496 



INDIA. 



the ryots to whom they sublet. The Govern- 

 ment assessed the land-tax alike on cultivated 

 and on waste lands, of which there was an 

 enormous area. The zemindars leased the 

 waste lauds on reclamation contracts to ryots, 

 who secured a permanent interest in the soil. 

 The ryots in Bengal have been far more suc- 

 cessful in resisting the extortions of landlords 

 than those of Behar. The new act abolishes 

 ejectment for non-payment of rent, and grants 

 the landlord the power to sell the occupancy- 

 right to recover his rent. 



Political Agitation. The promoters of the pa- 

 triotic movement in Hindostan made an effort 

 in the English general election to secure par- 

 liamentary representation of their interests. 

 The Bombay Presidency Association, the In- 

 dian Association of Calcutta, and other native 

 political clubs, united in addressing an appeal 

 to the British electorate. One Hindoo candi- 

 date ran for Parliament in an English borough 

 and polled a large vote, though not sufficient 

 to elect him. The grievances brought to the 

 charge of their foreign rulers by the natives 

 constitute a severe indictment. Ignorance, neg- 

 lect, selfishness, and oppression have in the 

 minds of Indian patriots characterized the rule 

 of the conquerors. The British Government 

 has neglected to settle the land question in a 

 permanent manner. It has not devised effect- 

 ual means to check the inroads of famine. 

 Taxation has been augmented until it presses 

 upon the margin of subsistence. The people 

 have been disarmed, and every manifestation of 

 an independent and martial spirit has been re- 

 pressed with ferocious severity. By the impo- 

 sition of impossible conditions natives are com- 

 pletely excluded from all but the subordinate 

 grades of the civil and military services. The 

 representation of native interests in the Legis- 

 lative Council is a mere mockery. In the dis- 

 tribution of the common charges between the 

 Indian and the British Treasuries, burdens are 

 shifted upon the overtaxed people of India 

 without the color of equity. Legislation is 

 framed in the interests of Englishmen, who by 

 favor of the Government have acquired con- 

 trol of the main channels of Indian industry. 



Social Reforms. The English have lately 

 sought to divert the attention of the natives 

 from the burning political question of self-gov- 

 ernment to various social reforms. The evils 

 resulting from some of their social customs are 

 acknowledged and deplored by a great number 

 of the educated Hindoos ; yet few have the 

 courage to take part in a public agitation for 

 their reform. The custom of infant marriage 

 is regarded as a cause of moral and physical 

 degeneration. The Brahmanical caste rules 

 are a bar to progress. The moral and intellect- 

 ual life of the people is dwarfed by the sup- 

 pression of the normal influence of woman, and 

 the lot of the Hindoo women is in general ex- 

 tremely unhappy. Some educated native la- 

 dies and a few men of intellectual prominence 

 have raised a public protest against the con- 



tinuance of customs that assign the female half 

 of the people to an unnatural seclusion and 

 subjection, and especially against the doom of 

 social death which closes over a Hindoo widow, 

 even though she be still a child, who may never 

 have seen her deceased husband. There is 

 hope that the more barbarous features of these 

 customs will be relegated to the past, like sut- 

 tee. Enforced widowhood, as far as Tegards 

 children who have never been given to their 

 husbands, is not enjoined in the sacred writings, 

 but the practice is strongly intrenched in the 

 conservatism of the Hindoo nature. The wid- 

 ows without children, who number over 20,- 

 000,000 in the Indian Empire, are compelled to 

 shave their heads, wear the coarsest garments, 

 sleep on the floor, eat only once a day, and per- 

 form the meanest household drudgery. The 

 childless widow possesses by law a life interest 

 in her husband's property, which passes into 

 the control either of the priests or of her rela- 

 tions, but would revert to the husband's family 

 if she remarried. The remarriage of widows 

 was made lawful by a decree of the Govern- 

 ment in 1856. Enforced widowhood is the 

 cause of a great deal of sexual immorality. A 

 Hindoo lady likens the life of Hindoo wives to 

 that of servants in Europe, asserting that they 

 are often maltreated by their husbands, that 

 they must work with the servants from early 

 till late, and are forbidden to speak in the pres- 

 ence of any elder member of the family. The 

 seclusion of women in the zenana is a custom 

 that creates a greater necessity for female 

 medical practitioners than exists in other coun- 

 tries. Men of all classes can have the benefit 

 of medical skill, but the women in disease and 

 in childbirth are subjected to the unscientific 

 treatment that has been traditional for thou- 

 sands of years, and in the worst surgical cases 

 are left to suffer without relief. A national 

 association has been established, with Lady 

 Dufferin for its president, for the purpose of 

 importing skilled female teachers from Europe 

 and America for the purpose of instructing na- 

 tive women in medicine, midwifery, and nurs- 

 ing. A few Hindoo women have qualified 

 themselves for practice in European medical 

 schools, but many thousands are wanted. 



Insurrection in Bhutan. In the small and tur- 

 bulent state of Bhotan, situated on the southern 

 slope of the Himalayas, west of Sikkim, an in- 

 surrection culminated in the early summer in 

 the overthrow of the prince. The Togu Pen- 

 loo, or governor of the eastern half of the 

 country, expelled the Deb Rajah, or temporal 

 ruler. There was desultory fighting for some 

 months. The Deb Kajah, who is an elective 

 functionary, is a personage of much less con- 

 sequence than the Dharma Kajah, or hereditary 

 spiritual ruler. The Deb Rajah was shut up 

 in Poonakha, the capital, whence he appealed 

 without success to the Indian Government for 

 assistance. When he was finally driven out by 

 the rebels, some of his officers departed for 

 Lassa, in order to solicit the aid of the Thibe- 



