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16. KAILASHCHANDRA BHATTACHARJI.-There is generally no anxiety on the part of the parents to marry their boys too early, say under 10 years, except under very peculiar circumstances, arising out of two rather extreme causes viz too much poverty or too much riches.

17. JESSORE INDIAN ASSOCIATION.-The Hindu law of succession does not allow the daughter to inherit her paternal estate, when she has her brother. She has to live entirely on the mercy of her brother for support, and if she incurs his displeasure, her position is extremely miserable. This anxiety always broods in the mind of her father, who, therefore, considers it his prime duty to unite her to a deserving husband in his own life time.

18. KUMAR PRAMATHA BHUSHANVA, DEVA, RAJA OF NALDUNGA. The paralysis of social organism in India, is due to the fact that, whilst education has done and is doing much to elevate the minds of our men, the women portion of the community is well nigh where it was, centuries back. Women wield great power in domestic relations, and so long as their minds are not elevated by education to appreciate our refined ideas, any radical social change is the last thing that we can hope for.

SECTION IV. NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND
OUDH, THE PUNJAB, CENTRAL PROVINCES,
BURMA, ASSAM, COORG, HYDRABAD
(DECCAN.) &c.

19. HONOURABLE D. G. BARKLEY, MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, OF THE PUNJAB GOVERNMENT.—In the Punjab such marriages (of girls to boys who are their juniors) may arise from either of two causes. The caste of the girl's parents may be such that they have found it difficult to obtain what they consider a suitable match for their daughter, and they may therefore have to agree to marry her to a boy of proper caste who is younger than the girl, rather than leave her

unmarried. Or the girl may have been betrothed to an elder brother who has died, and popular opinion may be so strongly in favour of the claim of the family of the intended husband, when there is a younger brother to whom the girl could be given, that the parents may feel it impossible to resist the claim..

20. DEWAN RAMNATH DISTRICT JUDGE, HOSHIARPUR.Public interference of any kind will not meet generally with satisfaction, as long as the idea prevails that it is a sin to keep a girl unmarried, after she is 10 years of age.

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21. KANWAR BEKRAMA SING BAHADUR, AHLUWALIA, C.S.I. With regard to the question of early marriage, I beg to state that its prevalence is to be ascribed to the general feeling among the people, that it is one of their great responsibilities to get their children (especially daughters) settled in life, to save them from all future anxieties about having a proper home. But no doubt it sometimes happens, that the death of an infant husband comes as a great calamity.

22. RAI MULRAJ M. A., EXTRA ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER GURDASPUR, PANJAB.-It is no good denying the fact that many Hindus marry their girls at an early age, because they think that their religion requires them to do so. Most people however marry their sons and daughters at an early age, because they think it is required by the custom of the country. Almost all Hindus have a dread of a girl arriving at the age of puberty, before marriage................................ Early marriage is not unfrequently the necessary and unavodable result of infant betrothal.

23. BAJABA RAMCHANDRA PRADHAN, EDUCATIONAL INSPECTOR HYDRABAD ASSIGNED DISTRICT.-The custom of early, marriages among the Mahrattas does not seem to be of a very ancient date. It had its origin in the times of their prosperity and became general during the latter days of the Peshwas. It attained its height in the early years of British rule in Western India, when the people first tasted peace.......................when education had not taken root, and the disturbing ideas of reform were not known.

SECTION V. EXTRACTS FROM OPINIONS
GIVEN TO MR. MALABARI.

24. KESHAVLAL MADHAVDAS, (RUTLAM.)—At one time, there was great prosperity in India and abundance of food so that no one cared for increase in the number of family members. This gave rise to the custom of early marriages as well as numerous holidays, festivals, and caste dinners.

25. PANDIT BADRI DUTT JOSHI, POLITICAL PENSIONER ALMORA.-Your idea " that it (infant marriage) may have been forced upon the people under the first Mahomedan invasion " is likely true, but I am rather inclined to think that, the physical weakness produced by the evil led to the Hindus losing their country..................Previous to the time of the coming of the Mahomedans, there must have been a time at which disaffection in the country, or rather civil war among the different classes of people to make each influential over another, may be thought to have taken place, and with it the violation of the codes and precepts...... .....which by the time the Mahomedans came, must have so deteriorated the Hindus as (sic) led to their yielding to the invaders without the least opposition.

