Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/70

50 with the National Congress excited Mr. Tilak's liveliest opposition; and for a few years he was engaged in relegating the movement to its normal plane and not allowing it to usurp the chief attention of the country.

Ever since 1S34, the 'irrepressible and audacious' Mr. Malbari had been trying to raise the age of marriage of Hindu girls. The field of his activity covered not only the length and breadth of India but the United Kingdom of Great Britain also, whence he brought considerable pressure to bear on the then Viceroy and his Council to consider his proposals some of which were as follows:—
 * (1) Cohabitation by a husband with his wife, under twelve years of age, should be made penal.
 * (2) In cases of infant-marriages, the wife should be entitled to cancel the marriage, if she liked, on attaining majority.
 * (3) Suits by husbands for the restitution of conjugal rights should not be allowed.
 * (4) A widow should continue to hold her first husband's property even after her remarriage.

These and other proposals struck at the very root of Hindu Society and nullified at one stroke the sanctity and indissoiubility of the marriage-tie. They, therefore caused intense alarm; and when it was known that a Bill to raise the "Age of Consent" from 10 (Vide Sec. 375 of the Indian Penal Code) to 12 was in contemplation not only the orthodox people but some of those who were pronounced Social Reformers resented this legislative interference. It was generally believed, though without reason and in spite of the Government's assurance to the