The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-12
The Women Of India.

The following story of the condition
of the women of India was written by
the editor of the Atkinson Globe while
on his recent trip to that country.
In no country in the world are wo-
men as badly treated as in India. The
whole duty Of the Indian woman is
to wait upon her husband. and bear
him sons; in some classes. she had
better be barren than bear only
daughters. While the practice of
numbering girl babies has been largely
broken up, it has by no means been
eradicated. as the census returns from
certain districts show from three To
ten times more boy babies than girl
babies. The lower class women are
slaves. while the upper class live in
seclusion, seeing only husband. father
in-law, or brother-in-law. Of the OPP
posite sex: cases have been known
where wives have been killed because
their faces were exposed by accident
to the gaze of strange man. The
custom of secluding w6men is Of Mo-
hammedan origin. and was forced up
on the Hindus by their conquerors.
The Mohammedan religion is SEN
sual one. When the faithful Moham.'
medan dies. he does not expect to
meet in heaven the faithful partner
of his earthl, journey. but young
houris which will never become DID, The
wife is the marital property of the
husband, and classified with COWS.
mares, and ewes. All she has to do is
to literally worship her husband. and
the husband is enjoined not to love
his wife too much. A women may
not walk with her husband: she
OF r,,s< +; ~
content with what he does not want.
The sacred Hindu book says: There
is not other god for woman except
her husband: Be he deformed. aged.
diseased, offensive IN manners. i'm
moral, a drunkard. a lunatic, blind.
deaf, or crippled, a wife should Law
ish upon him all her attention" A
Hindu girl is married when eight
years old to anyone her father Sc
lects; then she returns to the home
of her parents, and, remains there I'M
til physically old enough to go to her
husbands. 1t is a great disgrace for
Hindu girl to be an old maid, and
a wedding is made much Of; it is in
marrying of his daughters that the
poor Hindu goes into debt. and is new
err able to pay out.
In India. the professional prosti-
tute, or nautch girl, is considered d
necessary adjunct in the temple and
the house; in her professional cap
acity, she is invited to all native fes-
rivals; her presence at weddings is
considered suspicious. and she fills a
place in the Hindu religion cores
ponding to that which the nun holds
in Christianity, for she Is consecrated
to one of the Hindu dieties. In some
parts Of India. the nautch girl is
| treated with the distinction of prin-
cess, and everywhere receives public
attention that no virtuous wife Is per-
mitted to receive. The professional
prostitutes are the only women who
are educated in India: they are the
queens of native society. Husbands
turn to them when in need of social
diversion. and nothing is thought of
it: they are the only women who move
freely In mems society-the women
who come last in our estimate of the
sex come first In theirs.
The Hindu religion requires brides
for the idols who are its deities. and
their duties are to dance at the
shrines. sing obscene hymns. and gen.
orally delight the gods. and pander
to- the lust and avarice of the priests
of the temples. In most cases. these
temple girls are thankofferings made
by Hindus for recovery from illness.
The profession to which the girls are
consigned Is regarded as most hon
1 orable one. and carnal intercourse
with the temple girls an act of faith
and, worship, and, according to some
sacred Hindu writer's. 1t effaces all
sins. There are thousands of these
slayegirls in the temples of India, who
are the; common property Of the
1 priests. and there is no lack of. re-
cruits. The temple girls are the only
Hindu women who have any place
or share In the rites and observances
4 Of religion: they rank next to the
priests. Some Of the religious estab-
lishments are very large: In one al
PURGE. six hundred persons are en-
i ployed. The idol II treated a. IL II
Il we're n human being: a nriAst takes