ESSAYS
ON
INDIAN SOCIAL REFORM,
BY
AN INDIAN.
Villi All is pi esentefl, for llmiei alMtf lie Mail people perallj, a very easy practical lepaii of a most implant Social Mom comprise!! in tie scleiiie, of tbe
NEW INDIA
ASSOCIATION.
I’RlHTED AX THE 1UPON PMM1NG TRESS, KALKADEVJ.
1893-
So/d By—SUNDAR PANDURANG, Bo Kalkadevi Road.
Price—Annas 2.HN
& S V?
£*<3THE
|lcu! Jndiit |UsocMoit.
(A very easy practical beginning.)
It is now generally admitted that for working out the social reform among the Indian people, with the view of bringing about the regeneration of the country, eventually, the building up of the manly and educated condition of our youthful male fellow countrymen, is the very first thing to be aspired ; and to attain such a purpose, the principal thing to be done is to retard the marriage of our Indian boys, until they attain a suitable age, and are able to secure an independent competence to provide for all the wants of a family. With this view an Association has been formed, called N EW INDIA, with ramifications all over the country. Individuals being desirous of enlisting themselves as members are required to make the following affirmation. Every town or village to form its own Committee, with a Secretary:—
IF A MARRIED MAN, he has to affirm that he will not marry at least one of his sons, if he has more than one, till he has an income of his own sufficient to provide for all the wants of a family.
IF A SINGLE MAN, he has to affirm that he will not allow himself to be married till he has competence of his own sufficient to provide for all the wants of a married state.DEDICATION.
Dedicated to the rising generation of India, by their fellow-countryman; in the hope that our people will seriously ponder on the reflections made in these essays bearing on the Indian Social Reform ; and that they will, after their very careful perusal, energetically and expeditiously work, to bring about the regeneration of our country, on such outlines that may strike their judgment best. An earnest appeal is made to the Indian people to support the New India movement, which, in its initiatory stage, simply requires the abstention of parents from marrying one male child of a family, since such a boy in all likelihood may turn out the support of his parents and a pillar upon which the greatness of India could be built.V
PREFACE.
It has been pretty generally accepted, that, to bring about the regeneration of India, we have to begin our work at social reform ; but for social reform of any importance to succeed in India, a start must necessarily be made in the Hindu section, as the number of individuals in it preponderate over all other sections of the Indian population. If the condition of the Hindu section improves, the improvement of the other, comparatively smaller ethnological divisions, is sure to follow in its wake. On the contrary, any reform in the minor subdivisions only will hardly influence the status of India, either in the present or the near future, an instance of which is afforded by the Indian Christian section, which can scarcely be said to have any locus standi in India. This is due to the smallness of their numbers and the absence of political organization among them, and also for want of a disciplined behaviour among them like what we see among the Hindus, Mahomedans and Par sees, who are welded together into bodies through a system of castes.
W e shall consider the Indian social question, therefore, under three distinct phases : Firstly, the purely domestic 5 secondly, the social proper; and, thirdly, the political phase. On the purely domestic phase, which is essentially a private one embracing the inner life of the members of a household, we shall not say much, since the public have no right to intrude, into it. The happy or unhappy condition of a family within doors generally depends on the behaviour and temperament of its members. Such a disposition is, in a majority of instances, induced by the previous careful trainingvi
and education the members may have received. In other instances, although governed by these qualifications, and in spite of a liberal education and a high station in life, persons are found very often unhappy; whilst, on the other hand, it is not at all rare to find peace, happiness and contentment among people of little or no education in the humbler walks of life. The second phase of the social question is nothing more than an advanced stage of the first. It is the transition stage for people who emerge from individual privacy to a semi-politic corporate existence with well-defined mutual appreciation of, and social intercourse with, its members. It has its relation with the purely domestic sphere, on the one hand, and with the political on the other. Here the woman reigns supreme. She rules her household and moulds the character of its members in its minutest details. She has the rearing up of her infant family, in whose minds she sows the first principles of religion ; trains their moral nature; directs their education; and implants in them the germs of noble and high sentiments; that these may blossom out in all their luxuriance and splendour, at their mature age. The principles on which the structure of good society has its foundation take their start in this phase. The social question proper will therefore be considered, firstly, in relation with the Hindu caste system, which helps to hold its members together, since it is obligatory for them to contract matrimonial alliances within it ; secondly, with the Hindu religious system, the principal aim of which is to mould the moral tone of its members ; thirdly, with the educational system, the enlightening element of a community, which has to be brought up to the advanced requirements of our times; and, fourthly and lastly, with the marriage system, when marriage will be considered with a noble and lofty purpose and asvii
contributing to the formation of manly individuals and the national character of Indians; and not simply as a means of satisfying the animal instincts of man.
