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*' sees the facts in a wrong perspective. Almost iunumer- 

 "able delusions are current in England as to the social 

 *' condition, in regard to this subject, of a country so near to 

 *' us in situation and civilization as France." These remarks 

 are profoundly true of Malabar, and if I allude to this sub- 

 ject at all, it is not because I am not conscious of my unfitness 

 to pronounce any opinion on the question, but merely to show 

 how extremely difficult and delicate it is for Government to 

 deal with such questions. In the Malabar country, the Maru- 

 makkatayam law does not recognize the institution of mar- 

 riage, though the unions of men and women are practically 

 permanent, being regulated by social opinion ; and a high 

 state of civilization has been found compatible with this con- 

 dition of things. The inheritance of property descends in 

 the female line. Property is held jointly by families consist- 

 ing of members belonging to several generations despotically 

 governed by the eldest male among them, the junior mem- 

 bers being entitled to a bare maintenance. This archaic 

 type of society has subsisted so long, because Malabar 

 was till within recent times shut off from the other parts 

 of the continent of India by the difficulty of communica- 

 tion ; women especially were strictly forbidden to cross the 

 frontiers of the country, and even the boundaries of recog- 

 nised sub- divisions of it. Facilities of locomotion and free 

 intercourse with the people on the East Coast and the ideas 

 of personal liberty and independence engendered by the 

 operation of the British system of law and the diffusion of 

 English education are, however, now rapidly undermining 

 the foundations on which the fabric of society rests. The 

 implicit obedience paid by the junior members to the head of 

 the family is diminishing in force every day. The junior mem- 

 bers themselves, who, under the old conditions, would never 

 have left their tarwads, go for education to distant places like 

 Madras, or even England in a few cases, or are employed 

 in Government service or as Vakeels, and while so employed, 

 take their wives from their tarwad homes to live with them. 

 The result is a closer feeling of sympathy and affection for 

 their wives and children, and a correspondingly diminished 

 regard for the interests of their sisters and their children, 

 both on the part of the head of the family, and on the part of the 

 junior members. A strong feeling is also growing up among 

 those who have had the benefit of English education, that 

 the non-recognition by law of the relationship of wife and 

 children and of the claims to support and education founded 

 on such relationship when voluntary provision for such pur- 

 poses fails 'owing to accidents, and other means of support 



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