Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-25
CHILD WIDOWS.
Some of the Strange Marriage
Customs of India.

There are over 10000, 1000 of widows
in India, and 1000, 900 of them belong
to castles who practice child marriage
and insist on the celibacy of their
widows. These customs are not en-
forced with equal rigor in all parts OF
India, nor among all the castles who
follow them. But, broadly speaking,
there are about 2 1000, 200 Indian wo.
men of good family who are con-
demned to life of penance or shame.
This, however, is a very mild state.
ment of the case. For it must be re-
membered that the cruelty of en-
forced widowhood in India is aggra-
waited by the circumstance that vast
number of the widows have only been
wives in name. In Bengal PA Hin
doc girls out of every 1000 between
the ages of 5 and 10 are married, and
no fewer than 666 are returned as
married between the ages of 10 and
IA. This applies to the general Hin
doc population. But among the
higher castles, who enforce the eel
ibacy OF it's widows, the proportion is
much higher. Practically, every
Hindoo girl of good caste is either a
wife or widow before she reaches
the age of IA. In thousands, indeed,
in hundreds of thousands, Of cases the
child has never known what it is to
be wife. The most orthodox idea
is that girl should be given in mar
riage before the sense of natural mod
esty arises. For canonical purposes
this was taken to be her eighth year.
The marriage is not contaminated
till she reaches the age of about IL,
and meanwhile, if the husband dies,
she is condemned to life OF celibacy.
1t is essential for the honor of a
Hindoo family OF good caste that it
should contain no unmarried daugh-
ter Of mature years. The existence
of such daughter is not only So
cial disgrace, but a religious crime.
When, therefore, female infant Is
born, the first idea in her fathers
mind is not one of pleasure, nor per-
haps regret, but simply how to find a
husband for her. 1t is not necessary
that she should become a 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 re-
ligious rite.
Aged Brahmins 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 flourishing trade. A
Kulin-Brahmin, perhaps white
haired, half-blind and decrepit, went
the round of his beat each spring,
going through the ceremony OF mar
riage 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 Hindoo
child-widow is looked upon as thing
apart and accursed, bearing the PEN
atty in this world for sins which she
has committed in a past existence.
Her hair is cut short, or her head is
shaved altogether; she exchanges her
pretty childish clothes for the wild
owls coarse and often squalid gar
ment, she is forbidden to take part
in any village festival or family gath
ering; the very sight OF her is re-
garded as an ill omen. Her natural
woman's instincts are starved into
inanition by cons ant fasts, sometimes
prolonGed6 to eeventy-tWo hours