The evils of child marriage.

4. CHILD MARRIAGE AND WIDOWHOOD.—Child marriage is in defiance of a law of nature at once beneficent and supreme. Its evils are multiform and deplorable. It is physically injurious, morally deleterious, mentally weakening, destructive of family dignity, productive of enfeebled offspring, increases the probability of early widowhood, provokes the curse of poverty, and tends to rapid over-population. The testimony of native Indians of education and independent judgment (especially medical men) is clear and emphatic as to its sad and dangerous tendencies.2 The population of India to-day is largely the children of children, and, as marriage is contracted with little or no regard to the ability of the husband to support a family, this is one secret of the terrible and grinding poverty of the country. National vigor in many sections of the great peninsula has suffered a notable decline, owing to the constant stream of infant life born of immaturity, and called to struggle with insanitary conditions and blighting disease.

Child marriage in its worst forms seems to be associated with the higher castes, among whom also the restrictions of intermarriage with other castes are inexorable, and involve a narrowing of the marriage relation within a too limited circle. The custom of infant marriage is not equally prevalent throughout India, and facts which may be true of one section of the country may not apply to others; yet the practice is sufficiently prevalent to make it a gigantic evil of Indian society and characteristic of the country. The census of 1891 reports 17,928,640 girls in India between the ages of five and nine. Of this number 2,201,404 were already married and 64,040 were widows. The report further shows that there were 12,168,592 girls between the ages of ten and fourteen, and of this number 6,016,759 were married and 174,532 were widows. In the province of Mysore the number of girls married under nine years of age in the year 1881 was 12,000, while in 1891 it was 18,000, showing an increase of 50 per cent. In 1891 out of 971,500 married women 11,157 had been married at or before the age of four years, and 180,997 between the ages of five and nine, showing that one out of every five of the wives was married under the age of nine. There were in the province at that time 23,000 child widows below the age of fourteen. The total of married children in all India under five years of age is as follows: boys, 103,000; girls, 258,000. The total of widowed children under five years of age is, boys, 7000, and girls, 14,000.

1 "The Women of India," pp. 60-64. བ ་་ Sanitary Reform in India,” p. 29.

The average age of marriage for girls among the Brahmans is between six and seven. Some are married before seven years of age.

Nearly

all are married before ten. Even babes are often married as soon as they are born.1 Twelve seems to be the limit of age beyond which it is a disgrace for the girl not to be married and a sin for the father not to have found her a husband.2

The discussions of the Indian sacred books as to the marriageable age of girls are not fit for quotation. They are part of the prurient vulgarity of Hinduism in its treatment of woman. The reasons usually assigned for infant marriage are that it is essential to the peace of a man's soul after death that he should have children who can duly perform his funeral rites, and that early marriages increase the probability of offspring, and on this account are to be commended. It is also argued that the custom tends to morality, and that it is justified in India for physical reasons. The arguments that early marriages are required in the interests of morality and are justified by the early development of Indian girls are not sustained by facts. On the contrary, the custom is a dangerous stimulus to immorality, and quickens to an unnatural precocity the relation of the sexes. It is, moreover, denied by competent authority that climatic conditions in India are to the extent claimed responsible for early maturity. The pernicious customs of the country as regards marriage have unbalanced nature and prematurely forced the physical and mental growth of Indian children of both sexes.4

Further restrictive

needed.

The physical sufferings induced by early marriage form a shocking indictment against a cruel custom.5 In a recent memorial, signed by fifty-five lady doctors, petitioning the Indian legislation concerning Government on the subject of child marriage, and infant marriage greatly forwarded by Mrs. Dr. Mansell of Lucknow to the Governor-General, a strong appeal based upon medical experience was presented, urging that fourteen years be the minimum age for the consummation of marriage. The appeal is sustained by most pitiful facts, drawn from medical experience, as to the physical cruelties attending the prevalent custom of infant marriage. According to what is known as the "Native Marriage Act" of 1872, forced marriages are prohibited under the age of eighteen for men and

1 "The Women of India," p. 56.

2 Ibid., p. 57.

3 Sir Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," p. 387. 4 "The Women of India," p. 59.

5 Ibid., p. 61.

Bridal Scenes in India.

Mission Boarding School for Girls (A. B. M. U.), Ongole, CHILD MARRIAGE VERSUS CHRISTIAN CULTURE.

fourteen for women, while the written consent of parents or guardians is required when either party is under twenty-one. This at first sight seems to be valuable legislation, but, as the law remains a dead letter unless its protection is sought, it practically has little effect as a remedy for existing evils, since neither parents nor children appear inclined, except very rarely, to avail themselves of its provisions. According to the penal code of India, the minimum age for the consummation of marriage, so far as Hindus are concerned, was until quite recently ten years. It has now been raised to twelve by an act which became law on March 19, 1891. The significance of this is that it is regarded as a crime to consummate the marriage earlier than twelve years of age, but, owing to the supreme difficulty of prosecution and the many embarrassments attending it, the infraction of the law is rarely brought to book, and in the great majority of instances it is practically inoperative. As the limitation of ten years was often disregarded, so in all likelihood that of twelve years will be observed even to a less extent.1 The Parsees have secured for themselves by special legislation in their interest the age of fourteen, as also have the Brahmos (members of reform societies, like the Brahmo-Somaj and others) at their own request.2 The Kulin Brahmans, however, seem to break all rules with their barbarous customs. It is not unusual for individual members of this marrying syndicate to have from fifty to seventy-five girl wives scattered about the country, so that when the much-married husband dies it brings the social miseries and sorrows of widowhood upon a large circle of helpless victims.4 There is at the present time much agitation for new Indian legislation

1 Sir Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," p. 387; "The Women of India," p. 68.

2 "The Women of India," p. 67.

3 Ibid., p. 81.

4 Rev. Robert P. Wilder, of Kolhapur, India, has forwarded the following extract from a speech of Babu Dinanath Gangoli, delivered at the Sixth Social Conference, Allahabad, 1892:

"It has been advanced in certain quarters that Kulinism is almost extinct, and that it is useless to take any trouble about it. Gentlemen, in my early days it was my belief that the practice would not last a decade more, but three decades have passed away and it is still prevalent. Some time ago I myself did not think much about Kulinism, considering that it had lost a good deal of its force; but three years ago, coming to know of the case of a Kulin who had left upwards of one hundred widows at his death, I was led to make inquiries about polygamous marriages among Kulins."

After acknowledging his indebtedness to the editor of the Sanjwani, through whose good offices the investigation was made, the result of the inquiry is stated as follows: