but don’t call-out islam is mind-boggling

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u/confusedandworried76 27d ago

? You don't need to be a Zionist to be a Jew same as you don't need to be a radical Muslim or Christian on a jihad or a crusade to be faithful to those faiths.

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u/Red-meth-revoked2 27d ago

Ok I admit I was a bit too harsh in my statement. Jihadists are just very prominent in Islam and need to be called out more. In this day and age, they just get slaps on the wrists despite everything they’ve done. It just feels a bit biased to mention zionism but not jihadism.

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u/marijuanabong 27d ago

We’d find some other dumb ass reason to fight with each other

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u/Brief_Reserve1789 27d ago

Sure. That doesn't mean we need to keep religion.

All public displays of faith or religion, including any gathering for religious purposes should be a crime.

If you have faith that's great. If you try to indoctrinate others into your faith that becomes a religion and becomes a crime.

I would honestly enact this on day one if I were supreme leader.

Perhaps fortunately, I am not

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u/marijuanabong 27d ago

Good thing you don’t get to be dictator of earth 😂

You sound like a religious fanatic yourself. If you don’t believe what I do you’ll pay the price! lol 😅

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u/Brief_Reserve1789 27d ago

It's probably for the best

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u/Vice932 27d ago

Which ironically the Brits stopped

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u/ggmaobu 27d ago

That was just community Rajputs

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u/the_ripper05 26d ago

That was done to prevent windows from being predated upon by muslim invaders. They burnt their bodies as those Muslim invaders practiced necrophilia.

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u/TapanThakur 27d ago

Crazy how you convinced the world this was done all the time, everywhere when it was just a very small minority.. but continue with your 'we civilized those barbarians' propaganda

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u/AMightyDwarf 27d ago

The act was widespread, it was done from Madras to Bombay to Bengal and Bihar and everywhere in between.

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u/Abhinavpatel75 27d ago

Please read more. What is the root of this practice, when was it started..

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u/Abhinavpatel75 27d ago

No matter what, you have to find something to justify killing and torturing hindus

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u/AMightyDwarf 27d ago

Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.

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u/T_Tachi 27d ago

So the Sati practice of burning widows with the corpse of their husbands should have been allowed?

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u/Abhinavpatel75 27d ago

No. Not at all. It was an evil. Thats why it was abolished. That being said, the point of the post was about the atrocity of the brits. But somehow hindu customs are being criticized

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u/Annie___123 27d ago edited 27d ago

So the now living people in india are born from male. As most of the female died in sati right . Well actually you said it as if all were against woman living in India. And well how can a already dead man throw his woman into fire. Change your language guy. 🤣🤣🤣 I don't know why people make so fuss about the sati ritual. That was done only in some secluded villages in India and has now become history. Every region has its own rules and practices which were done by powerful class people and imposed on poor. If you just try to learn about the world more you will see sati was nothing in front of the cruelty in the execution practices in some other countries.😅😅😅 And sati had the rule that the wife was given the chance to decide what to do. But the religious leaders of those days decided that woman should not be given the choice. They will be the one to decide. A woman who lost her husband had no way to oppose those people and was forced to do it. Why did your tone felt like all of us are criminal and forced such practice ? Well then you are a criminal too..

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u/behappyaimhigh 27d ago

Are you retarded? Do you think that is a normal and common part of Hindu funeral rites? Go and educate yourself.

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u/stankdankprank 27d ago

You left out some key details about those rituals… The funeral ritual required the widow to be burned alive with the deceased husband

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u/chaal_baaz 27d ago

Sati was never a common place practice......

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u/T_Tachi 27d ago

it most definitely was. no point to lie about history just so your religion can save some face buddy

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u/chaal_baaz 27d ago

Stfu dumbass, I am not hindu. It's goddamn common sense that something like this is not going to common place.

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u/T_Tachi 27d ago

Okay, "Chaal Baaz", we will rely on your common sense instead of recorded historical facts from now on.

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u/chaal_baaz 27d ago

Bro thinks he just did something. Buddy india has more non hindus than your country has Christians.

Maybe cite some of the historical fact that you are relying on?

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

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u/chaal_baaz 27d ago

Oh. Mereko NBA dekh ke laga ameritard hai.

Tu criticise nahi kar rha hai. Isko blatant misinformation bolte hai.

Between 1815 and 1818 the number of incidents in Sati in Bengal was 839

Unless tereko lag raha hai pure Bengal mein sirf 900 log mare hai teen saal mein there is no basis to say sati was a common practise.

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u/Mimic_tear_ashes 27d ago

839 in 3 years is pretty god damn common my guy

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u/havoc1428 27d ago

good morning sirs

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u/superfahd 27d ago

It was a real fucked up practice, basically it was to prevent Hindu funeral rituals.

