Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/91

 pause before he speaks in condemnation of "the abominable sexual practices" of the Orient.

One of the best-informed and most sympathetic writers upon Indian life is Mrs. Flora Annie Steel. This lady lived for many years in the East, and her volume "India" and her novels show how closely she has observed the people. Mrs. Steel's testimony, while it lacks the high enthusiasm of Miss Margaret Noble, is still very favourable concerning the position of Hindu women. She has the cosmopolitan, rather than the average Anglo-Indian, outlook. After a diligent reading of this author's chapter on Indian women, and other parts of her book, one is almost compelled to assent to Miss Noble's view; for very much that Mrs. Steel writes supports her compatriot's optimistic vision of Hindu life.

Mrs. Steel says shrewdly that, though the monopoly of a man by his wife, as in Western marriage, is unknown in India, the sons are invariably monopolised by the mothers. The maternal authority is unquestionable and autocratic. In the East generally, women are despotic over the men. Nowhere are men so henpecked as in India. Wife-beating is extremely rare, in spite of the assertiveness of the wives. There seems little doubt that the Hindu hus-