ABSTRACT
To make ten the year of marriage, and this to be a reform l " 'Vhat makes Hindus so feeble is the custom of early marriage. They have hardly strength either to become soldiers or to cultivate land, ot to go for trade to foreign countries. They are unfit as colonisers. Every man has a family. Even little boys are burdened with wives and children. A girl cannot be kept unmarried beyond ten years; hence parents are very anxious at any cost to get her wedded, even to an old man or sickly youth. The consequence of this is that the race is being gradually deteriorated. Children die soon, and there are more widows than there were :fifty years ago." Such are the words of a !ate member of the Legislative Council of Bombay, Rao Bahadur Sirdar Gopalrao Hari Deshmukh (p. 51). "And yet," says another Hindu gentleman, "it is a wonder how this· nation has succeeded for ages in preserving such a marked harmony of their homes. If we have weakly ()hildren the homes at least are happy, contented, wellregulated and economical. Our English ideas actually jar with their sympathies, antipathies and all the important affections of their heart and head." For the man who wants to initiate reform the difficulty lies, to quote the words of the Honourable Mr. Kashinath-Telang, M.A., LL.B., now a judge of the Bombay High Court, " in those nearest and dearest to him, in his family, among his relations." It is education which has already so worked upon many of the men of India, and education it must also be that shall with ever accelerating speed move the time-honoured instincts also of those near and dear to them.
