Walter Matthew Gallichan

“ There is a reason for this comparative rarity of divorce in the East, and especially among the upper classes. When a man has four legal wives, and a number of secondary spouses, entirely at his disposal, he is apt to overlook, or to deal leniently with, the faults of one of his chief wives.
A discontented husband, under the monogamic sway, sometimes seeks love, or the gratification of sexual passion, outside of the home. Often he main- tains a second house, and lives a double life, or he frequents the company of demi-mondaines . There
is a high scarcity value in sex in the West. ”

“ It is a tax upon a rajah's income when he has to support a number of divorced wives and their families. Therefore, though total separation is apparently facile under polygamy, it is not quite so simple as it seems at first glance.
In a case of dissolution of marriage, a man must prove that his wife has been guilty of one or more of the following offences: Adultery, disobedience, bad temper. Ill health is a cause for divorce, and so is barrenness. If a woman gives birth only to female
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infants during ten years, the husband may discharge her. ”

“ Polygamy is allowed by religion, law, and public opinion. The great Dasaratha, the father of Rama, was said to own 60,000 women. Kings, princes, and noble personages used to maintain large harems. Every woman, from the favourite wife to the lowest slave-girl, might be the sexual consort of her lord if he so desired. There was the fullest outlet for the variety impulse of affluent men. ”

“ Phallicism reverenced sex as a symbol of the whole of life, of increase, and of good. To-day men mock ignorantly at the images and signs of this ancient cult. There is a deplorable tendency to confuse beautiful symbols with the vulgar pornography of corrupt modern cities. ”

“ Facility of divorce does not tend naturally to in- constancy, in spite of all that is said to the contrary by those who oppose it. In Burma, for example, divorce is a simple and speedy process; but such separation between the married is rare. ”

“ The legal and religious single marriage of England is an enduring link that can only be severed by divorce. Legal separation is an incomplete dissolu- tion, inasmuch as the sundered persons cannot enter into marriage. In Catholic nations the tie is still more difficult to loosen. In India divorce is easy. ”

“ Freedom of conversation does not necessarily spell indecency, though imperfectly edu- cated people in the West seem to think so. Christi- anity, as expounded by the Fathers and the ascetic saints, besmirched love and sex so completely and ruthlessly that we have never succeeded in cleansing our thoughts upon the great and solemn motor-force of the world. ”

“ This is almost unknown in the East, where everyone is enjoined to marry. If one wife in the harem is fractious and unmanageable, there are three others who may be amiable and amenable. There is no strong incentive to wander. ”

“ Under certain conditions her touch is baneful; at others it is beneficent. According to a primitive legend woman was stung by a snake, and has never recovered from the sting. Maternity invested her with something mysterious, which must be deeply re- spected. In ancient times, she was the most fitting of human sacrifices to the gods. ”

“ The average traveller does not stay to inquire into the symbolism of such pictures. He immediately associates them with Western ideas of propriety and concludes that their sole purpose is to amuse or to shock. ”

“ Let us try earnestly to compre- hend the Hindu point of view regarding women. In all parts of the world woman stands for the Incomprehensible, the mysterious. c Souvent femme varie ' has given rise to a fervent, bewildered, masculine attention. The Hindus, perhaps more than any other race, have shown a great curiosity and awe concerning the female sex. Woman is highly susceptible to re- ligious ecstasy. She is a stoical martyr under such stimulus. Her nervous organisation and her sex function cause weird manifestations. ”

“ An understanding of the Indian character is im- possible unless we appreciate the great importance that eroticism plays in the life of the East. In Eng- land the average man, and the great mass of women, fear voluptuousness almost as they fear sin. ”