DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0237
CASTE AND MARRIAGE
203
ihe latest scheme for reforming the marriage usages of
India by means of legislation is that put
forward by Sardar Arjun Singh of Kapur- Jfig£8£L
tnala at a meeting of the East India Asso-
ciation held in London on the 31st July, 1905, and published in
the Asiatic Quarterly Revieiv for October, 1905. The Sardar
sums up his proposals in the following words:—
" Allowing that the Government interference is not desirable,
has not the Government got other means to eradicate, or at
least to mitigate, the custom of early marriages, and thus save
the female children, or, at least a proportion of them, from
improper widowhood?
" Let the Government pass an Act, the operative part of
which may be somewhat in the following form :—
"1. This Act shall apply (a) to those persons only who
belong to such caste, out-caste, religion, or community, which,
after holding public meetings, pass a resolution to come under
the protection of this Act; (b) to those districts only in which
such meetings shall have been held for such purpose.
" 2. Under this Act, no marriage shall have the legal force,
""less at the date of marriage the husband has completed his
twelfth and the wife her tenth year.
" Let the Government also exert its influence on different
castes and communities in every district to hold meetings and
come to a definite conclusion.
" By such an action on the part of the Government we may
he sure that almost every caste, every religion, and every com-
munity in the whole of India, by the influence of the Govern-
ment and under the leadership of educated people, will, with
great pleasure, place itself under this Act.
" The Government will do immense good to the well-being
were made, and the result of them proves that "the Courts are very indulgent in their treat-
Went of applications for cNemption, which may be said to be practically given for the asking."
On the introduction of the Act " there was unusual activity in hurrying up marriage before the
expected restraint was imposed . . . Probably it is yet too premature to judge of the salu-
tary effects of this beneficent enactment" (Census Report, Baroda, 1911, vol. i., p. i_S4
ct *•?•). To this may be added the remarkable custom of the Kadva Kunbls of Gujarat,
who, in order to reduce marriage expenses, celebrate the marriages of the whole caste on a
s'«gle day {Census Reports, Baroda, 1911, vol. i., pp. 173. 29Q, 3°7 '- Bombay, 1911, vol. i.,
P- 242). A similar custom prevails among the Nambutiri Brahmans of South India, who
m"ry two or three girls to a single man so as to avoid payment of the heavy bridegroom-
Price, and some KonkanI Brahmans now invest the dowry in the name of the bride, and
thus prevent waste at the marriage celebration (L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, Cochin Tribes
a'"i Castes, vol. ii., igI2, pp. 210, 354; E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India,
J909, vol. ii., p. 93).i
203
ihe latest scheme for reforming the marriage usages of
India by means of legislation is that put
forward by Sardar Arjun Singh of Kapur- Jfig£8£L
tnala at a meeting of the East India Asso-
ciation held in London on the 31st July, 1905, and published in
the Asiatic Quarterly Revieiv for October, 1905. The Sardar
sums up his proposals in the following words:—
" Allowing that the Government interference is not desirable,
has not the Government got other means to eradicate, or at
least to mitigate, the custom of early marriages, and thus save
the female children, or, at least a proportion of them, from
improper widowhood?
" Let the Government pass an Act, the operative part of
which may be somewhat in the following form :—
"1. This Act shall apply (a) to those persons only who
belong to such caste, out-caste, religion, or community, which,
after holding public meetings, pass a resolution to come under
the protection of this Act; (b) to those districts only in which
such meetings shall have been held for such purpose.
" 2. Under this Act, no marriage shall have the legal force,
""less at the date of marriage the husband has completed his
twelfth and the wife her tenth year.
" Let the Government also exert its influence on different
castes and communities in every district to hold meetings and
come to a definite conclusion.
" By such an action on the part of the Government we may
he sure that almost every caste, every religion, and every com-
munity in the whole of India, by the influence of the Govern-
ment and under the leadership of educated people, will, with
great pleasure, place itself under this Act.
" The Government will do immense good to the well-being
were made, and the result of them proves that "the Courts are very indulgent in their treat-
Went of applications for cNemption, which may be said to be practically given for the asking."
On the introduction of the Act " there was unusual activity in hurrying up marriage before the
expected restraint was imposed . . . Probably it is yet too premature to judge of the salu-
tary effects of this beneficent enactment" (Census Report, Baroda, 1911, vol. i., p. i_S4
ct *•?•). To this may be added the remarkable custom of the Kadva Kunbls of Gujarat,
who, in order to reduce marriage expenses, celebrate the marriages of the whole caste on a
s'«gle day {Census Reports, Baroda, 1911, vol. i., pp. 173. 29Q, 3°7 '- Bombay, 1911, vol. i.,
P- 242). A similar custom prevails among the Nambutiri Brahmans of South India, who
m"ry two or three girls to a single man so as to avoid payment of the heavy bridegroom-
Price, and some KonkanI Brahmans now invest the dowry in the name of the bride, and
thus prevent waste at the marriage celebration (L. K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, Cochin Tribes
a'"i Castes, vol. ii., igI2, pp. 210, 354; E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India,
J909, vol. ii., p. 93).i