The Delaware ledger., 1883-09-08
NUMBER 38.
Women in India.
The Degradation Put Upon the
Wife and Widow.

The Degradation Put Upon the
Wife and Widow.
On the day of her wedding she is put
into palanquin, shut up tight and
carried to her husbands house. Hit,
erto she has been the spoiled pet of her
mother now she is to be the little slave
of her mother-in-law, on whom she is to
wait, whose command she is implicitly
to obey, and who teaches her what she
is to do to please her husband what
dishes he likes best and how to cook
them. If this mother-in-law is kind
she will let the girl go home occasionally
to visit her mother.
OF her husband she sees little or moth
ing. She is of no more account to him
than little cat or dog would be.
There is seldom or never any love be-
tween them, and no matter how cruelty
she may be treated she can never COM
plain to her husband of anything his
mother may do, for he would never
take his wife's part. Her husband
sends to her daily the portion of food
that is to be cooked for her, himself and
the children. When it is prepared she
places it on brass platter and sends it
to her husbands room. He eats what
he wishes, and then the platter is sent
back with what is left for her and her
children. They sit together on the
ground and eat the remainder, having
neither knives, forks nor spoons.
While she is young she is never allowed
to go anywhere.
The little girls are married as young as
three years of age, and should the boy
| to whom she is married die the next day
she is called widow, and is from
henceforth doomed to perpetual widow
hood-she can never marry again. AS
a widow she must never wear any
jewelry, never dress her hair, never
sleep on bed-nothing but piece of
mating spread on the hard brick floor,
and sometimes, in fact, not even that
between her and the cold brick and no
matter how cold the night may be, she
must have no other covering than the
thin garment she has worn in the day.
She must eat but one meal of food day,
and that of the coarsest kind and once
in two weeks she must fast twenty-fvur
hours. Then not a bit of food, not
drop of water or medicine must pass her
lips-not even if she was dying. She
must never sit down nor speak in the
presence of her mother-in-law, unless
she commands her to do so. Her food
must be cooked and eaten apart from
other women's. She is a disgraced,
degraded woman. She may never even
look on at any of the marriage cere-
monies or festivals. 1t would be an
evil omen for her to do so. She may
have been a high-caste Brahminic
woman, but on her becoming widow,
any, even the lowest servant, may order
her to do what they do not like to do.
No woman in the house must ever speak
one word of love or pity to her, for it is
supposed that if a woman shows the
slightest commiseration to widow she
will Immediately become one herself.
1t is estimated that there are $4,000
widows in India under sixteen years OF
age. The prevalence of suicide among
young females is SO great that it has
been brought to the attention of the
courts. This can be traced to the
oppressive control exercised by the
: mother-in-law in household matters
over the daughter-in-law, independently
of and unchecked by the interference
: of the husband. The son is expected to
: take the part of the mother against the
. wife.