Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/609

562 "Koolin Polygamy.—After the lapse of a decade a fresh agitation has been organised under the auspices of that ardent advocate of social reform, Pundit Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, for the restriction of the abuses of the Koolin Polygamy. The appeal which he has initiated has been endorsed by all sections of Hindu community of Bengal, the wealthy, the learned, the orthodox, as well as the enlightened. The petition, which we publish in another column, it will be observed, bears the signatures of representatives of all classes of the community and all shades of opinions. We notice in it the names of the great Zemindars of Bengal, men who in the aggregate may be said to own half the country, of the most eminent Pundits of Nadia, Calcutta and other places, the expounders of the Sastras, and the custodians of our ancient learning, of the representatives of the strongholds of orthodoxy in town and in the Mufussil, of the acknowledged leaders of the educated class, and last, though, not the least, of the head and other members of the reformed party of the Brahmic faith. The petition does not attempt to argue the question of the abuses of Polygamy in Bengal; it avoids a discussion of the subject, simply because the thirty-two petitions, which have been presented in 1866, were replete with it. But a repetition of the arguments and considerations, which led to the movement ten years ago, would not have come amiss at the present time. There are now many able to