Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/121

 The Pundita Sarasvati states that young wives are sometimes flogged by their husbands. This is, however, by no means a distinctly Eastern practice. Wife-beating is fairly common in almost every part of the world, and is practised with greater frequency in England than many persons imagine.

Medical science in India is in a backward state, although the treatment of disease is receiving more study, and modern methods are being introduced. The Pundita says that, through incapable treatment, a very large number of women die in India, and she attributes the high female mortality to this cause.

An instance of the conservative spirit of Hinduism has arisen lately (1913). The suffering woman of high caste runs the risk of grave religious and social censure if she undergoes an operation for the cure of a serious malady. Thus, the Maharanee of Indore had to come to England for an operation for appendicitis, and it is said that she incurred blame for breaking away from the tradition forbidding such relief.

This interdiction will probably disappear in the future. It affords an example of the apparently contradictory and inconsistent attitude of the Indian mind respecting the protection of women. A husband may not eat with his wife, nor see her taking a