Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/162



ON THE SUBJECT OF HIS NOTES UPON INFANT MARRIAGES AND ENFORCED WIDOWHOOD AND GENERALLY ON THE PRESENT PROSPECTS AND METHODS OF NATIONAL PROGRESS. (Reprinted from the "Indian Spectator" of February 1, 1885)

— I have read with the most entire sympathy your cogent and eloquent Notes on the evils attendant on infant marriages and enforced widowhood. Privately, for years past, I have strenuously urged on Native friends the necessity of reform in these and other kindred social matters ; so that you must not attribute my long delay in answering your letter, enclosing these papers, to any want of interest in the painful subjects to which they relate. Most entirely do I agree with you, that much misery results from these customs ; that in the present day (whatever may have been the case in times long past), the evil generated by them far outweighs any good with which they can justly be credited — that yearly this disproportion will increase, and that their abolition is even now an object in every way worthy to be aimed at.

There is so little genuine unselfish enthusiasm in the world nowadays, that agreeing thus far with you, I have been unwilling to appear in any way to throw cold water on your zeal, by tendering only a qualified concurrence in your views. But since you continue to insist on a public con-