New Ulm weekly review., 1886-12-15
CHILD WIDOWS IN INDIA.

OdlA1AD WIDOWS In INDIA.
Two Millions Of Womea Condemned to Penance.
From the London Times.
The recent telegram announcing
Lord Duferin's decision regarding
Hindoo widow marriages receives en-
phasls from the outbursts of fanatical
hostility which are agitating n Northern
India.
The decision arrived at is char.
acteristic alike of the statesman
who now presides over India and of
the new point of view from which the
Indian government regards questions
OF internal reform. Lord Dufferin ex-
presses a genuine sympathy for the
party OF progress, but he does not
allow his sympathy to blind him to
the grave political difficulties of the
case
There are over 20. 100000 of wild
oWs IN India, and 100000 of them
belong to castles who practice child
marriage and insist on the celibacy of
their widows. These customs are not
enforced with equal rigor in all parts
OF india, nor among the castles who
follow them. But, broadly speaking,
there are about 100000 Indian
women OF good family who are con-
demned to a life OF penance or of
shame.
This, however, is very mild state
ment OF the case. For it must be re-
membered that the cruelty Of enforced
wldoWhood in India is aggravated by
the circumstance that vast number
OF widows have only been wives in
name. In Bengal 271 Hindoo girls
out OF every thousand between the
ages OF five and ten are married, and
no fewer than 666 are returned as
married between the ages of ten and
fourteen. This applies to the general
Hlndoo population. But among the
higher castles, who enforce the celibacy
or Their widows, the proportion is
much higher. Practically every Hin
doc girl ofgood caste is either a wife
or widow before she reaches the age
OF Il. In thousands, indeed in hun
dreds OF thousands, OF cases the child
has never known what it is to be g.
wife. The most orthodox idea is that
girl should be given in marriage be-
tore the sense Of natura! mo desty
sitrlses. For canonical purposes this
was taken to be her eighth year. The
marriage is not consummated till she
reaches the age OF about 12; and mean
while, II the husband dies, she is con-
n cd -
1t is essential for the honor of a
Hlndoo family of good caste that it
should contain no unmarried ,daugh-
ter Of mature years. The existence of
such a daughter is not only a social
disgrace, but areligious crime When.
therefore, q female infant is born, the
first idea an her fathers mind is not
one OF pleasure, nor perhaps regret,
but simply how to find a husband for
her. 1t is not necessary that she
should become q wife in our sense of
the word. 1t suffices that she should
be given in marriage, and go through
the ceremony OF the Seven Steps,
which completes the religious rite.
Aged Brahmans of good family still
go about the country marrying, for
pecuniary consideration, female in
fants whom they sometimes never see
again. Within the memory of men
still living this abominable practice
was a Hourishing trade. A Kulin
Brahman, perhaps whlte-haired, half
blind. and decrepit, went the round
OF his beat each spring, going through
the ceremony OF marriage with such
female infants as were offered, and
pocketing his fee, and perhaps never
returned to the child's house.
So long as he lived she could marry
no other man; when he died she be-
came a widow for life. The Hinuoo
child widow is looked upon as a thing
apart and accursed, bearing the pen
atty in this world for sins which she
has committed in past existence.
Her hair is cut short or her head is
shaved altogether; she exchanges her
pretty childish clothes for the widows
coarse and often squalid garment; she
is forbidden to take part in any vii
lage festival or family gathering; the
very sight of her is regarded as an i'll
omen. Her natural woman's in
stincts are starved into inanition by
constant ffasts, sometimes prolonged
to ~ hours. Amid the genial and
brightly ,oolored life OF the Hindoo
family she fits about disarrayed, 81
lent, Stunned. disfgured-in some
parts OF India q hideously bald object
forbidden all JOY and all hope.