372 



INDIA. 



sent bill made no pretense that it was required 

 for the strict Hindus, who are known to be ruled 

 by high religious and moral motives. Medical 

 evidence was advanced in favor of raising the age 

 of consent to fourteen, or even sixteen, because 

 physical growth and development is not more 

 precocious in India than in colder countries ; but 

 this was impossible. Child marriages occur most- 

 ly in the wealthier and better educated social 

 class, and the abuses incident to the custom 

 among the irreligious. It was said that the evils 

 had their origin to some extent and derived their 

 sanction from principles of English law incon- 

 gruously grafted on the Indian system. By fix- 

 ing the age of consent as low as ten years the au- 

 thors of the penal code showed their regard for 

 the marriage customs of the natives. Still, the 

 father of a girl was not obliged to deliver her to 

 the husband before the age of puberty, nor would 

 he ever do so until the law for the restitution of 

 conjugal rights was introduced, which left the 

 judges no option but to order immature girls to 

 be given into the custody of their affianced hus- 

 bands at the suit of the latter. 



Sir Madhava Rao and other opponents of the 

 age-of-consent bill asserted that the evils that it 

 was designed to remedy had no existence,-and that 

 it would merely serve as a means of oppressive 

 treatment of husbands by the families of wives 

 or as a weapon in the hands of revengeful or ex- 

 tortionate constables and magistrates, enabling 

 them to dishonor high-caste Hindus by invading 

 the zenana and profaning the sacred family life 

 that is held religiously dear. To obviate this 

 objection the bill, as far as it relates to married 

 persons, made offenses under it non-cognizable, 

 except by resident magistrates and police in- 

 spectors. The law is expected to have little prac- 

 tical effect, except to enable parents to retain the 

 custody of brides until they come to the mar- 

 riageable age as defined in the act. Unlike pre- 

 vious British legislation in religious matters, the 

 present act had the support of & large part of the 

 Hindu community. The law against suicide of 

 widows, that exempting sons from obligation to 

 pay their fathers' debts, and that legalizing re- 

 marriage of widows remained long a dead letter, 

 and the two last are still of slight effect. 



The Vernacular Press. The congress move- 

 ment in India has been held in check by official 

 pressure, but the political unrest at the bottom 

 of it has found a voice in the numerous native 

 newspapers, which could not be effectually hushed 

 without suppressing the liberty of the press al- 

 ready accorded. A large part of the Anglo-In- 

 dians have urged such action. The congress 

 party has divided into two groups, one of which 

 adhered to the political programme represented 

 in Parliament by Charles Bradlaugh, the object 

 of which was to secure elective representation 

 for the native races in the Imperial and provin- 

 cial councils ; while the other deemed social re- 

 form of greater consequence, and wished to bring 

 forward for discussion the treatment of children 

 and widows and the wasteful extravagance of 

 marriage and funeral ceremonies, much to the 

 disgust of conservative and orthodox Hindus. 

 These social subjects were practically excluded 

 from the agenda of the Congress. When the age- 

 of-consent question was submitted, it required 

 all the influence of Mr. Hume, the originator of 



the congresses, to obtain for it a healing. The 

 press organs of the native party, such as the 

 ' Amrita Bazar Patrika," the " Hindu Patriot," 

 and " Bangabasi," offered an uncompromising 

 opposition to the age-of-consent bill, which they 

 represented as an intermeddling measure of the 

 foreign conquerors, tending to undermine the 

 Brahnmnical faith and destroy the religious and 

 social liberty of the people. The reformers 

 threatened to desert the congress movement. 



The freedom taken by native editors in criti- 

 cising the Government has long been the bug- 

 bear of the older bureaucrats, who believe that 

 the creation of a public opinion and national 

 sentiment in India would be the death-blow of 

 British rule. The present Government has been 

 more inclined to their view than its predecess 

 ors. In July an order was issued forbidding 

 the publication of newspapers or periodicals in 

 places outside British India under the control of 

 the Governor-General without the written con- 

 sent of the political agent, which may be with- 

 drawn at any time. Any person disobeying the 

 order can be banished by order of the political 

 agent. On Aug. 7 the Government arrested the 

 proprietor and editor of the " Bangabasi." one of 

 the most important native papers, representing 

 the orthodox Hindu section of the Calcutta Uni- 

 versity and the educated class in Bengal gener- 

 ally. They were prosecuted for seditious libel 

 under a section of the penal code which makes 

 it an offense punishable with transportation for 

 life or imprisonment for three years to attempt 

 to excite disaffection toward the Government. 

 The articles complained of, written at the height 

 of the agitation against the age-of-consent bill, 

 described the British rule as one of brute force 

 and selfish self-interest, which pursued objects 

 disadvantageous to India with the aid of taxes 

 wrung from the people, and made no real pro- 

 visions against flood and famine. Facts were 

 cited to show that in states where the people 

 were happy and prosperous under native rule 

 British annexation had been followed by impov- 

 erishment of the people and disorganization of 

 the public administration, and that the spread 

 of cholera, fevers, and other preventable diseases 

 had marked the extension of British dominion. 

 The section of the code under which the prose- 

 cution was brought contains an explanatory 

 clause stating that disapprobation of measures 

 of the Government, compatible with a disposition 

 to render obedience to the lawful authority of 

 the Government and to support it against un- 

 lawful attempts to subvert or resist that author- 

 ity, is not disaffection. The Indian law of trial 

 by jury allows the judge, when there is a ma- 

 jority of six to three, to pronounce a verdict in 

 accordance with the opinion of the majority. 

 The jury stood seven to two, and the Chief Jus- 

 tice, Sir W. C. Petheram, without asking the 

 opinion of the majority, discharged the jury. 

 The defendants afterward apologized to the 

 Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, acknowledging 

 thht the articles, though not intended to excite 

 disaffection, were intemperate and disrespectful. 

 The native journalists in general took warning 

 .from the Chief Justice's charge to the jury, and 

 formed a press association as a safeguard against 

 ignorant infractions of the press laws. When 

 Lord Ripon was Governor-General, in 1880, Sir 