In the third phase of the social question which is the political, the Indian male individual stands as the principal figure, and the woman as his help-mate. In him all qjrcumstances must be made to combine, so as to afford him the conveniences and opportunities requisite, for the nursing up of all legitimate aspirations as will benefit himself and his countrymen. In him must be centered all lofty hopes of India ; and every means employed to place him in independence, with facilities for the. acquirement of high and varied education, good physique and good morals, to serve as a basis on which to build the greatness of his people and country. The cultivation of a noble and independent spirit will be greatly promoted, by leaving him unfettered Avith the improvident married condition and its attendant domestic difficulties, till he is of a fit age and pecuniary competence to enter into the state. In the present advanced civilization of the world, our chief concern must be to employ all our energy and means to give our young men a general education, which will help them to develop their reasoning powers as bearing on all the affairs of life; and afterwards a higher education, to enable them to secure the honourable prizes of a high career in open competition. Let us watch the proceedings of civilized Europe. Does it hold its young men back in the country, or does it give them full liberty to travel all over the world in quest of fortune, learning and distinction, regardless of any consideration for the young women of the country ? We see the beneficial results of such a practice, by the social and political eminence to which the Europeans have elevated themselves through it. Our ancestors adhered to it; and that is what had made India a renownedvm
country in olden times ; and if we were to imitate them even now, we are sure to reap similar results.
Let the elevation of India be therefore the most
prominent consideration in the question of social
reform, since it will contribute to restore eventually
the greatness of our people and country.INTRODUCTION.
It is with some hesitation we publish these essays on the subject of Indian Social Reform, containing,, as they do, observations and suggestions, which may appear to be rather ultra-liberal. Our sole object in inditing them being to elicit a thorough discussion on them, and for the finding out of remedial measures to reinstate India in the right position in. the world. All well-wishers of India and specially the educated, after attending to their personaE wants and of those dependent on them, must devote a little of their leisure time, in studying the future of their national life, and reflect deeply on the conditions and the circumstances contributing to its attainment. The ultimate aim of all Indians, and even of Europeans domiciled or born in India, whatever their religious persuasions may be, must be identical; and its realization will be equally beneficial to all. The Hindu caste system to which some are inclined to attribute our degeneracy, and in which the only real restriction is that members have to marry within their respective sections, (all others-being nominal since they are violabl.e without detection) may perhaps be inclined to think differently after the perusal of these pages. The Christianised Indians and even the Eurasians and the domiciled Anglo-Indians must certainly find their false position in the Indian society for want of a disciplined behaviour of its members, something after the manner of the Hindu caste system, which disintegrate them from their community and native country, from the circumstance of many of their well-to do members lapsing into foreign communities and countries through intermarriage. It is the restriction of the Hindu caste system that compels its members,no matter how exalted their position may be, to marry within their respective sections on pain of expulsion from it that is holding them fast together. It is this obligation that holds them together; and in spHe of their prejudices and caste barriers, which hamper them on their rapid onward progress, they have made headway in India in the field of advancement, surpassing even the Indian Christian section. And were they to introduce a reasonable and salutary modification in the practice of early marriage of their children, their sure progress in the realization of all their lofty aims and aspirations would be simply marvellous. To be able to accomplish noble aspirations, a man must, first of all, be above want, and secondly have no obstacles to cultivate his moral and intellectual faculties up to the high standard of the present day, in order to successfully maintain his ground in the competition that rages round him. Without these advantages, and with the domestic mill-stone round his neck, he finds himself handicapped in the race ; and soon becomes a, care-worn individual with no margin of time, means or energy left, to devote to his own advancement or to that of his fellow-men ; and much less to that of his native country. The comparatively advanced age at which our great Indian ancestors married enabled them to bring to perfection different branches of study, which still commands the admiration of the learned. The necessity which brought into practice the marriage of Indian girls before they attained their puberty cannot be sufficiently deplored, for it enervated our Indian youths, by their being dragged into early and improvident wedlock. And after the interval of nearly 2,500 years that has elapsed since the time the practice originated, and notwithstanding the many cruel invasions that have swept over India, experience evidently does not seem to be bitter enough as toxi
Induce a departure from the old groove of practice ; although it has dragged the people to the lowest depths of degeneracy. Even if an uneducated m^n were left to himself to contract marriage according to his free will and pleasure, he would naturally act cautiously, and make some adequate provision before he took the step. He would, first of all, endeavour to provide the wife with an independent home, and gauge his capability of meeting all her wants out of his own resources. All these considerations naturally put off marriage, and operate as a salutary check on its improvident contraction. But these restraints are all destroyed, when parents and elders of the youths will intervene in season and out of season, in defiance of all the bitter lessons of experience and the law of nature, and force wedlock on tender youths, thus consigning them to endless misery, the consequences of which are visible in the degeneracy of the Indian people. It is the prudential restraint on marriage which have made the Europeans and Americans what they are to-day.
