The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-03-05
MlstRllamenns.
IRON the London Econonlis
Marriage ise India.

THE INDIA SOCIAL sYsTEM-A GREAT IN
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. BETWEEN CHILL
DREN OF DIFFERENT Castles.
Mr.. Main, the able jurist, who is now
Legislative Member of Council in India,
and who intends,we are pleased to perceive,
to remain there year beyond his term, has
just brought before the Viceroy's Council a
bill ito legalize marriage between certain
natives of India not protesting the Chris
tian religion" and it has been referred to
select committee for report. 1t is under
stood, however, that the Report" will refer
only to details, that the bill has been accep-
ted by the Viceroy and his official major
ity, and that in March it will become the
law of the empire. 1t is apparently very
short bill, and the principle it involves has
long been accepted in Europe; but as it
is by far the greatest innovation in the So
cial life of India ever attempted by the
British government, as it strikes in principle
at the very root of the Indian social system
few descriptive words may not be with
out their interest for our readers.
The principle of all modern European
laws of marriage is that any unmarried man
or woman of full age, not being within the
ascending or descending degrees of rela-
tionship, or within the first degree oflater-
al kinship, may if so inclined lawfully in
termarry, the only restriction being that
their resolve must be announced in pres
ence of an officer of State. There are some
exceptions to this rule in many countries
England for example forbidding by stat.
ute marriage between certain relatives by
marriage" Bavaria, Denmark, and some
other States, exacting proof of pecuni-
airy means; and the Papal government in
its own States still requiring religious
dispensation from all persons within certain
rather remote degrees of consanguinity.-
Still the general principle is as we have
stated, the Pontitical territory being we
believe the only one in which marriage
can be invalidated on account of the creed
of the parties making the engagement. 1t
is not anywhere purely civil contract, as
it is SO often said to be-marriages within
the first degree of natural consanguinity,
whether legitimate or otherwise, being uni
versally forbidden; but it is nearly civil
contract in the eyes of the law as is consis-
tent with that restriction.
In India the principle of the marriage
law has hitherto been entirely different
1t has been treated entirely as religious
act, which can be valid only when perform
ed between persons of the same religion
caste, and form of worship. The vital the
DRY of caste being separation, the most
minute difference even in the forms of wor-
ship has been sufficient to render marriage
absolutely impossible, the legal prohibition
being in practice as complete as the social
one. Mr.. Maine indeed seems to say in q
recent speech that this is not the case as to
caste differences, butas he himself acknowl-
edges that any breach of formula may lille
galize marriage, and as every caste has its
own form, and as all castles have acted in
variably on this principle, we conceive him
to have been somehow unsupported. In.
deed, he himself affirms that difference OF
caste renders marriage illegal in the most
emphatic manner. He says he ibid not en-.
terrain any doubt that the intention of the
trainers of act 81 of 1850 was to remove all
disabilities by reason of difference of reli-
gion or caste, but they did leave one seri
Gus disability to contract legal marriage
This could have been nothing more than an
oversight, for they had passed law pro-
tecting inheritance, but had not provided
for contracting lawful marriage, without
which there could be no inheritance" Sc
absolute is the restriction that cases ART
known of great families in which full le-
gal marriage is simple impossibility, nc
woman Of the same caste being alive, and
that the law might be put in force ever
against the dominant race. A Hindoc
woman, for instance, might be married by
English forms to an English gentleman, but
it is doubtful if her children would not BIZ
illegitimate, and quite certain that till re.
Gently they could not inherit her patrimon
ial property. BY act 81 of 1850 the grea
religious charter of India, this latter
disqualification was swept summarily away
and no question ofchange offath or breach
of caste can now affect the descent of an in