Opinion from Jyotirao Govinda Phule ,by Mr.B.M.Malabari on Infant Marriage in India. I aconcure with Mr.B.M.Malabari's laudable Undertaking,and hope that something may be done by our enlightened Government to alleviate the miserable state of the deluded people of this country.Although Mr.B.M.Malabari is not pressed under the immediate burden of our customs and manners,invented by Aryan Shastra makers ,he treated the subject so remarkably well that the Shudrati-Ati-shudras and Brahmin widows will thank him in future undoubtedly.I also now beg to add a few remarks on the middle and lower olders,the downtrodden aborigines of this country.In the course of marriage if any slight dispute takes place between the parties,the poor girl has to suffer all her life-time .After The marriage is over,should a defect in her family happen to come to the notice of the boy's father,the innocent girl is considered an outcaste.If the boy is younger then the girl then the girl, she is not well fed,clothed and cared for properly,nay ,she is not allowed to remain eith her rich parents.
If her father-in-law is ignorant and poor,the girl,not being fed well,is stunted in her growth.In short The girl she is more heavely loaded with work for days and nights than the a American slaves,Thus she is so unbearably,tyrannized that she is obliged to put an end to her life by committing suicide;and the crime is very often hushed up by bribing the village Patel,Kulkerni(the quarrel-monger)and Policemen.Many poor parents on the bridegroom's side are thus,by incurring debts for marriages,ruined on accounts of the premature deaths of their daughters-in-law.besides the husband boy,on coming to his proper sense ,does not like his wife and marries one of his own liking.being thus accustomed,he is induced to marry two,three.or four wives at a time in succession,and thus renders his whole family discountented,abusive and quarrel.These ignorant wives are not only obliged to poison each other, but sometimes their own husband.
Now the enligntoned Hindu of Bengal has made excellent suggestions to University graduates,and these,as they suppose would be fair begining for the educated class,but,I think,their suggestions are not universal and applicable to all the classes of Shudras and Ati-Shudras,because very few of the former attend the University and latter are not at all admitted even into vernacular schools and allowed to sit and learn with the higher class boys.
In conclusion,unless our wise Government use compulsory measures,the ignorant,middle and lower classes will not come to their proper sense,because the so-called higher classes of Hindus,who hold responsible posts under Government,have by their cunning and shrewed ways,purposely misguided them in matters of Religion and politics.I therefore suggest thst Government should rule that boys under ninteen year of age,and girls under eleven,should not be allowed to marry.
In case they do,some reasonable tax may be levied on the parents of the parties married,and the money thus obtained should be used in the education of the middle and lower classes of Hindus.But the education should not be trasmitted through the medium of Brahmins teachers for,while educating,they create in the minds of pupils wrong religious ideas and lead them astray.Even the open daylight under the pretence of invented religion,and are induced to extract tax indiscriminately from the cultivators without giving them timeky allowances.But there is strong hope that his Highness the present ruler of Baroda will try his utmost to educate and better the condition of ignorant cultivators as His Highness has received a good and sound English education.
Enforced Widowhood.
Opinion from Jyotirao Govinda Phule ,by Mr.B.M.Malabari on Enforced Widowhood-Now I touch the most delicate subject widowhood upon Brahmi women.The partial Aryan Institution inconsiderately allows polygramy to males,whish causes them to fall into new habits of wickedness.When his lust is satisfied with his legal wives,he for novelty's sake haunts the houses of public women.He then contracts verneral diseases from them and is obliged to seek medical assiatance at an exhorbitance cost,for himself and his wives.When medical treatment ceases to cure him and his wives he losses all hopes of getting chldren.In this deplorable condition of his life if the lewd husband finds his own wife to go out during nights,he suspects her of leading a viciouscourse and so,punishing her severly,turns her out.
In old age in order to obliterate the stigma upon his character,the shameless fellow becomes a religious man and hires public harlots to dance and sing in the temples with a view to venerate the stone idols,for his own satisfaction.After the death of this wicked man,his young and beautiful wife is not allowed by the same Aryan Institute to remarry.She is strippes of her ornaments;she is forcibly shaves by her near relatives ;she is not well fed;she is not properly clothed;she is not allowed to join pleasure parties ,marriages or religious ceremonies,nay,she is considered lower than a culprit or a mean beast.
Moreover,the Aryan Institution enjoins Brahmin males to marry even the lower class girls during the life-time of his first wife,but his real own sister is prohibited to remarry,after the desire of her first husband.such partial and unjust prohibitions necessarily lead the helpless Aryans widows to commit horrible and heart-rendering acts of atrocity.To prove the above assertion I insert the following instance.One of my Brahmin widow as cook,whose name was Kashibai.The poor Kashibai as well-behaved and beautiful young woman of a respectable family,she was a chaste woman.She served several months in his house.But in his neighbouhood there lived a shrewd and cunning Shastriboova of a brahmins caste,who tried his utmost to mislead this ignorant woman.kashibai at first resisted his inducement but at last she fell victim to his desire and immediately became pregnant.
Afterwards by the persuasion of her paramour,she tried several poisionous drugs to commit abortion,but all her attempts failed.After nine months were completed,Kashibai gave birth to a beautiful son and for the corpse was thrown into well behind the house of her master.two days after she was arrested by police on suspicioun,portation for life.This crime Kashibai committed.that her character may not be spoilt among the Brahmin community.Her case brought to the notice of the public the unjust and partial character of the Aryan Institution,and so the people were struck with horror.Although my means were not sufficient to defray my exense yet I was compelled to establish a foundling house,in my own compound in Poona,for Brahmin community immediately after Kashibai's trial was over.The enclosed copy of printed notices were then pasted on the walls of the corners of street,where the Brahmins reside.From its commencement up to the present time,thirty-five pregnent widows came to his house and were delivered of childrens,of whom five are living and thirty died by the injuries done by them while in the womb by the poisionous drugs which the mothers must have taken with a view to conceal their pregnancy.
Many of the beautiful and helpless ignorant young widows of thr respectable Brahmins families have turned out private and public prostitutes on account of this wretched system.How abominable and degrading is the system of Aryan Institution,whish comples Brahmins widows to drag their lives in so miserable and shameless ways,that even modesty shrinks back to enter into particular details.In conclusion,I most respectfully crave the favour of your enlightened English Government to remove the tyranny system of Aryan religio institution.I therefore propose that no barbers should be allowed to shave the unfortunate Brahmin widows.It is quite evident from the partial Aryan religious institution that,when it prohibits the widows from remarrying,why the widows should be allowed to remarry ? If the favoue be shown to the latter then the poor widows must of necessity be permitted to remarry.There is no doubt that the selfish and wicked law-givers must have added such unjust and nonsensical clauses into their shastras with malice towards female sex.
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