HINDUISM AND CHILD MARRIAGE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Your correspondent (Another: Seeker) has conveniently
attributed statements to me which I did not make and has then proceeded to upbraid and castigate me for my ignorance of the Hindu Shastras. Evidently he has not read Mr. Penning- ton's original letter carefully, or, in his enthusiasm and anxiety to chastise me, has failed to apprehend its trend and sig- nificance.
Mr. Pennington condemned Hinduism in a downright and wholesale manner, giving prominence to the institution of Devadasis that obtains in the gouth of India. I strongly protested against this sweeping generalization and "emphatically repudiated "the charge against the "insistence of Hinduism on evils found in the present-day Hindu Society." I hope my friend knows by now that Mr. Pennington has had the fairness to modify his assertion since. In spite of the affirmation by my brother seeker, I regret that my reason and common sense refuse to swallow his dictum regarding Manu's " sanction " for child marriage. He will perhaps appreciate my position better, if he is a Christian, if I were to say some- thing like this : In the original Aramaic, Christ is said to have sanctioned war as a necessary instrument to fight tyranny and oppression. What would my fellow-seeker think of one construing the phrase, "I bring the sword and not peace," &c., as an insistence on bloodshed and discord by the preacher of the Sermon on the Mount ? May I hope, there- fore, that my co-seeker will excuse me if I cannot accept his evidence as quoted in his letter : for, as should be evident now, he has given proof only of his zeal and a strong bias of mind rather than a capacity for a scientific analysis of facts and open-mindedness.—! am, Sir, &c., A SEEKER.
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