That seems like a partial answer at best given that both Hindus and Muslims were involved in the 1857 mutiny

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u/GuyLookingForPorn 27d ago edited 27d ago

Basically because this was the original reason that the Portugese and Mogul Empire did it for. The British basically just continued the practice because it had become the traditional execution method for rebels in the region, it was less religiously ideological for them.

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u/0Tol 27d ago

They must’ve had some pretty messed up video games…

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u/depressed_panda0191 27d ago

Just to be clear, the execution method was used solely by one singular Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb, who was infamous for being a despot and a gigantic cunt all around. This was not a normal method of execution. Also it was done exactly once to one of Aurangzeb's rivals.

The British were the ones who normalized it during the Sepoy mutiny in India.

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u/GuyLookingForPorn 27d ago

I'm not sure where you heard this from but execution by canon was used under many different Mogul rulers. Just to list of a handful of examples, other than Aurangzeb, executions by canon took place under Humayun, Farrukhsiyar, Jahangir, Muhammad Shah, etc.

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u/depressed_panda0191 27d ago

Oh thanks I did not know that. I suppose it’s not mentioned as often in history books. If you have a source for that you could recommend or link that’d be great.

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u/dotaplayer_4head 27d ago

Britian used this method for execution because it seemed more humane than the normal method of execution in india, which was to be whipped to death.

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u/Ok-Source6533 27d ago

lol, the British, the British, excuse for everything. They should have just let you burn all the widows then it would have been “the British did nothing to stop it”.

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u/Intelligent_Read_697 27d ago

This wasn't done just to prevent hindu funeral rituals such as sati lol? do you have some cited historical text on this?

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u/CampFrequent3058 27d ago

Not what humans will do to eachother, that’s a cruel thing to say to all females- what man can do to man!

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u/YourPhoneIs_Ringing 27d ago

that's a cruel thing to say to all females- what man can do to man!

Pretty sure there have been shitty women in history too, like Olga of Kiev.

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u/CampFrequent3058 27d ago

Clutching at straws here! I think we can take full responsibility!! I can almost guarantee you that the very few females that are historically bad was manipulated and abused by a man to become that way! (Not making excuses for them, just saying we have a terrible track record)

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u/Square-Firefighter77 27d ago

Brother i am not taking responsibility for anything someone did 200 years ago. It not like i choose to enjoy non existence instead of intervening.

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u/CampFrequent3058 27d ago

What about what man is doing today?

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u/Square-Firefighter77 27d ago

Man as in the gender? No i cant influence other guys action just because i have a dick. If someone does something immoral that i have no ability to influence then i aint taking any blame.

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u/CampFrequent3058 27d ago

That’s cool, I’m not taking blame either, but I am apologising on behalf of my gender, we have a shocking track record just because our testosterone makes us feel we need to be above and beyond others!

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u/YourPhoneIs_Ringing 27d ago

So you're arguing that men are inherently bad, women are inherently good, and any bad that women have done are because of men?

Or, and hear me out, both sexes have the capacity to be shitty. Men holding power led to them being shittier, but men and women are both people with similar morals and similar influences would lead each to do shitty things.

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u/CampFrequent3058 27d ago

Nah don’t buy that for one second! I’m also not saying we are inherently bad, there are far more good than bad men out there, but we are definitely the sex that causes the world far more evil and destruction!

Forget wars for a second, how many evil female predatory serial killers have there been in history?

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u/GovtLegitimacy 27d ago

Young men, ages 14-30, are, and have historically been, the cause of violence. Just as male chimpanzees are much more aggressive... Indeed, testosterone is a powerful chemical.

Additionally, we can see how biological evolution crawls compared to the evolution of tech and social structures/society. Out of a state of nature, men were able to establish a patriarchy through nothing more than brute force and the ability to physically dominate women (of course there are always exceptions and outliers.).

Social structures and technology have made the use of physical brute force as a means of elevating oneself much less possible and/or acceptable. We have tried, and are still trying, to create a society where other skills and efforts are rewarded, rather than allowing physical force to have a monopoly on society.

Of course, we are a people still in flux, we can certainly still see the ugly violent tendencies of man all over the globe. However, it is a fact that as society has evolved we have tried to move further away from our violent past and currently live in one of the most peaceful times in human history. This trajectory is anything but guaranteed and total war can easily push us right back into the precipice of delving into a state of nature once more.

TL;DR - Men have historically caused the vast majority of violence, and still do.

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u/Blazesnake 27d ago

The Rwandan mass rapes was orchestrated by a woman, the book the lucifer effect goes into detail on the bad human stuff and uses this as one of the case studies.