Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/114

 Yet if we turn to the Pundita Ramabai Sarasvati for enlightenment as to the condition of women in India, we shall learn that there are flagrant imperfections in the marriage laws. This Indian lady has drawn up an indictment in a little volume, called "The High Caste Hindu Woman." Her criticism deserves our attention as representing at any rate the earnest opinions of an educated native woman, who desires the highest well-being for her sisters.

One of the wrongs of women in India, whether living in monogamous marriage or in the zenana, lies in the disability of the mother who bears only daughters. We have been assured that India is a country where women are held in the highest esteem. How is it, then, that the female infant is unwelcomed by the fathers? Surely, in a society that reveres womanhood and maternity, the potential mother should be almost sacred.

According to the Pundita Sarasvati such respect for the girl-baby is never expressed. On the contrary, there are many mothers who look upon the birth of a girl as a great calamity. Such a misfortune is a source of the keenest chagrin in the father, who is apparently moved to resentment against the mother.

The Hindu wife who has brought a son into existence is regarded with the husband's favour, while she who produces a daughter appears to earn his repro-