# Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work/Chapter 34

CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Age of Consent Bill.
In the meantime, our hero's constitution was gradually sinking, his health was failing him, and he was slowly losing his vitality. The reader has seen how he had all along struggled manfully with the worries and troubles of life and had always come out victorious. But alas! who has ever won the grim gates of Death? His deep-seated malady was being daily aggravated by heart-rending griefs at the loss of those nearest and dearest to his heart. Besides those enumerated before, he had to grieve and mourn over the death of his most beloved friends and relations. His very dear friends, Pyari Charan Sarkar, Syama Charan Biswas, Kristo Das Pal, Dinabandhu Mitra, and his second brother, Dinabandhu Nyayratna all had ​departed from this world one by one, leaving him alone to pine away the last days of his existence. Dinabandhu Mitra was a great Bengali writer and Vidyasagar's most sincere friend. His lodgings stood very close to our hero's house in Sukea's Street. The two families were so intimately connected in friendship, that though they belonged to different castes, they made no distinction in friendly intercourse. When, on Dinabandu Mitra's death, his poor widow with a number of helpless, little children, saw nothing but a blank vacuum all round her, it was only Vidyasagar who comforted her with assurances, and provided for the education of her sons. But for our benevolent hero, God knows what might not have happened to them.
In April, 1890, the looseness of his bowels took an alarmingly serious turn. He had been suffering from its effects for upwards of six years past. He had lost the strength of his digestive powers. These six years he had taken only one meal a day, composed of a little quantity of boiled rice and some fish-juice. Milk he had had to give up altogether. But from the beginning of 1890, his stomach could no more assimilate even such light food, as a small quantity of parboiled rice. A little barley-water or sago was his only diet In the latter part of the year, he was advised by his medical attendant, doctor Hira Lal Ghosh, to live a retired, secluded life. Vidyasagar said,—'That ​would be impossible while I am in Calcutta. I cannot refuse to. receive visits; nor can I place a Darwan (porter) at my gates'. Finally it was settled that he should leave the city. In the month of December, he went to French Chandernagore, in company with his eldest daughter, where a very nice two-storeyed house in a healthy locality by the side of the Bhagirathi had been rented for him. In this house he lived for some time, and showed signs of a little improvement.
Even in this sojourn for purposes of restoration of health, there was no cessation of his acts of benevolence and charity. Wheresoever he would be, the genial flow of his ever tender, ever gentle heart must find its way out. One day, a blind Mussulman beggar, led by his wife, was out in the streets a-begging. He wandered over the town for alms, but got nothing. At last, he presented himself before our noble hero. The sad tale of the beggar's misery touched his naturally kind heart, He gave the blind man some pice, and asked him,—'What would you like to eat?' The beggar replied;—'I have not eaten Luchi (wheat-flour bread fried in Ghee) for some time past. I feel a strong appetite for it.' Vidyasagar at once had Luchi prepared by his daughter, and fed with it the poor, blind man and his wife sumptuously. Alter the repast had been over, he gave the beggar two rupees, and asked him to call every Sunday and partake of Luchi at his house. He also pro​promised to pay them eight annas monthly tor their house-rent.
During his stay at Chandernagore, he used now and then to take strolls in the neighbouring places. On one occasion, he paid a visit to a Brahman of Bhadresvar, at his earnest request, accompanied by his third brother, Sambhu Chandra Vidyaratna. The host's son, who was a leper, offered our hero a hookha prepared with his Own hands. Vidyasagar ungrudgingly took the hookha front his hands, and smoked it as usual. On their way back, Sambhu Chandra remonstrated with him, and asked him how he could persuade himself to smoke the tobacco prepared by a leper's hands. Vidyasagar very seriously said,—'God forbid, supposing you or I myself had been a leper, what would I do?' Sambhu Chandra had nothing to say against it.
