Papers Upon Hindoo Infant...
The Times, 1824-10-25T00:00:00

(Printed by otder of the House of Ctmnone) The mnoalvprienciples and .tbe religious ordinances of the Hindoos have led tos2 many incongruities in their general conduct, as to have attracted the attentioni even of the most superficial observers upon the a-nomalies of human charac- ter. The wretch wvho is so absurdly parsimonious of ani- mal life as to scruple to crush an insect, or tread upon a worm, will not .hesitate to give his child to the sharks of the Ganges, or to light the pile which is to consume the p.erson o his living mother. 'T'he wife, who during her nausband's life-time persevered in the habitual disregardof her marriage vow, whicb is both the cause and the effect of the degradation of the female sex in India, will not he- sitate on his decease to exhibit an affection for him which she doe" not feel, by immolating hetself on his dead body ; and, to render the inconsistency more striking, she who whilst living was systematically deprived of education, as a being on whose nature no virtuous or useful quality could be ingraned-wbo was not accounted worthy to partake of religious rites but in conjunction with her husband-, and who was never permitted to eat at the same table with him, is, by performing the ceremony of suttee, gifted with the power of drawing him out of hell, and residing with him in Ieaven for three millions and a half of years. lVhat is, perhaps, even yet more surprising, wlhen we consider the wise purposes for which maternLal tendlerness is implanted in the female bosom, the mothers of India, whose affection for their progeny is described by all writers on the subject as even more dlevoted than that which ani- mates European mothers, will not hesitate to vow away the lives of their childrcn on the slightest emergency, or even to become tlieir murderers at the very moment they give them existence. That practices resembling these in many points should have been detected amonng the fierce andhaughty tribes ot'Scandinavia,will not appear so surpris- ing to any person who reflects on the intense feelings which were nourished by the sanguinary religion of our northern a'ncestors; but that they should have continued for centu- ries, through good fortane and through bad, to be the bloody characteristics of the tame, and quiet, and submis- sive natives of Indis, and that they should have hitherto triumphedover all the prohibitionsofthesuccessive conquer- ors who have overrun that country, assisted as those pro- hibitiorns-.ave been by all the bettel feelings being enlisted on their side, is a phenomenon for which we cannotaccount, without exposing the infirmity of human nature, and la- menting oyer the delusionis which have occasionally de- saded and debased it. It is pleasing, however, to reflect, tlhat, within the short peHrod that the English power has been established in In- dia, more has been done to eradicate the abominable super- stitio-n of its inhabitants than in all the long series of years which have preceded it. Past success ought to be an encou- ragement to future cxertions; and we would gladly hail it in this instance as an omen that the British Government will proceed boldly onward in the great work of mental improvement and moral regeneration, which already has been so happily commencet by it in India. Though lit has done much, it ought to recollect that it is within its power, an(d we hope within its inclination, to do still more. All that the varmest philanthropist need require of it, is to pursue the path on which it has already entered. It has no occasion to adopt new principles, since those which it has already avowed as its rule of cond(uict, anid uponi which it has also partiallv acted, are calculated to effect every object which the most sanguine imagination can desire. The volumne of Parliamentary Pa- pers now before us, though it has disappointedl our expecta- tions on one material point, on which we shall presently treat, affords one convincing proof at least that the san- guinary and msurderous practices of Hindoo superstition may be prohibited without endangering either the tranquil- lity or security of the empire. A quarter of a century has not elapesedl since it was deemned impossible to put an entl to thc inhuman sacrifices of old men, old wvomen, and chil- dren, which were annually perforrmed at the island of Sau- gur, an(d other places on the Ganges, at the full of the moon, in the months of November and January. 