They need many things more
urgently
than votes.
Kipling - Poems
I
hope Mrs. Orde was able to help you. "
"Your wife is real kind and good, I always come to her when I'm in a fix
but I fear it's more than comforting I want. "
"You work too hard and wear yourself out," said Orde, kindly. "Let me
introduce my friend, Mr. Pagett, just fresh from home, and anxious to
learn his India. You could tell him something of that more important
half of which a mere man knows so little. "
"Perhaps I could if I'd any heart to do it, but I'm in trouble, I've
lost a case, a case that was doing well, through nothing in the world
but inattention on the part of a nurse I had begun to trust. And when I
spoke only a small piece of my mind she collapsed in a whining heap on
the floor. It is hopeless. "
The men were silent, for the blue eyes of the lady doctor were dim.
Recovering herself she looked up with a smile, half sad, half humorous,
"And I am in a whining heap, too; but what phase of Indian life are you
particularly interested in, sir? "
"Mr. Pagett intends to study the political aspect of things and the
possibility of bestowing electoral institutions on the people. "
"Wouldn't it be as much to the purpose to bestow point-lace collars
on them?
They need many things more urgently than votes. Why it's like
giving a bread-pill for a broken leg. "
"Er--I don't quite follow," said Pagett, uneasily.
"Well, what's the matter with this country is not in the least
political, but an all round entanglement of physical, social, and moral
evils and corruptions, all more or less due to the unnatural treatment
of women. You can't gather figs from thistles, and so long as the system
of infant marriage, the prohibition of the remarriage of widows,
the lifelong imprisonment of wives and mothers in a worse than penal
confinement, and the withholding from them of any kind of education
or treatment as rational beings continues, the country can't advance a
step. Half of it is morally dead, and worse than dead, and that's just
the half from which we have a right to look for the best impulses. It's
right here where the trouble is, and not in any political considerations
whatsoever. "
"But do they marry so early? " said Pagett, vaguely.
"The average age is seven, but thousands are married still earlier. One
result is that girls of twelve and thirteen have to bear the burden
of wifehood and motherhood, and, as might be expected, the rate of
mortality both for mothers and children is terrible. Pauperism,
domestic unhappiness, and a low state of health are only a few of the
consequences of this. Then, when, as frequently happens, the boy-husband
dies prematurely, his widow is condemned to worse than death. She may
not remarry, must live a secluded and despised life, a life so unnatural
that she sometimes prefers suicide; more often she goes astray. You
don't know in England what such words as 'infant-marriage,' 'baby-wife,'
'girl-mother,' and 'virgin-widow' mean; but they mean unspeakable
horrors here. "
"Well, but the advanced political party here will surely make it their
business to advocate social reforms as well as political ones," said
Pagett.
hope Mrs. Orde was able to help you. "
"Your wife is real kind and good, I always come to her when I'm in a fix
but I fear it's more than comforting I want. "
"You work too hard and wear yourself out," said Orde, kindly. "Let me
introduce my friend, Mr. Pagett, just fresh from home, and anxious to
learn his India. You could tell him something of that more important
half of which a mere man knows so little. "
"Perhaps I could if I'd any heart to do it, but I'm in trouble, I've
lost a case, a case that was doing well, through nothing in the world
but inattention on the part of a nurse I had begun to trust. And when I
spoke only a small piece of my mind she collapsed in a whining heap on
the floor. It is hopeless. "
The men were silent, for the blue eyes of the lady doctor were dim.
Recovering herself she looked up with a smile, half sad, half humorous,
"And I am in a whining heap, too; but what phase of Indian life are you
particularly interested in, sir? "
"Mr. Pagett intends to study the political aspect of things and the
possibility of bestowing electoral institutions on the people. "
"Wouldn't it be as much to the purpose to bestow point-lace collars
on them?
They need many things more urgently than votes. Why it's like
giving a bread-pill for a broken leg. "
"Er--I don't quite follow," said Pagett, uneasily.
"Well, what's the matter with this country is not in the least
political, but an all round entanglement of physical, social, and moral
evils and corruptions, all more or less due to the unnatural treatment
of women. You can't gather figs from thistles, and so long as the system
of infant marriage, the prohibition of the remarriage of widows,
the lifelong imprisonment of wives and mothers in a worse than penal
confinement, and the withholding from them of any kind of education
or treatment as rational beings continues, the country can't advance a
step. Half of it is morally dead, and worse than dead, and that's just
the half from which we have a right to look for the best impulses. It's
right here where the trouble is, and not in any political considerations
whatsoever. "
"But do they marry so early? " said Pagett, vaguely.
"The average age is seven, but thousands are married still earlier. One
result is that girls of twelve and thirteen have to bear the burden
of wifehood and motherhood, and, as might be expected, the rate of
mortality both for mothers and children is terrible. Pauperism,
domestic unhappiness, and a low state of health are only a few of the
consequences of this. Then, when, as frequently happens, the boy-husband
dies prematurely, his widow is condemned to worse than death. She may
not remarry, must live a secluded and despised life, a life so unnatural
that she sometimes prefers suicide; more often she goes astray. You
don't know in England what such words as 'infant-marriage,' 'baby-wife,'
'girl-mother,' and 'virgin-widow' mean; but they mean unspeakable
horrors here. "
"Well, but the advanced political party here will surely make it their
business to advocate social reforms as well as political ones," said
Pagett.
