INDIAN AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5726, 23 October 1905, Page 2

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

SOME RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL ' CRIMES. It is rarely that a few months’ record of crime in India fails to reveal the fact that some ancient criminal practices, popularly believed to bo extinct, still survive. The class referred to is that regarding which there is still more or less conflict between the laws proscribed by European ethics and the old moral codes of the East. At the close of 1904 several persons wore convicted in Behar of the offence of abetting the self immolation of a Hindu widow on the funeral pyre of her husband. Since then similar cases have been reported from the neighbourhood of A.jmere. and from Oudli. Looking back over tho last few years it is possible to recall at least two other instances of “sati”-—one in Orissa, the other in tho wilds of Central India. All those cases resemble one another in their general features. The , unhappy widow, decked as for her marriage, took her place upon the pyre in the presence of large crowds of her co-religionists, who, by their words and gestures encouraged her to the completion of her self-sacrifice. In two cases her fortitude sustained her to tho end. In others her screams may ’ have been drowned by tho accompaniment of triumphant shouts and wild music emanating from the surrounding crowds when the flames, kindled by relatives of the deceased, rose to consume the living with the dead. In one case at least, when the woman sought escape from the burning torment she was driven back to her death by the frenzied bystanders.

In the fact that, even three-quarters of a century after Lord William Benthick’s denouncement of “sati” as an intolerable crime, a wretched woman should occasionally seek in death an escape from present affliction and a miserable widowhood there is nothing necessarily disturbing. Even that a few selfish relatives should, for their own ends, encourage her rash resolve is , of no general importance. What really is matter of concern is the evidence of all those oases that tho Western conception of suicide, as a wicked and cowardly means of escape from ■misery, has made little progress in India. In each case of “sati” the whole neighbouring Hindu population openly sympathised with the principal actors in tile tragedy, regarding its accomplishment as a triumph. In two cases evidence was with the utmost difficulty procured from reluctant witnesses who sought to. screen the offenders. In another justice could, in the absence of evidence against individuals, only be very inadequately satisfied by , a fine levied on the whole guilty population. The Orissa case gave rise to an animated discussion amongst educated Hindus as to the validity. of ancient texts quoted in support of tho practice of “sati.” Though the weight of opinion was then against it, a fresh movement in support of it was observed not long ago, amongst classes not altogether uneducated. That such discussions and movements should be possible at this late date is highly significant. Whatever be the correct interpretation of the text, there can be no doubt that “sati” has for many centuries enjoyed the approval of popular religious belief. It was well known so far back as tho Macedonian invasion; twenty centuries' later'it was universal. Fifty years of stem repression reduced its occurrence to a few sporadic cases; but’ there can bo no hesitation in saying that the spirit which prompted and applauded it is almost as strong now as it was a century ago. The doctrine is probably a corrupt one, engrafted on a purer ancient religion by priests for their own ends, but it is one which is deeply rooted in the belief of the people. The suppression of the custom owes its success largely to the essential publicity of the crime. Tho last few months have been distinguished by an instance of the still more ancient practice of human sacrifice. In another case there was strong suspicion that persons alleged to have been carried off by tigers had really been sacrified tp obtain tho recovery from cholera Jo! the wife of a petty chief in the Tributary. Mahals of Orissa, a wild country where such sacrifices lingered long after they had disappeared elsewhere. The proven case occurred in Dacca, the headquarters district of the new province of Eastern Bengal. In addition to the sacrifice at the teet of a Hindu priest of a harmless youth, several men and women were treated in a shocking and disgusting manner. The principal actors in this tragedy were tried and convicted, though the possibility that tho victim consented to his own death served to save them from tho gallows. Cases of human sacrifice are, happily, rare, and are generally confined to the wild aboriginal tribes on the borders of Bengal. This case was an exception ; and ’ there is some ground for inference, from tho very brutalities which accompanied it, that it was due rather to individual depravity than to any general religious tendency towards this primitive crime. Another great crime which Lord Milliam Bentinck set out to put down was “tliagi.” That, too, has been successfully 5 stamped out in spirit well as in deed. Unlike “sati,” there was never any sympathy for the fiends who roamed the country strangling and robbing. Fear of consequences alone prevented their denunciation when discovered. Whatever fantastic ceremonies they chose to associate with their calling

there was nevor a shadow of ground for investing it with a religious sanction. Once tho Avail of secrecy with tvhicli they surrounded their crimes was broken clown by the intervention of tho informer the whole organisation of tho '‘thugs’’ collapsed, and recruitment of their gangs became impossible. Though convictions for female infanticide. of the description peculiar to certain castes, arc? rare?, it is certain that, tho practice still prevails in many chins. A more or levs romantic origin is somerlinos assigned to it. but it undoubtedly owes its rite to social end cconcinio considerations, in which caste restrictions on marriage and customary extravagance play tho principal part. Xo serious attempt is made to find for it a religious basis similar to that alleged in the case of “sati.” Tho supposed disgrace of unmarried daughters, tho difficulty of finding suitable husbands, and tho expense of marriages when they arc found are the real causes of tho custom of getting rid of their female infants prevalent amongst many Rajput clans. On tho other hand, selfish. uneducated man looks with comparative indifference on crimes against infants, which cun nevor affect himself. Hence it was that infanticide, though, never a public crime like “sati,” only began to bo carefully concealed and practised by methods rendering detection difficult when tho Rritish Government attached serious penalties to it. Inhuman as the crime is, it must certainly bo repugnant to the majority of those who commit it. If there is one characteristic common to all classes of tho Indian population it is their intense lovo for children. Only the worst criminal motive*; or soino great necessity can subdue this lovo. Tho Rajput who commits infanticide is the very reverse of a criminal, by Instinct; it is only tho fear of disgrace or ruinous expenditure which drives him to his crime. The necessarily inquisitorial supervision which is' authorised by the law whore infanticide is suspected to prevail is evil in itself and intensely unpopular. It may be doubted whether its effects ever last long after its removal. It may temporarily check the practice, but it does little or nothing towards eradicating the motives which prompt it.

Thoro is a much better hope in the movements, supported by many of the groat Rajput leaders, towards the reduction of wasteful expenditure at marriages and the demahd of excessive dowers. Much may be expected, too, in the future, from tho endeavours of disinterested social reformers to improve the status of Indian women generally and of the Hindu wife and widow in particular. Perhaps the most influential amongst these, certainly one of tho most whole-hearted, is Mr Malahari, a gentleman who has devoted labour, property, and health to the propagation of his enlightened ideas on this subject. To him India is largely indebted for the initiation of the movement directed against infant marriage, which ended in the passing of the “Age of Consent Act.” He is still striving hard to ameliorate the condition of Hindu widows, to .rescue them from tho insults and disgrace to which they are subjected by ignorant and priest-ridden meuibers of their own caste. Ho hopes to start homes for widows, in which they may be restored to self-respect and taught to earn a livelihood by honest employments. Speaking and writing English better than most Englishmen, Mr Malabari is in complete touch with European thought on the one hand, whilst on tho other he has an unrivalled knowledge of, and sympathy with, the customs and sentiments of all classes of Indians. The echo of bis writings, in his newspaper, the “Indian. Spectator,” and his magazine, “East and West,” can, bo beard distinctly in the Indian Press. His views may not bo always palatable to tho Young Indian clamouring for political reform and ignoring the more urgent necessity of social advancement, but he has at least succeeded in commanding the respect of this class as well as of the more conservative leaders of native society and of every European who knows him or his work.—“ Times.”