Walter Matthew Gallichan

“ In 1906, Margaret E. Noble, the Sister Nivedita, published a highly interesting book of intimate Hindu impressions entitled "The Web of Indian Life." The picture that she draws of the status of the Indian woman is fascinating, and, to Western minds, very astonishing. There is no doubt that the writer's lively prejudice has inspired her enthusiastic praise for everything Indian. She applauds the system of the sheltered life for women, and smiles at our English ideal of sex-equality. ”

“ Marriage is in no sense oppressive to women, and true sex-equality seems to exist. No husband ever conducts a business or domestic affair without seeking the counsels and proposals of his wife. Undoubtedly, where men and women work side by side in common avocations, there is a high regard for the intelligence and judgment of women, as well as conjugal equality.
A testimony as to the power of the mothers in India is given by Father Elwin,* a missionary. He says that mothers of families direct the religious beliefs of their children, and rule in all matters over even their grown-up sons. ”

“ CHAPTER V THE WOMEN OF INDIA AMONG the people of our Indian Empire exist all forms of the sex-relationship from polyandry to polygamy. For the student of marriage customs this is a great field for inquiry. India fascinates and bewilders.
In this vast peninsula, we rule over a population of over two-hundred-and-ninety-four millions; a people speaking more than one-hundred-and-forty languages, and adhering to differing traditions and practices. Seventy per cent, of the natives are followers of the Hindu religion. ”

“ Men walk alone in the streets of the cities of India. Notwithstanding, Miss Noble asserts that women have quite as much "equality" here as falls to the lot of the average single woman "living alone, or following professional careers, in the suburbs of London and other Western cities."
Self-effacement and utter unselfishness is the ideal of the devout Hindu wife and mother. Husbands and wives do not "address each other in the presence of others" ; and "a wife may not name her husband, much less praise him." ”

“ Polygamy, according to Miss Noble, is rather rare in Hindu society. She has very little to say upon the question of the marriage of children to adult men.
"The courtesy of husbands to their wives is quite unfailing amongst Hindus," writes Miss Noble. "'Thou shalt not strike a woman even with a flower,' is the proverb. His wife's desire for companionship on a journey is the first claim on a man. ”

“ This power of the Hindu women is exerted not, as in Europe, by the young and attractive, but by mothers, grandmothers and widows. Manu declares: "The mother exceedeth a thousand fathers in the right to reverence, and in the function of teacher." I cannot emphasize too strongly," says the writer of the pamphlet, "the fact of this influence of mothers in India, not merely over children and in household matters, but over grown-up men, to whom their word is law. ”

“ If the condition of the wife under Hinduism is inferior to that of married women under Christianity, which has been questioned by some English writers, her status as a mother is one of supreme authority. Throughout the Indian Empire, the mother is the practical, actual head of the family. ”

“ A son living with his mother desires to possess a home of his own. As the chief of his house, he takes his sister, who is superior to his wife in domestic control. Love between the sexes is a passing matter; love between brother and sister is a deeper and enduring emotion.
Reclus states that the Brahmins tried to suppress the marriage custom of the Nairs. Nowadays the Kouline Brahmins perform for the Nair women an amorous rite, their services being in great request among the maidens of low caste. In other parts of India the priest is solicited for this consecration, notably in Burma. ”

“ The women are as lissome and fine-featured as the men. They have very long dark hair, which they dress with much care. Their manners are amiable.
In this community we have a curious instance of polyandry and polygamy side by side. An opulent Nair is usually a polygamist; the artisans and the poor generally are polyandrists. The same system prevails in Ceylon. Among the Nairs two or three brothers marry one woman. Their sisters marry, but live afterwards as "free lances." The whole system of the sex relationship is extremely complicated ”

“ The religion is almost incomprehensible to the Western mind. Its keynote is a philosophic pessimism. Life must be endured; existence is not a boon in itself. "In the union of soul and body lies the source of human misery."
In India there are some millions of widows of the Hindu faith, forbidden by religion to marry a second husband. There are one thousand men to about nine hundred women. Marriage is en- joined upon all adults except widows and religious celibates. ”

“ Besides these believers, there are thousands of Sikhs, Parsees, Jains, and small sects holding various tenets.
The popular faith of India is Hinduism, a creed of pantheism mingled with the worship of many deities. Dominating all other gods is the universal Brahman. ”

“ Wherever we find goddesses in a religion, there certainly exists a higher measure of esteem for women than among the faiths honouring only male deities. Half the Hindus revere Shakti, the female symbol of deity, and they address their god as She. ”

“ Joy, pleasure, nobility, enlightenment and happiness also, absence of stinginess, absence of fear, contentment, faith, forgiveness, courage, harmlessness, equability, truth, straightforwardness, absence of wrath, absence of calumniation, purity, dexterity, valour. ”

“ Coomaraswamy states that perhaps a thousand widows in all have committed Sati. happily, showing extraordinary fortitude. Young wives of less than twenty years of age have relinquished life, and bade farewell to their cherished children and dearest relatives, in obedience to the overwhelming impulse of self-destruction as a noble and pious act of devotion to a husband. ”