The British in India were faced with the practice of “suttee” – the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. General Charles James Napier was impeccably multicultural:
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks, and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”
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