The morning call., 1890-11-11
HIND0O MARRIAGE.
Some Radical Reforms Instituted by the
British Government.

Some Radical Reforms Instituted by the
British Government.
The English Government has succeeded
in effecting several reforms relating to the
family life and the religious life of its Hiu-
doc subjects. The slaughter of female chill
dren has almost entirely ceased. The burn
ing of widows alive on the funeral pyres OF
their husbands has been practically aboI-
ished, though now and then, il some out-of-
the-way district, case is recorded. The an
nual massacre OF children to the spirits OF
the sea has been so completely suppressed
that the HlDdooS are inclined TO
claim that no such custom ever ruled. The
work accomplished in these directions it is
now proposed to push further by the pas
sage of three laws regulating Hindoo mar
riages The first raises from 10 to IL the
legal age Of cohabitation; the second abol-
ishes the suit for the restoration of conjugal
rights; the third makes it q legal Otfense for
the caste or priesthood to eXcommunicate
parents who abandon early marriage for
their children, or widows who remarry.
The London Spectator criticizes these pro-
posals very sensihly in the light of HndOo
public opinion. The first proposal, it be-
lieves, would be accepted by Hindoo
parents, though fathers would be annoyed
by the duty of watchfulness over their
daughters during the two added years.
The second, relating to legal proceedings,
would even more easily commend itself.
Hindooism allows a second wife to
man WHO is childless, and might
readily allow it to man who has
been deserted. If a wife cannot be forced
to return to her husband by Hindoo public
opinion, which makes widow an outcast.
1t is the extreme of cruelty that the English
law should interfere on the husbands be-
half. The tnrd proposal, however, making
it penal offense to excOmmunicate those
who abandon Hindoo customs, the Spec
tator believes, would put all India in such a
ferment of discomfort that "the Government
itself might be put oat of caste, and the
whole machine suddenly stop like the
works Of frozen watch"
Whether or not the attem pied enforce
ment of this third proposal would result in
the overthrow OF the government, it GER
jure the cause it would serve The reforms
which the English Government has effected
have dealt with overt acts and not with re-
ligious opinions. The communication of
parents who abandon child marriage, or Of
widows who remarry, involves no overt act
of violence. 1t simply makes its victims
without caste, without family, without
friends. Such treatment is vastly worse
than any act Of violence, but it is absolutely
beyond the power of the Government IDEAL
with it. The life and property of these vic
tins may be as thoroughly protected as
those of the carpet-baggers in Carolina or
rack renting landlords of Ireland, but no
Government on earth could compel the Hin
doc people to regard them as anything but
outcasts.
The abandonment of child marriage and
the remarriage Of widows both strike at a
single idea, upon which the whole Hindoo
social system rests. 1t is the idea that
woman is created only for her husband, and
that she should have no other life outside of
his life. For this reason she is given to him
in infancy, and is made an outcast if she
permits herself to survive him. This idea
and the fearful wrongs which spring from it
are not to be eXtirpated by law. The en-
iightenment of centuries will be required to
remove it, for it has required the equipment
of centuries among Europeans to remove
kindred conceptions of woman's place in