concern the recent circular issued by Mr. Gait regarding the depressed classes.

VI. That the miserable condition of young widows should be improved by starting or further strengthening Widows' Homes in each province, by giving young widows technical education and permitting such of them as wish to marry to do so without let or hindrance.

VII. That this Conference is of opinion that the requirements of Act III of 1872 of repudiation of religious belief on the part of parties to marriage is unnecessary and inexpedient, and urges that the law be so amended as to omit this undue interference with religious beliefs.

VIII. That every effort should be made to induce sub-castes of the same caste to interdine and intermarry.

IX. That a working fund be established for the organization of the annual Social Conference for collecting and publishing its proceedings and for carrying on the necessary office work during the year.

X. That this Conference reiterates the resolution passed at previous Conferences urging on all social reform bodies the necessity of strenuous efforts in favour of temperance and social purity, and regrets the action of the exhibition authorities to allow a dancing girl to perform within the precincts.

XI. That in the opinion of this Conference it is a pressing duty of the Hindu community to provide facilities for the re-admission of repentant converts.

XII. That all obstructions to the re-admission of foreign returned Indians be removed.

XIII. That in the opinion of this Conference it is urgently necessary that there should be some legislation controlling the administration and management of charitable and religious trusts which as experience has proved have been utterly mismanaged by their trustees.

The year 1897 marks a further advance in the movement. Two permanent provincial organizations for furthering social reform arose that year, The Bombay Presidency Social Reform Association, and The Madras Hindu Social Reform Association. These bodies at once began to hold annual Provincial Conferences.1 In 1900 Bengal followed suit. These provincial assemblies, which are usually held at the same time and place as the provincial gatherings for political purposes, have proved extremely useful. Distances are so great in India that it is very hard to gather men from every quarter for a Conference, but the problem is much easier in a province. Local conferences are also held representing single districts or other sections of the country. The first of these were also held in 1897, in the Godavery and Mangalore districts. Wherever a group of the friends of freedom and progress happen to be, there it is comparatively easy to hold a social conference.

Since 1904 an Indian Ladies' Conference (Bhārat Mahilā Parishad) has been held at the same time and place as the National Social Conference, to discuss subjects affecting women's life. The following Resolutions were passed in Hindi at the seventh Conference held at Allahabad at Christmas, 1910:

1. That in the opinion of this Conference the best way of the advancement of the country is female education and the Conference requests all Indians to make arrangements for spreading female education.

2. That in the opinion of this teach girls reading and writing. to manage the household, how to etc.

Conference it is not enough to They ought to be taught how attend a sick person, sewing,

3. That in the opinion of this Conference child-marriage is

1 Ranade, Essays, 165-6, 279. Cf. for Bombay, ISR., XX, 136, 148, 292, 304; XXII, 375; and Madras, ISR., XIX, 580; XX, 375, 462.

2 See ISR., XXII, 44.

Ranade, Essays, 165.

the root of all evils. It is the duty of the well-wishers of the country to remove this evil.

4. That this Conference is of opinion that it is absolutely necessary to lessen the rigour of the parda.

5. That this Conference thinks that the children should not be made to wear ornaments.

6. That the condition of Hindu widows is pitiable, and in order to save them from many troubles it is necessary to open Widows' Homes where they can be educated.

Ladies have also met in conference in a few provincial centres in recent years, notably Benares, Guntur,2 Vizianagram and Travancore.4

3

In 1890 The Indian Social Reformer, a twelve-page weekly in English, began to appear. Its office is in Bombay. Its editor, Mr. K. Natarajan, belongs to the Madras Presidency. The paper has had a very honourable record. It stands for religion, for morality, for social and political progress, and has consistently maintained a courageous and manly policy. Its influence as an encouragement to social reformers in small places, where orthodox opposition is fierce and powerful, must be very great.

3. FEMALE INFANTICIDE

As British rule was extended in India, administrators discovered, to their horror, that female infanticide prevailed to a most alarming extent in the Centre and the West. In some villages there was scarcely a girl to be seen; in others there were four or five times as many boys as girls, all the rest having been destroyed. Under Lord Bentinck administrative action was taken to put down the inhuman practice. The crusade took many years; and even now there may some places where it is still secretly practised; but on the

1 ISR., XX, 439.
2 Ib., XX, 498.

3 Ib., XXI, 222.
♦ Ib., XXIII, 161.

be

whole it has been stamped out, and no Indian would wish to see it revived.

4. CHILD-MARRIAGE

The Hindu law since about 500 B.C. has been that the father who does not marry his daughter before the menses appear commits sin; and since the Christian era, if not earlier, the law has been held to be a serious religious obligation and has been almost universally obeyed.1

Christian influence began to make itself felt early in the nineteenth century, and bore fruit among the Parsees in Bombay, in the Brahma Samaj under Keshab Chandra Sen and in the Arya Samaj under Dayananda. B. M. Malabari, a Parsee journalist, started in 1884 an agitation on child-marriage and widow-celibacy which convulsed Hindu society, and deeply influenced public opinion. He wished Government to take action, especially in the matter of child-marriage.2 His pamphlet, containing the opinions of many prominent Hindus and Government officials, was published in 1887.3 Much useful discussion was provoked. Missionaries supported him warmly throughout the country. Soon, a case occurred, which proved conclusively how serious the matter was becoming :

Public attention was called to the matter by the case of Rukhmabai in Bombay, a case which showed that relief was demanded not for Christian girls alone, but for Hindu girls as well. Rukhmabai was a Hindu girl, educated in the Free Church Mission School and afterwards as a Zenana pupil. She was clever and accomplished, and the man, Dadaji by name, to whom she had been married in infancy, being repulsive and illiterate, she refused to live with him. He appealed to the law to compel her to do so. The case was carried from court to court, till the High Court ordered Rukhmabai either to live with Ranade, Essays, xxiv ff.

1 Crown of Hinduism, 94–96.

See p. 389, above.

Dadaji as his wife or go to prison for six months. A compromise, however, was then effected. A sum of money, sufficient to buy another wife, was paid to Dadaji. But it was decreed that, according to Hindu law, Rukhmabai must never marry. She went to London to study medicine, took the degree of M.D., and returned to India to take charge of a hospital for women.1

In 1890 a tragic occurrence brought another aspect of the subject forcibly before the minds of all men. A Bengali girl, named Phulmanī Dāsī, eleven years of age, died in Calcutta in consequence of what in all other civilized countries would be described as an outrage on the part of her husband, who was a man of thirty. He was arrested and tried for culpable homicide. The only defence he made was to quote the clause in the Penal Code which fixed the age of ten years as the lowest limit for married life. Yet he was convicted, and sentenced to twelve months' rigorous imprisonment. The consequence was a loud outcry from the orthodox community. They complained that it was utterly unjust to punish a man for doing what was prescribed by his religion and distinctly permitted by law.

The case caused great indignation in Christian circles. Europeans demanded, in the words of Max Müller, "that the strong arm of the English law be not rendered infamous by aiding and abetting unnatural atrocities." There was a loud cry that the age should be raised, and that the penalty should be increased. The Government of India therefore introduced a bill into the Legislative Council, raising the age from ten to twelve.

The Bill roused the most violent opposition amongst Hindus. The following sentences give some idea of the excitement and fury raised by the proposal:

Never before, within living memory, had Bengal been so agitated. Crowds of excited Hindus paraded the streets all 1 Kenneth S. Macdonald, 183-4.