'I'he Marquis IVellesley, however, wvas of a different opinion; and, though the usual cant of the danger of isnterfering with the religious usages and prejudices of the natives was StTongly urged upon hiim by the advocates for the toleration of Hindoo barbarity, he had the good sense to disregard it, an(d to issue, in May, 1802, a regulation, declaring that as sulh sacri,fices zvere not sanctioned hy the Hindoo law, nor c,unlenanced by the Shaster, all persons aiding in them, no matter whether the party sacrificed consented or not, should be held guilty of murder, and on conviction should be liable to the punishmaent of death. The effects of this regulatiork have been most beneficial : for, thouglh it was thought necessary on its first eTnactment to send a sergeant and fifty Mahomedan sepoys down to Saugur to superin- tend its operation, we find (p. 148) that inl 1921 even this precaution was deemed unnecessary, in consequence of thorc sacrifices having entirely ceased. We may be, perhaps, told that this triuimph of humanity ,ver superstition, gained, as it was, without the slightest commotion or resistance on the part of the natives, is but a solitary triumph, and is mainly attributable to the vicility of Saugur to the seat of Government. The fact, however, is not so. A sirmilar triumph has been obtained in the province of Orissa, in the same quiet and unpretending manner. A fiscal regulation made for the express purpose of restrain- ing and regalating the pilgrimages to Juggernaut, and therefore directly interfering with the religious feelings of the natives, has unexpectedly put an end to the human sa- crifices, wbich, but a few years ago, were offered with such boundless prodigality of life to the "1 grim idol" who had there erected its throne of blood. Though it is utterly inconsistent with a just and enlightened toleration for any Goveriment to derive emolument from a tax laid upon the performance of wvhat are deemed religious duties-a tax, by the by, which the East Iudia Company has imposed in moore places than at Juggernaut-and although it is highly censurable for any Government to sell to its subjects tbe right of terminating their existence either under the olia- tiot-wheels of an obscene monster, or in any other mannier, we are too well pleased with the result of this regulation to findsmuch fault wvith the interested policy which dietate(l it. *Ve shall merely ca'l upon our readers to remark that the success which has attelnded it affirds amiother cheering proof that the preju(dices of Hintloo superstition are not so impregnable as they have hitlherto been supposed, and upon our Indian Governors to recollect, that if they should hi future plead their fears of interfering wvith the religious ceremonies of the natives, they lay themnselves open to this taunt-that they only think of them when the interests of hunanity are concerned, but dlisregard them wheni their own revenme is to be benefitted and increased. These are not, however, the only instances in which the interference of the British Government has rescued a num- ber of victims from rte grasp of Hindoo fanaticism, witl- out the slightest interruption of the public tranquillity. Itn the year 1789, Mr. Jonathan Duncan, the resident at Be- nares, [vide p. 6.] liscoyered that the tribe of Rajkoo- mars-a class of men whosenumbers amounted to 40,000, and who reaided on our Juanpore frontier-were in the habit of putting their daughters to death, as snon as they were born, by causing their mothers to starve theln. 'rllouglh this unnatural practice had long been prevalent anmotig them, all the Rajkoomnars with whom he conversed ac- 3:nowledged the atrocity of it, and assigned, as their only reason for continuing it, the great expense of procuring auitable matches for their daughters, if triey ailowedl them to grow up. iMr. Duncau used the infiuenec of his situation and character to obtain from theui a formal renuneiatiori of this sangainary customn, and fortu- A.a-y succeeded, by showing them that it was not more abhorrent to the feelings and wishes of the British Govern- mnent than it was to the doctrines of their own religion. It vas not, how^vever, to he expected, that a practice which hid so long existed in opposition to the first dictates of hu- inanity a'd natural affiection, would ke immediately discon- tinued,X especially as it derived support not only from the ~ttjudiees, but also from the interest, of those vzho bad tlopted ;i It wa:s therefore enacted, in 179.5, by order