WILL THE PURDAH SYSTEM SURVIVE?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In your issue of September 26th the author of the article on India quotes an Indian as saying, with reference to the seclusion of women : " Purdah is out of date. It was never really indigenous to India. It was introduced by the Mohammedans, whose religion decreed that their women should not shew their faces." This is an excuse often put formird by Hindus. When they make it, they merely show their ignorance of their own religious books. Both the ancient epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, speak of women so carefully secluded that they had never seen either sun or moon. It is true that there are other passages which would indicate a better state of things, but there is no doubt that the Purdah system existed in India long before the Mohammedans were ever heird of, and its existence was due to the belief in the words of the Laws of Manu, that women were never fit for independence, and must always be carefully guarded.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Bowden. J. M. MAeFIu•..
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