Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/228

 '''20. POLYGAMY.'''—This is another subject at present under judication, but it is a delicate one to meddle with, and a dangerous one. The argument of its being detrimental to the state cannot be adduced against it. It is an essential custom of both the Hindoo and the Mussulman, and the time has not yet come, when it can be safely meddled with. The following remarks extracted from the Friend of India, are worthy of remembrance.

"That polygamy is a mighty social evil,few Europeans will ever be disposed to question. If we could abolish it at once and for ever, introduce a purer morality, and a loftier standard of social life, no sacrifice would be too great for such an end. This is we fear impossible, and it is by no means clear that the good which the legislature can effect is worth either the effort it would require, or the suspicion it would certainly excite.

"This privilege cannot be abolished without abolishing Hindooism with it. The whole creed is based upon the supposition that the line is perpetually kept up, that there is always a son extant to perform the shraddh. To abolish the privilege would be to enrage every professor of the creed from Peshawur to Travancore,and excite a degree of suspicion fatal to a cordial cooperation in reforms at least as important."

I could easily enlarge on this subject, and point