Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/323

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But Vidyasagar did not care for these taunts and ridicules. He was a man of extraordinary strength of mind and fixedness of purpose. He was resolutely determined to carry his point at all risks and hazards.

The Bangadarsan, one of the best conducted Bengali monthlies, edited by Rai Bankim Chandra Chatarji Bahadur, in its issue for June 1880, published a most reasonable article against re-marriage of widows. The purport of a paragraph of that article is given below:—

Some say that the widows of Bengal lead all their days a most miserable life, that they feel happiness in nothing, that all amusements are prohibited to them, and that consequently they are always most intolerably grieved at their heart. They also say that it is a great cruelty to keep them in this miserable state all their life, and that those only, who are devoid of kindness and tender affection, and whose hearts are not melted at other people's distress, can act so cruelly. But we do not think that the hardships of the widows are intolerable. Supposing they are really intolerable, but, at the same time, highly beneficial to society, what necessity is there for removing them? Those hearts that weep for an infinitesimal number of