of th e Governor-General in Council, that if any R ajkoomar ,in the district of Benares shottld designedly prove the cauge I his child's death, by prohibiting i tfrom receiving nourish- raellt or from) any other cause, the Magistrate, on obtaining itifotntation thereof, should cause him te be apprehended ao,l if just ground for siuspicioni appeared agaiust him, should cause him to be committed to prisoll to take his trial fornrrder, before the Court of Circuit. This regulation was !e.enacted with certain additions to give it greater efficacy in 1799, inr 1803, and acain in 1804; and, if we are to trust therepresentations m ade bv the sam e Mr. Duncan in 1811, a letter whichl he wrote to tire (Chief of Kutch, [vide p. balThld beeg productive of the m ost salutary cotise- eienices. His statenment-atrd it is worthy of attentioni, as fle Was Governor of Bombay, and had therefore access to all Fhe P olitical infonn ation of Government-h is statement is, tlat "for thle last 22 years the Rajkoomnars of tbe Zillah of Jtranpore h ad beeni unsuleutl with such barbarouis atrd un- natural deeds as the murdler of their own offl,ping." A es5ult so gratifyint to humanity must have beenu doubly i?atifying to Mvr. Duncan, as it had been mainly -produced 2ylnis ownl personal influence and exertions, W/e are sorry i ?, 3 that immediately after his death, which took pTa,ee vlwlua few mond s a fte r the date of thatlettr, theinhu- I.man practice, wlich he had persuaded the Rajkoomars to j renounce, was resumed by them, if net generally, at least so frequently as to attraet the attention, though unfortu- nately not, the chastsement, of the British Government. In lX13, Mr.Sntith2u. p. n, and in ]1816 Mr.Fortescue, both Judges of the Benares Court or Circuit, noticed the secret existence of tbis unnatural custom, and attributed to it the savage and quarrelsome spirit of ttie Rajkoomars. In 1816, M'fr. Shakespeare the acting superintendant of police, in a report addressed to the Government, observed in paragraph 11 8,Thereis reason tobelieve that tbi3practice still obtains amongst the Rajkoomars tonwearly the sameeeztent asfornerly, though a degree of precaution is used topre-ent (etection;" and added, in par. 122, 'In the records of this office, I find a few reports from Duogahs in former years of tlhe murder of female children, by mixing their food with the milky juice of the plant of asclep;as gigantica." In 1819 Mr. Cracroft, the Magistrate of Juanpore, informed Mr.Shakec- peare " that the practice of infanticide subsisted in as fid'l force as ever it did, and appeared to be almost irremediable." This same Mr. Cracreft, howeyer, in another part of his letter, gives us an insight into the cause of this g-radual and melancholy alteration in the conduct of the Rajkoomars-a cause of which we more than suspected the existence, as soon as wc observed that Mr. Shakespeare was entirely silent as to any proceedings instituted-on the reports of the Darogahs which he had found in his office. Mr. ,Cracroft admits, in page 19, that none of his predecessors had ever apprehended, or committed to prison, anv individual for this offence; andl says, that he lhas no doubt that this was done by design, as the instances were too frequent to admit the possibility of their evading proof, had a strict search been often made for that purpose. After such an admission, we were surprisedl at findiing, first of all, that the Magis- trates did not receive a severe reprimand from the Supreme Government for tleit flagranat neglect of their duty, in not putting the existing law into execution; and secon'ly, that the Governor-Generai, MRIr. Shakespeare, and M1r. Cracroft, should all agree that that law hadl failed in pre- venting the practice of infauticide, when, according to the testimony which they themselves have laid before us, no sufficient trial-we beg pardon-no trial at all hat been made of its efficacy. Mr. Cracroft acknowledges, in the strongest terms, the propriety, and indeed the necessity, of attempting to restrain this practice in some manner, but says that it appears doubtful whether severe punishment would have that effect. Alr. Cracroft; however, gives us no reason for this opinion; we know that the experiment has not been made, and we thir.k that it could be rmade in perfect safety, since the Rajkoomars, in the renunciation which they signed voluntarily, andl without compulsion, and which they observed taithfully for many years, acknowledged a legal right in the British