HINDOO WOMEN. 
81 
tence, — when he obliges her to treat him with the 
deference due to a master, and forces from her the sub- 
serviency of a slave. Nothing would so soon cause a 
Hindoo woman to rebel against the authority of her 
husband as the circumstance of his using that au- 
thority mildly. So strong an impression has she of 
her own inferiority in every respect as a rational and 
social animal,, that her most active contempt would 
be excited were she to be treated by the lord of her 
heart with that equality which can alone render the 
married state one of mutual confidence and happiness. 
If her husband were to allow her to eat in his pre- 
sence, she would despise him ; if he were to permit 
her to approach when he is taking his refreshment, 
she would no longer respect him : in short, if he did 
not use her as the mere instrument of his pleasure 
and of his comfort, she would consider him a degraded 
member of that community to which it is his and her 
pride to belong. 
The state of utter ignorance in which women 
are kept in India may in some measure account for 
the perversity with which they adhere to and even 
venerate customs that operate so oppressively upon 
themselves. They never receive the slightest educa- 
tion, and defer to their male relatives in every instance 
where the passions do not interfere with reason and 
assume the ascendancy ; which, indeed, now and then 
may be observed among some of the lower and more 
profligate classes. A Hindoo writer has said, “ A 
woman can never be independent; in childhood she 
must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, 
and in old age to her sons.” This is literally true. 
