46 



they do now, while women were married as early as at present, 

 even among the higher classes ; the reason being poverty and the 

 difficulty of procuring sufficient money to pay to the parents 

 of girls for purchasing their consent to the marriage. This, 

 combined with the system of enforced widowhood, had the 

 effect of putting a check on the inordinate increase of popu- 

 lation by abridging the duration of married life. The great 

 disparity in the ages of the married couple which is said to 

 influence the sex of the offspring, possibly accounts also for the 

 scarcity of girls which, if current belief is to be credited, 

 existed in former times.^^ During later years, however, it 

 became quite the fashion amonp^ the well-to-do to marry their 

 sons while still very young, though in view of the prejudicial 

 effect which very early marriages have on the education of boys, 

 a slight change for the better has recently become perceptible.-^ 

 In India as in England, increase in the means of subsistence 

 leads to increase in the number of marriages among the lower 

 classes. In England, this tendency is, to some extent, coun- 

 teracted by the example of the middle classes who postpone 



'^^ Sir Thomas Munro notices this fact. He Bays with reference to the census of the 

 Ceded districts taken when he was Collector of these districts : " It is a general opinion 

 among the inhabitants that the number of males is actually one-tenth greater than that of 

 females. I was at first inclined to believe that the difference might have arisen from the 

 seclusion of females, but it is not particularly great among those castes who follow this 

 practice, but extends to i-very casti- and every district. I examined the details of several 

 villages in different parts of the country, and thoughin one village the females were more 

 numerous than the malps, and in a few others equal in number to them, yet the average 

 result was the same as in whole districts. The coincidence of so many unconnected 

 accounts is certainly a strong argument in favor of the popular notion, of the males being 

 one-tenth more numerous than females." 



21 In England the number of persons under 21 years of age who contract marriages 

 appears to have increased as shown below : — 



Persons under 21 years 

 who marry per 1,000. 



1850-62 



1860-62 



1870-72 



The increase of early marriages is stated to be entirely due to the prosperous condition 

 of the lower classes, the middle classes, unlike those in India, preferring to postpone 

 marriage on account of the continual increase in the standard of living. Professor Mar- 

 shall remarks : "In the middle classes a man's income seldom reaches its maximum till he 

 is 40 or oO years old ; and the expense of bringing up his children is heavy and lasts for 

 many years. The artisan earns nearly as much at 21 as he ever does, unless he rises to a 

 responsible post, but ho does not earn much before he is 21 ; his children are likely to be a 

 considerable expense to him till about the ago of 15 ; unless thej- are sent to a factory 

 where they may pay their way at a very early age ; and lastly the labourer earns nearly 

 full wages at 18, while his children begin to pay their expenses very early. In conse- 

 quence, the average age of raar'-iage is highest among the middle classes, it is low among 

 the artisans and utill lower among the unskilled labourers." It will have been inferred 

 from my remarks that, looking at the question purely from the point of view of preventing 

 undue increase of population, the evils of compulsory early marriages of Hindu women 

 are mitigated by the system of enforced widowhood, and a relaxation of the restrictions on 

 widow marriage necessitates relaxation of the system of early marriages by postponing 

 marriages of girls for some years after the period at which by present opinion they are 

 recognized as marriageable. This, of course, is no objection to widow re- marriage reform 

 hut only shows why the progress of the reform is so slow. There are various adjustments 

 in other directions neceBsary before the reform is likely to be generally accepted 