Government to enforce the observance of the stipulations it contained. It is at any rate worth the trial, if for no other reasons, at least for the two mentioned by Mr. Cracroft, of which the first is, that the practice is ioalirectly a very considerable cause of the insubordinate character and vio.eit disposition of the Rajkoomars, by steeling their hearts against the na. tural affections, and rendering them familiar With inhuma- nity; and the second, that it is a great check to population in a country which is far from having arrived at its greatest extent of cultivation, by compelling one third of the Rajkoomars to remain unmarried on accotnt of the scarcity of females. We have been thus prolix on this part of the subject, because it shows that the Rajkoomars, fierce and indlepen- dent as they are representad to be, dlid not view with jea- lousy this interference of thie British Government, andl be- cause the success which attendedl it for so many years during the life-time of ,Mr. Duncan, is strong presumptive evidence tbat the practlce might have been eradicated, had the laws regarding it beeni promptly and vigorously exe- cuted. So long, however, as they are allowed to remain a dead letter, as they are at present, they tentl to encourage a belief or one of two opinions amnong the natives-either that the British Government is not strong enouglh to ci- force the laws which it enacts, or else that it is not sincere in its expressed wish te abolislh infanticide-a belief whichi in the first instance is prejudicial to the safety, and( in the latter to the honour and character, of the East India Coin- pany. There is another sanguinary practice of the Hindoos, with which thle British Government has interfered, with- out hitherto exciting any religious alarm or dissatisfaction among them-we mean the ceremony of suttee, which, if voluntary on the part of tile victim immolating herself, is suicide, and if ittvolhntary, is murder on the part of those wlho perform it. Without questioning the intentions of the Government in Bengal, we may be permitted to express our doubts whether their interference in this instance has not doge more harm than good to the cause of humanity. The regulations issued by iton this subject in 1815, whilst they prohibit in some few specified eases the sacrifice of widows by their relations, auhorizeit in all others,bygracing the performance of it with the attendance of thc police, and appeared so well calculated to encourage the feelings whieh led to it,where they existedalready, and to excite them where they did not, that more than one of the Mlagistrates in Bomnbay refused to promulgate them ; and insteadl of being blamed, were,on stating their reasons, absolutely ap. plauded for their refusal by the Governor in Couneil in Bombay. One of the Judges in Bengal declares, that our ordlers have thrown the ideas of Hintloos upon the subject into a coinplete state of confusion-that they know not what is allowed and what is interdicted; but that upon the whole they have a persuasion that our Government is rather fa- vourable to suttee than o.herwise. If such be the fact,why should we hesitate to show them that we abhor the usage, by prohibiting it at once by a peremptory law? Like the sacrifices at Saugur it is not sanctioned hy their law, nor enjoined by their Shaster: why, then, should we not place it under the samse interdlct, as the same cause exists for it in both cases? It was forbidlden by the foreign go- vernmcnts of some of our settlements, and the prohibi- tion was obeved without a nilrmur; why slould we, wlhose power in India appears at presen to be commetnsurateI with our will, be afraid of issuing a similar prohibitionl ? The MvIahomnetan conquerors of India had courage and hmttnanity enough to abolish this iletestable practice in all the countries su'ject to their rule: why should we, wlho are nhot more their superiors in power, in intellect, and hi religious knowledge, thaui we are in the love and the affec- tion of our subjects, be reluctant to follow their noble examplc ? Mr. Canning answers' " because the conduct of Muhssulmarns is tiot to be the guide of Christianshbe-a cause the religion of Mahomet is one of coiquest, and that of Clhrist one of persuasion-because the fonnler triumphied by pOWer, and the latter in spite of it." To thlis flourislh of antitheses, which is too paltry to descrve even the name of a sophismn, We reply, that if the policy be in itself just, humatnc, andl lhonourable, it matters