61. BRITISH INDIAN ASSOCIATION.-The Committee readily admit that, under certain circumstances, in some castes and certain places, considerable harm is done by the practice of early and ill assorted marriages. Infant marriages, i. e. marriages of girls under 5 years of age, have become exceedingly rare, and the average age of marriage for boys and girls has risen to a marked extent. En lightened popular opinion...... has already begun to assert itself. The expensiveness of marriages, and the hard struggle for existence, are also affecting the age of Hindu girls, in the same manner. The Committee............................ deny that it has been proved that early marriage is the sole or the most important cause of the degeneracy of the native race. Climate, food, hereditary predisposition to disease, injudicious selection in marriage, and other causes of arrested growth, are patent factors in the case, and it is illogical to overlook them. 62. JESSORE INDIAN ASSOCIATION.-We hold that early marriage weakens the physical strength of a nation; it stunts its full growth and development, it affects the courage and energy of the individuals, and brings forth a race of people weak in strength and wanting in hardihood. This is but one side of the picture; its other and brighter side has been overlooked. Mr. Malabari has considered the institution physically only... Its moral influence he has not taken into consideration. It is a most powerful check upon our youths against deviating in wantonness and vice. We are often told that early marriages are likely to be unhappy, on account of the absence of free-will and choice in the married parties, but in our opinion there is very little truth in this assertion. The Hindus are the only nation, among whom matrimonial scandals, and disgraceful breaches between husbands and wives, are rarely heard of. The absence of choice and discretion in the Hindu husbands and wives, is more than compensated by the interest, which their guardians take, in uniting them to suitable matches. The selection by the youths eager for marriage, may be influenced by several transitory considerations, while the sober judgment of their guardians is above them. from their early years, offers sufficient opportunities to the married parties to be acquainted with each other's traits of character and thoughts, and by smoothening their differences, and enhancing their reciprocity, teaches them to assimilate and live joint and peaceful lives. Moreover continuous association 63. KUMAR PRAMOTHA BHUSHAN DEVA, RAJA OF NALDANGA. That it (Infant marriage) leads to deterioration of the race, and physical suffering to the young wives and their children, is admitted even by the ancient medical science of the Hindus the Ayur Vedas. SECTION IV. NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND 64. CHIEF SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT N. W. P. AND OUDH.-The betrothal of infants, no doubt, gives rise to incompatible unions, and excluds that individual freedom of choice, which Englishmen are accustomed to think essential to happiness in the married state. But this view is not shared by all Western nations; and very many who are opposed to child marriage seem prepared to admit that, the real injury to the community at large is due to premature cohabitation, and not to early betrothal. The Lieutenant Governor and Chief Commissioner is not disposed to underrate the drawbacks of infant marriage. Besides its own peculiar evils, it is responsible for the existence of a large number of widows among the higher castes, and it is entirely reponsible for that form of widowhood in which women have never been wives or mothers. 65. C. K. HAWKINS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, AMRITSAR. I would first observe that infant betrothals and marriages are not specially oriental institutions. They were well known in Europe at a comparatively recent historical period. They have now disappeared, without any special action on the part of any State. 66. HONOURABLE D. C. BARKLEY, MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF THE PUNJAB GOVERNMENT.-The case of the marriage of a girl to a boy who is her junior need not arise from any criminal motive, and when it does, all that can be done is to punish the crime when committed and proved. In the Punjab at least, early marriages are probably less prevalent among the illiterate masses than among the educated. There are considerable tracts of country in which the customs of the people are opposed to early marriages, and it is usually the higher castes and the people of best social position who consider them most necessary. Where they do not prevail, the physical characteristics of the people are evidently better than where they do. 67. DIWAN RAM NATH, DISTRICT JUDGE, HOSHIARPUR.No sensible man will deny the truth of Mr. Malabari's remarks, and I will further add that infant marriage is not only fatal to the physical and moral interests of the young couple, but it is to some extent ruinous to the girl's parents, who to please the other party, spend money beyond their means, and thus involve themselves in debts and everlasting troubles.