The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-05-15
HINDoO WIVES.
London Queen.1


 Public opinion in England. was some time since aroused to strong sense of indignation by the republication in the English papers of the letters of ." A Hin doc Lady" from the Times qf Ladia. These set forth in the most striking manner the evils of the Hindoo customs of infant marriages and of enforced wid- owhood. It Is remarkable that the wri- ter of these letters should in herself have become an exemplifcation of the first of the two serious social evils to which she has called attention. The sad story of her life is soon told This lady, whose name is Rukmibai, was, when only eleven years of age, given in marriage to boy of nineteen. In ac- cordance with the Hindoo customs, she remained as child at her father $ house, was highly educated, and is now described as being a woman of refined and delicate manners, while the posses sion of more than average intellectual qualities Is evidenced by the character of her letters The husband to whom We must suppose she was for some fam fly or private reasons betrothed is said to be an ignorant and uneducated man. not elevated above the character of an ordinary laborer or coolie and unable by his own exertions to earn larger amount than ten rupees (about q Eng lish) month. It Is unnecessary to pie ture the fate of a refined, educated wo- man, compelled to live with such a man; almost any destiny would be preferable to such life. Rukmibai refused to ac- cept the position into which she had been thrust when child, and resolutely declined to live with the man who, ac- cording to the Hindoo law, was legally her husband, who consequently com menced a suit for the restitution of con- .jugal rights in the high court of judica- tured Bombay, Mir. Justice Pinkney, who first heard the case, did not even call upon the counsel for Rukmibai to reply, but at once dismissed the case But this did not satisfy the husband, who lodged an appeal to the high court, in which the case was argued before the chief justice, the Hon. Sir Charles Sar- gent, and Justice the Hon. Lyttleton H. Bailey, who it is stated have taken time to consider their judgment. In many of the courts of judicature in India na- tive gentlemen are among the judges in the Bombay high court Nanabakai Haridas, native lawyer sits upon the bench; but in this instance the two gen. tlemen concerned are Englishmen, and it is not necessary to state that their sympathies were with the defendant But, unfortunately for her, the question they had to try was not one of feeling but of law; and should they hold, as it is not improbable that they may, that the Hindoo law, which they are bound to administer, affords no relief to a wife who has been married by her parents as child, the fate of Rukmibai will be one of the most painful instances of oppres- sion and the cruelty of enforcing old customs in the midst of a more modern civilization. Let us hope for the sake of the lady, that the decision of the high court of appeal may be favorable to her; if otherwise, she will have the sincerest sympathy of every English woman to whom her sad fate is known, and she may, perhaps, derive some slight consolation from knowing that the in- justice and wrong rerpetrated in her case must inevitably lead to alteration in law so repugnant to every sense of morality and justice.