328 



" promptitude with whicli the gulf is narrowed." On the 

 other hand, a foreign legislature has to be extremely cautious 

 in interfering by legislation with cherished institutions affect- 

 ing the every day domestic life of the people, as any hasty or 

 ill-judged action in this direction is likely to cause great 

 discontent and suffering. The only way in which the Gov- 

 ernment can ascertain whether it can legislate with safety 

 in matters of this kind is by making it a necessary condition 

 for legislative action that the demand for legislation should 

 come from local bodies more or less representative of the 

 classes of the community whose interests are affected by such 

 legislation. 



117. That the above remarks are not merely theoretical 

 . , , will be seen from a consideration of the 



Difficulties in dealing . , i ^ -,i i^ ii 



with legislation affect- circumstances Connected with the three 

 ing social usages iiius- \)\\\^ affcctiuQ: the laws relating to Mar- 



trated by proiects for . n • i •, i r- ,i 



legislation before the riagc and inheritance now betore the 

 Madras Legislative Madras Legislative Council. One of these 

 bills is intended to provide a legal form of 

 marriage to the Hindus in the Malabar country who follow the 

 Marumakkatayam or nepotismal rule of succession as regards 

 inheritance. The second has, for its object, the settlement 

 of the law regulating the succession of self -acquired property 

 under the general Hindu law and of moot questions as to 

 the circumstances under which the earnings of a member of 

 joint Hindu family shall be considered his self-acquisition 

 and when they shall be regarded as family property. The 

 third bill is intended to give to the sister and sister's son a 

 higher place in the line of succession prescribed by the 

 general Hindu law as understood to prevail in this presi- 

 dency than they at present occupy. I do not wish to 

 express any final or decisive opinion in regard to the 

 necessity for the legislation proposed, but will explain the 

 great difficulty which the Government has in dealing with 

 questions of this kind. 



On the question of prescribing a legal form of marriage 

 to the community governed by the Marumakkatayam law, no 

 stranger to the community, which is to be affected by the 

 proposed legislation, has any right to dogmatise. " There 

 " is no subject," remarks Sir Henry Maine, " on which it is 

 " harder to obtain trustworthy information than the relations 

 " of the sexes in communities very unlike that to which the 

 " enquirer belongs. The statements made to him are apt to 

 " be affected by two very powerful feelings, the serse of shame 

 " and the sense of the ludicrous, and he himself nearly always 