little who flrst adopted it; and that even the Christian religion, with all its divine peovers of per;,usasionl, never rejected the aid of humiian au- thority to put down the disgusting cCeremonies of barbarismn and superstition. The question, however, is not whether one religiou shall triuxmhu o ier another, but whether a Go- versnment which calls itse!f civilized nand enlightened shall allow murders to bc perpetrated with impunity in its dominiions, azid that, too, under aireumstauccs wllic'l the intelligent natives in all parts of lntlia contein- plate with tho most unqltalifie(d detestatioi arid abhorrenice. A recent publication) by Sir John Malcolm inforins us, that in the whole of Central In(lia therc have not been above three or four suttees in the last twenty years, and that its best andl wisest prinices view then with as umuchl disgtst as we ourselves tlo. A etriking proof of that observation is given in the conduct of thc motlher of Holkar, Alia Bhye, who rule(d the proviince of INIalwa for 30 years itl unldis- turbed tranquillity, and who cannot be accusedl of indiffer- ence to her religion, as there is scarcely a place of liindoo pilgrimage, from the Hinmalya mnountailns to Cape Coomorini, that does not attest her generosity and devotion. That wise princess not only showed her own disapprobation of this inh-amanlrite,bydeclining to hurn when sheherself became a wi(low, but also used every effbrt short of coercion, on the death of her daughter's husband, to prevellt her from im- inoLating herself upon his pile. Sir John Malcolm assu:res us, snat ttotwitlmstanadii this oircuinstancl, slie reinaine(l firm in thc 5f%etion of her subjects, anid was lolloure(d to her latest breath by thcir higlhest regarel and veneratior. The volumle of papers regarding this sacrifice, wticli were last year preseitted to Parliaml ent, show that in sonme of the (districts )elongmitg to the presidency of Fort St. George and( also to the Governmenelt of BSombay, it was unkniown, and that in others, it was of rare occurrence, and ou the deelile; whilst the papers presented thle year before afford ample proof, that even in the piovinc,s belonging to the Bengal Goverincnt it was only prevalent among the lowest and least influential of the people, there being numerous in- stances of the widqvs of the higher classes continuing to live in affluence and respectability, and there being at ithat time tno Iess than 57 suiis, to which Hindoo ladies were parties, and *7hich involved propertv amounting to fou lacks of rupees, pendling in the Court of Nizamut Adawlut alone. I1 is true that in' the presitdency ol Bengal there have been many, too Many, instances of this horrible sacri- lice; but if the numbers who have burned be compared wi Lli those who have- not, it will be seer that the fbrmer bear to the latter a very small proportion, when coUI- Vide Parliamentary Debatrs, vol. v., p. 1122 (New Series), June 20, 1821. pared with the whole of Itt fensT ilulat&n. tt li also notorious, that in 98 cases out lOOe, these serifiees are not produced by the voluntary ipulses o the widow's mind, but by force or persuasion, urged upon. er biy a crowd of hun-Try Bramns and interested relations. It be- comes,therefore,the duty of Govermt'ent to interfere with a vigoroushand, for the protectioi of the weak and simple against the strong and artful classes of its subjects; and firon that duty it cannot shrink witeout a manitest diminitien of its dignity, and an essential degradation of its character. among nations. Why, then, should it any longer delay to issue that prohibition which is re- quired of it by sound policy, no less than by honour, and justice, and humanity, and religion; and which is only withheld by a misapprehension of its real interests, and an unfounded fear of the natives,which, to say the plain truth, it never displays upon any other occasion ? WVe know that we shall be told to remember the mcutiny atVellore. We do remember it, and with feelings that often make us tremble for the duration of our political existence in India. WVe acknowledge that it was caused by an at- tempt at innovation, but at innovation widely dilferent frim that whiclh wvould be produced by the prohibition which we recommend. The innovation then attempted was the gab- stitution of a cap or helmet, or some other military foppery, for the turban worn by our native soldiery, and the oblite- ration of the mark they carry imprinted on their foreheads. It was one that could not be attended