26. RAI H. C. SETH, (JHANSI).--In fact, so much internal pressure and adverse influence is exercised that sometimes with good reasons, educated Hindus have to submit and give up their laudable enterprise in despair. This mischievous impulse comes mostly from the females, who always have an extraordinary influence in directing family affairs. Such is not the case in India alone, but all over the world.

27. HON'BLE MR. DAYARAM JETHMUL.-I hear even now several infant marriages are being negotiated among families of standing and position. I also informed you in a former letter of the fearful expenditure required for these marriages, and a regular chain of transfers of bridal presents, which contributed mainly, if not solely, to early marriages. (Vide also this gentleman's opinion in chap. IV.)

CHAPTER III.

THE LAW ON THE SUBJECT OF INFANT MARRIAGE.

SECTION I. MADRAS PRESIDENCY.

1. K. KRISHNASWAMY RAO, CHIEF JUSTICE, TRAVANCORE.-The plea of religious necessity which many an old and sickly man puts forward to justify his marriage with a girl fit to be his grand daughter rather than his partner, is perfectly untenable, for the marriage of a widower is not a religious necessity, and Sri Rama, than whom there is no higher Hindu authority, performed many Aswarnada Yagoms, with the gold image of his departed wife (Sitha), to supply the place of a wife in such ceremonies. I would not raise my voice against the marriage of an old man to an infant, if he marries under a real conviction of religious necessity i.e. to keep agnihotram (fire), but not one in a hundred old men who marry ever dreams of keeping agnihotram, and much less keeps it.

2. R. RAGUNATH RAO.-Infant marriages and enforced widowhood are not sanctioned by the Hindu Shastras, nor were they in use in India a few hundred years ago.

On the contrary the marriages of undeveloped girls are in a way prohibited by them, and widows are recommended by the Vedas and Smritis to remarry.

No girl who is a minor, that is, who has not attained the age of discretion, or an age which entitles her to express her consent to cohabit with a man, viz 10 years (vide I. P. C. Section 375) can according to the Hindu Law, be married. There can therefore be no widow who is a minor.

SECTION II. BOMBAY PRESIDENCY.

3. TRIMALRAO VENKATESH, INAMDAR AT DHarwar.— The general Hindu law, as expounded in the Dharma Sindhu

is that, the "Moonji", or the religious thread-girding ceremony should be performed on Brahmins, or boys of the priestly class, between the ages of 5 and 8 years. Under extraordinary and unavoidable circumstances, it might be postponed up to 16 years of age, but such cases very rarely or never occur. When the Moonji is performed, the boy becomes a Brahmachari, i.e. he is entitled to perform religious ceremonies. This state is to last for 12 years, during which be should study the four Vedas, six Shastras, 18 Puranas, Bharat, and Ramayan a, or at least portions of them. He then becomes fit to be married.

Among Kchetrias or the warrior class, the Moonji is to be performed ordinarily between the age of 11 and 12 years. In unavoidable cases, it may be postponed up to 22 years. In the cases of Vysias, the ceremony is to be performed between 12 to 16 years of age, it being allowed to be postponed till 24 years in unavaidable cases. In both the classes of Kchetrias and Vysias, the state of Brahamachary is to continue for 12 years after the Moonji is performed.

In ordinary cases the marriageable period of a male Brahman is about 20, that of a Kchetria 24, and that of a Vysia 28 years

As regards girls, the proper age prescribed for the marriage of Brahmin, Kchetria, and Vysia classes is between 6 to 8, but never under 6 years of age. To get them married between 9 and 10 years is middling, and between 11 and 12 undesirable.

A girl is called gowri or a young girl up to 8 years, and kannika or marriageable virgin up to 10, and above that period she is known as Rajaswala or as having entered womanhood... .........A girl attaining her puberty before being married, is considered to be Vrishala or a Sudra woman.

4. BHIKAJI AMROOT CHовHE.-The sale of a girl among the Hindus is an act looked upon as sinful in the highest degree. It is as heinous as using the flesh of the sacred cow.

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