To protect family honour and family property, upper-caste Hindu society had long disallowed the remarriage of widows, all of whom were expected to live a life of austerity and abnegation. The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856, enacted in response to the campaign of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, provided legal safeguard against the loss of certain form of inheritance for remarrying Hindu widow. Though,under the Act, the widow forsook any inheritance due to her from her deceased husband.