THE HINDU WOMAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10017, 13 April 1910, Page 4

THE HINDU WOMAN.

Mr Sarath Kumar Ghosh delivered . at London, recently, the first of i three lectures on India, his subject being "The True Position of the Hindu Woman.'* He said it was necessary for the prosperity of the Empire that the people should know each other and each other's ideals, and it was important that the women of Great Britain and India should become better acquaintsd with each other. There were several errors which had to be rectified. Europeans generally confused the Near East —the Mahcmedan East—and the Par East and India. Instead of Hindu women being in a stale of servitude and dependence, the religious theory was that the position of Indian women was not only higher than that of men but higher than that of any other women in the world. Hindu marriages were among the happiest in the world; both the parties were taught to look upon marriage as part of their religious life. A married man could not say his prayers without the consent of his wife, who had to stand by his side and utter the responses, and it depended upon the sincerity of these as to the efficacy of the prayer—in fact, the true consent of the wife was required to all the spiritual deeds of her husband. Another error was that, daughters were considered a disadvantage; this could only be said to be the case when they were numerous in one family, and then only because the father had to provide for them and not for his sons. It was a tremendous error to suppose that a Hindu had more than one wife. He had only once heard of a Hindu hav- | ing more than one .wife at a time, and that man had been socially ostracized. Veiling was not regarded as a hardship but an honour, and instead of cooking being looked upon as a menial duty, the preparation of food wat> regarded almost as a rite by the ladies of the hause. There were certainly Borne hardships that widows had to suffer, but not when they bad had children. Suttee was never compulsory, but was looked upon by the willing devotee ss the heroic act of a voluntary martyr.