* One of the causes of indebtedness of the agriculturists, jagirdars, and old families is kurtoot, or anxiety to get a great name on the occasions of marriage &c., and if a father of a high caste girl does not show his kurtoot beyond his means on such occasions, he is sure to expect the displeasure of his daughter's parentsin-law, and his daughter will, during her infancy, receive the hints of the failure and ill-treatment. 68. DENZIL IBBETSON, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, PUNJAB. I agree with much that the writer (Mr. Malabari) *Heavy expenses are not ordinarily made when the marriages are performed of adult males and females, because in such cases the parents of the bridegroom are rather anxious to get their son married, and the son himself rather wants a wife than money. says of the great evils caused by these two customs. It must be remembered, however, that neither of them is by any means. universal in the Punjab. Throughout a large proportion of our area, infant marriage is the exception (Census Report 1881 paragraphs 688 to 690); ..And it must be remem. bered that infant marriage, if it leads in one way to immorality and suffering, in another way prevents it. Unchastity and offences connected with women are conspicuously more frequent in the west of the Punjab, where infant marriage is the exception, than in the east, where it is the rule..... The form of marriage by which a woman is for purposes of cohabitation the wife of A, while her children by him, are for purposes of inheritance reckoned as the children of B in the next generation, is common enough among semi-civilised races, and is by no means necessarily criminal or immoral. But where it is the exception, it probably does lead to immorality. Our law, however, provides punishment for adultery, and I do not think we can profitably do more. 69. RAI MULRAJ M. A., EXTRA ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER GURDASPUR, PUNJAB.-There cannot be any manner of doubt that infant marriage is a serious evil. It is the cause of many of our social grievances; it goes to increase the number of widows, and has a very injurious influence on the development of both the body and the mind of the nation. Perhaps not a single good word can be said in its favour these days. A large section of my countrymen both Hindus and Mahomedans, would be glad if infant marriage could disappear from the country... In the Punjab, it is the custom among almost all classes to betroth boys and girls when they are mere infants. Most people have not the courage to refuse an offer of betrothal for their sons, when it comes from the parents of a girl, for fear of getting a bad name among the community to which they belong. Others again hasten to get their sons betrothed, because if a boy grows up unbetrothed it is frequently considered to be due to some defect in the boy or the family, and it then becomes difficult to get the boy betrothed afterwards. On the other hand, the parents of a girl are anxious to betroth her as soon as possible, for if they wait till the girl grows up, they rarely succeed in finding a suitable match for her, all the boys of wellto-do families having been betrothed beforehand. In that case, it becomes necessary always to be on the look-out for a widower of comfortable means, or the girl is given in marriage to a boy of poor parents. Such considerations induce the parents of boys and girls to betroth their children while mere infants of one, two, or three years.........Parents at the time of betrothing their children are in many cases sincerely of opinion that they will marry their children at a ripe age. But when the girl grows up to the age of 13 or 14 years, she attains the age of puberty, and her parents think it necessary to give her in marriage. But as boys do not attain the age of maturity as early as girls do, the father of the boy finds that his son at the age of 13 or 14 years is a mere stripling, and, if a man of education, he is opposed to the marrirge. He recalls to his mind his declared opinions against early marriage, together with all the evils which follow in its train, but he finds himself powerless, as the parents of the girl press for immediate marriage. He has, therfore, to give his consent against his will, and in spite of his education and conviction. He has to hang down his head before his fellows in thought, who, however, are compelled by the early betrothal of their own sons to play the same part when their turn comes. Again early marriage increases the chances of widowhood, and has to answer for being the cause of the most miserable class of youthful widows, who have perhaps never even spoken to their husband or seen his face. 70. CHIEF COMMISSIONER, CENTRAL PROVINCES.-The native gentlemen, both official and unofficial, assert that not a few of Mr. Malabari's statements are exaggerated and sensational; that they are not of universal application; that he fails to correctly estimate the influence which the spread of |