Some time before this, a Bill had been introduced into the Legislature Council for amendment of the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code on certain sections relating to the Age of Consent on the part of females to sexual intercourse. The Government, as on all important matters of legislation, asked Vidyasagar for his opinion on the point. In this connection, he had to leave Chandernagore and return to Calcutta for a week. He studied deeply the different Sastras on religious points, and on the 16th February, 1891, gave his opinion opposing the ​Bill in the form in which it had been introduced into the Council, and suggesting a measure consonant to the religious usage of the Hindus. His opinion was that as Garbhadhana Sanskara was a religious usage in conformity with the Sastras, binding on every Hindu, and as there was no certainty at what age a female might have her first menses (the period when the Garbhadhana Sanskara should be performed), the placing of a restriction on the age limit for the consent of the female would be a direct interference with the religious customs of the country. He, therefore, very wisely indicated a way in accordance with the Sastras, which if adopted would give the desired protection to the child-wives. To enable the reader to form an idea of his opinion on the point, we crave indulgence to quote below some portions of his Note on the subject:— ****
"Though on these grounds I cannot support the Bill as it is, I should like the measure to be so framed as to give something like an adequate protection to child-wives, without in any way conflicting with any religious usage. I would propose that it should be an offence for a man to consummate marriage before his wife has had her first menses. As the majority of girls do not exhibit that symptom before they are thirteen, fourteen or fifteen, the measure I suggest would give larger, more real, and more extensive protection than the Bill. At ​the same time, such a measure could not be objected to on the ground of interfering with a religious observance. ****
"From every point of view, therefore, the most reasonable course appears to me, to make a law declaring it penal for a man to have intercourse with his wife, before she has her first menses.
"Such a law would not only serve the interests, of humanity by giving reasonable protection to child-wives, but would, so far from interfering with religious usage, enforce a rule laid down in the Sastras. The punishment, which the Sastras prescribe for violation of the rule, is of a spiritual character and is liable to be disregarded. The religious prohibition would be made more effective, if it was embodied in a penal law. I may be permitted to press this consideration most earnestly on the attention of the Government.
Sd. "Isvara Chandra Sarma
       The 16th February 1891."
But this time the Government did not accept his views. In spite of his very reasonable opposition, the Bill was passed. It in a manner displays the policy of the alien Government in the administration of this country. When this Vidyasagar had petitioned for a legislation on the re-marriage of Hindu widows, his prayer had been readily granted. Widow-marriage is consonant to the feelings, customs, and policy of the ruling race. ​The same Vidyasagar proposed a measure on the Age of Consent Bill, which, if adopted, would have saved both sides, but it was rejected, although it was not wholly conflicting with the views of the rulers. Was it because, this time, the Government was afraid of losing its prestige?
The Hindu Society was glad to find that Vidyasagar did not fall into errors in his discussion of the Age of Consent question, as he had done on the occasion of Widow Marriage movement. Some even went so far as to fancy, that it was his own conviction of his former errors that led him to oppose a Bill interfering with the religious usage of the Hindus. Besides, Vidyasagar had kept himself aloof, for some time past, from taking part in the re-marriage of Hindu widows, which also served to make the people draw this portrait in their mind. The advocates of widow marriage, however, attribute his apathy to his own ill-health and to the want of firmness and faithlessness of his country-men, which might be the more probable cause. We have already said, that he was no hypocrite, and had he been really convinced of his errors, he would never have been afraid to declare it openly. Moreover, it is said that even so late as a little before his death, he tried to give his own grandson (daughter's son) in widow marriage. There can be no doubt that he was disappointed at the conduct of some of his followers, who had subsequently forsaken him, which, ​in his opinion, so much impeded the progress of widow marriage. Perhaps, it was this sad disappointment, which led him to exult when the news of Babu Durga Mohan Das's widow marriage reached him, though such an alliance was against his principle, as the woman whom Durga Mohan had taken to be his wife, had been an old widow with several children by her first husband. This marriage took place only two months before Vidyasagar's departure from this world. On the occasion he wrote a letter to Durga Mohan in Bengali to the following effect:—
'My dear friend,
'I am glad to hear that your desires have been satisfied. I heartily wish and pray that you may pass the remaining days of your life in happiness with your new consort. Communicate my tender compliments and blessings to her.'