3. Hobson's choice owing to endogamy in the caste or sub-caste. 4. Physical defects or moral taints. 5. The out-growing of hus band or wife 6. Husbands becoming fit for the grave when the wife becomes fit for his home. 7. Total or partial absence of physical adaptability or temperament. REPLY. Infant marriage not responsible for the widowhood of those who have the misfortune of losing husbands of 16 and upwards. The evil has small proportions. Mr. Malabari himself says "The argument of absence of the exercise of free-will may not commend itself readily to all practical reformers "If castes and sub-castes are to exist, one does not perceive how late marriages will prevent these evils." "So long as human nature is not prepared to forget its high descent and lofty destiny, it cannot traffic in human flesh, with that utter oblivion of the demands of decency, with which it enters into other contracts. Hence, in contracting marriages, much will always be left to chance, and little to deliberation and choice...... Children are naturally more exposed to observation than adults, and less likely to assist in cheating. "Due care is generally taken to prevent this." These are 66 rare cases and few and far between." "Married life has seldom a complaint to make on the score of physical adaptabili 8. Social alienation. 9. A too early consummation of marriage and its consequences. 10. Breaking down of constitution. 11. Ushering in of disease. 12. Birth of sickly children. ty. As to disparity of temperament, in late marriages outward form will carry everything-adults have little patience for the exercise of cool judgment-and can hide their weakness from each other. In child marriages you can chisel off many of the angularities of temperament by a proper course of treatment. In late marriages one cannot be a disciplinarian, and at the same time a loving husband or wife. Mr. Malabari himself observes that infant minors turn out happy in a large majority of "Too early" is vague. No consummation takes place before puberty. Marriages are so arranged, that by the time the boy is 16 the the wife is 13. "That consummation which takes place just when the parties have arrived at the age of puberty, is a direct call of nature, and cannot be early or late. Nature is generally credited with being unerring and perfect. In cases especially when she writes in legible characters, and where it is impossible to misunderstand her, it is not always possible to disregard 13. Necessity of feeding too her. If she is opposed or slight many mouths. 14. Poverty. 15. Dependence. ed she knows how to have her revenge. It may be less direct, longer in coming, but it is none the less certain. In these timely consummations if it is nature that calls, we cannot be presumably wrong in res 16. A disorganised household leading to sin. 17. Premature death. 18. Unprotected infants. 19. The giving up of studies by the husband 20. Over-population in poverty 21. Contracting of debts to solemnize marriages with eclát. ponding to her. Hence, we should be disposed to argue that if Hindu children are comparatively more sickly and less robust, it should be the effect of causes other than these wrongly called untimely consummations. It will not do to forget that a strong physical constitution is the product not of one or two, but of several causes combined. Climate, food, habits, and a host of other things go to form it as much as consummations do." Consummation not a day too early. Therefore it tends to make the husband more steady, more tractable, and even more studying, than he would be without it. "Begin early and end early, is a law of nature. If you begin early in begetting children, you must end it early also. Overpopulation is not yet one of India's standing grievances. If it is, it is the direct result of every well ordered Government, which disturbs nature's operations to restore equilibrium, by either preventing wars. famines, diseases &c., or by minimizing their mischief. In countries where marriages are late, progeny is more numerous, longer lived, and spreads far and wide and like a fig tree." Overpopulation and poverty do not go together. England is over populous but not poor. The Sahara Desert is poor, 81. but not over-populous. Overpopulation is a fear, a danger, a reality, only when the whole habitable world is taken into account. Marriage is rather the occasion than the cause of this spending. Ignorance and not marriage is the root of this evil. RAGHUNATH B. TALVALKAR, B. A., HEAD MASTER, HIGH SCHOOL, AMRAOTI.-No doubt the custom of child marriage prevalent among the Hindus and some other races in this country, leads to many evils, and its abolition would greatly contribute to the progress of the people, material and moral............... It appears from the report of the last census that, among the Hindus the proportion of boys married under 10 years of age to the total number of boys under that age is, in Bengal 5.5 per cent., and is higher than that in other provinces. In Berar that proportion is 4, and in Bombay, 2-5. Similar proportions for girls under 10 are14 per cent. in Bengal, 21-7 in Berar, and 10.5 in Bombay. The Central Provinces, Madras, North-Western Provinces, and the Punjab, show these proportions for boys and girls comparatively lower than those of Bengal, Berar, and Bombay. The precentage of girls married under 10 in Berar, it is to be observed, is the highest. Early marriages in some sections of the Gujrati Brahmins are very rife; but this is only an exception. Now, if these Brahmins are excepted, the number of boys married under 15, in the Bombay Presidency, is 6 per cent., while that of girls married under 15 is not more than 30 per cent. Our Shastra, or caste, requires only, that girls should not remain unmarried after puberty; and, for obvious reasons, this rule is salutary, until education enlightens our females....................... I am not sure if over-population is an evil attendant upon early marriage. But surely progeny at early age makes parents dependent, and involves them in cares earlier, and certainly enhances their misery, howsoever caused. The most enormous evil of early marriages or rather of early consummation of marital troth, is, indeed, physical degeneration of parents and their offspring. Family cares deprive a man of his independence and spirit of enterprise, and the earlier these cares beset a man, the sooner he becomes helpless and grovelling. Youth is a formative period of life, and in a country wherein its youths are not free to enjoy their independence a long time, there is no hope of the growth of enterprising and energetic characters. That country must remain far behindhand in the race of material and moral advancement................... SECTION V. EXTRACTS FROM OPINIONS GIVEN TO MR. MALABARI. 82. HON'BLE J. GIBBS C.S.I., C.I.E.-The former (child marriage) is a practice not confined to Hindus, but is practised by Parsis and Mahomedans also. And having watched it carefully for many years, I am convinced that it results in great physical as well as moral evils. I was first struck with the results of early marriage when I was serving in Gujerat, about 30 years ago. And the inquiries I then made, led me to the conclusion that the physical consequences were very injurious to both sexes. Young mothers became stunted in growth, and often became invalids for life, while children were too often puny and weak. But it was during my residence in Bombay in 1860-62, when I first met poor Karsandas Mulji and heard from him the result of his inquiries, which went much farther than mine had done, that I found my own view terribly confirmed. 83. THE MARQUIS OF RIPON (AUGUST 1886.)-I trust that the day is not far distant, when the reforms which you advocate will be accomplished, and I do not hesitate to say that the effect of their adoption upon public opinion in England will be of the best kind. |