by any adfvantage, either in a moral, a religious, a politiel, or even a military point of view, and was therefore unnecessarily undertaken by a Government which prided itself on its non-interference with the ancient usages of its su'bjects: it was, moreover, one that called upon men with atns in their hands to dis- avow their caste or family, and torelinquish a harmless but distinguishing characteristic of their religious sect-for such the mark on the forehead is-without any alleged reason for so doing, save the arbitrary mandate of their employers; and it was therefore considered,though erroneously,as a pre- paratory step to forcing -them to be?ome Christians, and was on that account rosisted accordingly. Now, the inno^ vation which the prohibition of suttee would occasion is, if we may use the expression, more of a passive than an active nature. It would not be an interference witlh their reliaion, thouah even if it were we should still say "Abolish it." The practice, as we have beforesttted, is not enjoined by their sacred writings, iS in opposition to all the finest feel- ings of humanity, and is abhorred on account of its ex- treine barbarity by al but a small and ignorant liortion of the natives. the motive for Trohibiting it is olearly disin- terested on the part of th British Government, and is known to be so by thoae among whom it ought to be issued. 'he prohibition itself, unless haman nature is different i, India from what it is in every other quarter of the globe, would be promoted in its operation by sorne of the nmost stirring impulses which act upon mankind-we mean the love of life, which is found in every bosom, and the mutual affection between parents and children, which must always be Qpposed to a dissolution of it at once so painful and un- natural. As, therefore, sound policy ought to have taught us not to interfere rashly with the rntes and customs of the soldiery at Vellore-for when rites and customs are harm- less, they are entitled, whatever form they assume, to tole- ration and protection-so the very same policy ought to induce us to interfere on the part of the desolate and oppressed,with the revolting ceremony of suttee; for where' the tendency of aLny practice is to destroy life and to alienate the natuiral affections of mankind, that practice, no matter how ancient, ought to be prohibited in the first instance, and if persisted in, to be punished in the second. In the last debate which occurred in Parliament upon thir question,-a debate which e-ited little interest with those who have such an overflowv of sympathy for the in- jured mules and asses of Great Britain,-the benevolent in. dividuals wlho pressed upon His Majesty's Miniaters the I propriety of compelling the East India Company to abolish this abominable sacrifice, were told by their opponents that even if the joining in it were prohibited upoU pain of death, it would stillbe impossible to patta stop to it. This assertion-for it is nothing more-they endeavoured to make good, by declaring that our efforts to abolish infanti- cide in the provinces of Kutch and Guzerat had almost entirely failed. The papers now before us, which were called for in consequence of that unexpected declaration, furnish melanicholy proof ot its accuracy. But even that cir- cumstance is not conclusive on the subject; for the ques- tion wlhich immediately rices upon it is, as to the cause to which that failure is attributable. If it be owing to the strenuous opposition given to our interference by the na- tives, then we allow that there may be some, but net much, weight in the argument; but if it be owing either to the inadequacy of our measures, or to the remissness of the Company's servants (as was the case with the Rajkoomars of Juanpore), or to a mixture of both, the argument falls to the ground, and is of none-effect; for it wjuld be per- initting the Company to argue in a vicious circle, if we were to allow it to urge the inadequacy of its mneasures, or the remissness of its servants, on one occasion, as a reason for not trying the efficacy of mnore energetic measures on an- other. The papers to which we have just alluded afford us sufficient data for discussing that point; but before we cuter upon it, we shall take the liberty of saying a few words on the prevalence of the practice of infancticide, and on the feelings in which it appears to have Origiliatedanong the Jareejah stibes of the peninsula of Guzerat. t.(To be continued.l ?AP4RS lPOAr HINDOO INFANTICIDE.