1.—“... _girlhood’s helpless years_ ...”
Somewhat as to these ancient conditions may be gathered from the
position in India at the present day. Read the following:—“The practice
of early marriages by Hindoos I was, of course, informed of by reading
before coming to India, but its mention in books was always coupled with
the assertion that in India girls reach puberty at a much earlier age
than in cold climates. Judge, therefore, of my surprise to find that so
far from Hindoo girls being precocious in physical development, they are
much behind in this respect; that a Hindoo girl of fifteen is about the
equal of an English child of eleven, instead of the reverse, and that
the statements made to the contrary by Englishmen who have no
opportunity of becoming acquainted with Hindoo family life, were totally
misleading. In the first place they were under the impression that
marriage never takes place before puberty, and, secondly, they accepted
the Hindoo view as to what constitutes puberty. You know that,
unfortunately, they were misled as regards the first point. I hope to
show you that in the second place the idea which they accepted as
correct is a totally mistaken one.”—Mrs. Pechey Phipson, M.D. (Address
to the Hindoos of Bombay on the subject of child-marriage; delivered at
the Hall of the Prarthana Somaj, Bombay, on the 11th Oct., 1890).
2.—“... _sexual wrong_.”
“As regards the marriage of girls before even what is called puberty, I
can hardly trust myself to speak, so strongly are my feelings those of
all Western—may I not say of all civilised?—people in looking upon it as
actually criminal. Ah! gentlemen, those of you who are conversant with
such cases as I have seen, cases like those of Phulmoni Dossee, which
has just now stirred your hearts to insist upon some change in the
existing law, and others where a life-long decrepitude has followed, to
which death itself were far preferable, do you not feel with me that
penal servitude is not too hard a punishment for such brutality? I am
glad to think that a very large section of Hindoo men think with me. I
have been repeatedly spoken to on the subject, and members even of those
castes which are most guilty in this matter, have expressed to me a wish
that Government would interfere and put a stop to the practice.”—Mrs.
Pechey Phipson, M.D., _op. cit._