Married a Hindu

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 33, 9 February 1937, Page 11

Married a Hindu

SCOTTISH GIRL’S EXPERIENCE SPURNED BY HUSBAND’S FAMILY Lord Jamieson, in the Court of Session at Edinburgh, described the experience of a Scottish girl who married an Indian and went to live with him in his parents’ house in the Central Provinces. He refused to grant a decree of nullity to the girl, Agnes Isobel Macdougall, the wife of Anand Shanker Rao Chitnavis, a son of an Indian judge. Miss Macdougall met Chitavis when ho was a student at Edinburgh University, said Lord Jamieson. They were later married in Edinburgh and in 1929 he returned to India, taking with him his wife and the son of tho marriage. Conversion Plan Until shortly before their arrival in India the marriage had been kept secret from Chitnavis’ father. In India they wore given apartments iu the house of the father, and lived in the English style apart from the rest of the household. Miss Macdougall was not recognised by Chitnavis’ relations as his wife. An attempt was made to induce her to become a convert to Hinduism and go through the ceremony of a Hindu marriage. On her refusal, early in 1932, Chitnavis went to live apart from her in tho Indian quarters of the house. Miss Macdougall, finding her life unbearable, was able, with the help of a missionary, to return to Scotland in September, 1932. She now sought to have the marriage declared null. The summons had been served on Chitnavis in India and he had not appeared to defend. Lord Jamieson said that he could not hold that in incapacity founded merely on the law of Chitnavis’ religion, and which he could have got rid of by a renunciation of that religion, was such as to render invalid the marriage celebrated in Scotland.