It is worth while inquiring, on the other hand, why Indian parents and guardians seek to force early marriage on their boys. Can it be their tender affection which leads the parents to embarrass and encumber their dearest ones with the cares and anxieties of the married state, which not only weigh them down and nip their ambitious career in the bud, but make their lives miserable, impairing even their very health. Or is this practice adopted by the elderly people, from a selfish dread of their more youthful charge giving them the slip, and thus losing control over them, and perhaps of losing participation in their gains ; since the married, lad, not having an independent home of his own, is obliged to keep his wife, in the commencement of his married life, in his parents’ charge.At any rate, it is a very great social evil which afflicts India, and which is keeping her low in the scale of nations.
Patriotism is a noble sentiment, which ev^ry right-minded person ought to cherish in his breast. We see it developed to a great extent in the highly civilized nations of Europe and America, where large armies of contending nations are arrayed against one another ; and thousands of patriots valiantly shed their blood for the defence of their respective fatherland anditaprivileges. This occurs among people of even such backward and barbarous countries as those of Africa.
Ancient India had seen such manifestations. Our Aryan ancestors, when they first settled in India, were noted for everything that was noble, manly and great. Living an industrious and comparatively civilized life, they utilized the natural resources of the country to a greater degree than did the tribes that had preceded them, and prospered ; and those who were conspicuous in literature, arts and sciences, have left behind them imperishable monuments of their work. There was a time when India under its indigenous rulers had risen to its highest pinnacle of renown and greatness, and its fame had spread so far and wide, that travellers from remote quarters of the then known globe struggled to reach it in quest of knowledge and participate in her wealth. No sacrifice was considered too great in order to reach India. Nations vied with one another to get to it across her formidable mountains and wide river barriers, and undertook hazardous voyages across unknown oceans. But subsequently all the qualities of the early people, which had helped to make India great and attractive, had ceased to exist, and patriotism had gradually vanished from their breasts. This time was probably coeval with the times when early and improvident marriage was forced on our Indian boys.xiii
'Whatever might have been the motive that brought into vogue such a practice, it produced disastrous Tesults on the whole of the male population ol Inijia. It is a very poor excuse for those who uphold even to this day such a cruel practice, to «ay that it helps the lads to preserve their moral tone, as if there existed no other incentives for them to lead a chaste life. Salutary home influence and the good example set by parents will seldom ’tempt boys to wreck their virtue and the honour of their homes. Besides, there is a still more powerful inducement of a high ambitious career, which naturally predisposes the mind and* strength of the boy to a moral life and to long years of study ; and which should be impressed early on his mind by his. parents. A thoughtless life cannot go Land in hand with high and noble aspirations; and he must, indeed, be a fool who does not choose the latter. A raw, inexperienced youth does not know how to utilize his energies; and in such a condition, to offer a boy a wife, seems to be the height of imprudence. And how often have not the parents found to their sorrow, that premature wedlock has resulted in the entire abstraction of the minds of their sons from their studies, and led them to a life of indolence and wickedness, if not to untimely death from privation or disease. Rewards for good moral behaviour come down as blessings from heaven, without distinction of rank or station, on all those who practice it. Another thing must be borne in mind, and that is, that it is best for children of well-to-do families to be accustomed, within reasonable bounds, to rough life ; as that helps them to acquire that most desirable state—a sound mind in a sound body ; while on the contrary, too much ease and comfort and, above all, a wife at a tender age tend to enervate them. Imagine what ■would be the result if boys, as a rule, were marriedxiv.
early in Europe as they do in Tndia. Undoubtedly,, the preeminence of those countries would have soon faded away, and reduced them to the level of the backward countries. It is therefore incumbent on us Indians to make a bold departure by the removal of this evil custom, and that, too, as expeditiously as possible. It will not do to wait for nature’s slow process to bring about gradual and insidious reforms; as then we shall be in danger of the present favourable opportunity slipping through our fingers.
The time has arrived when the practice must be boldly sel aside of the early marriage of our boys, notwithstanding its comparative antiquity; and a procedure adopted more in consonance with the present age, and decidedly profitable to ourselves. Above all, we should make the most of the advantages and facilities we enjoy under the enlightened and liberal British rule, for the realization of our legitimate aspirations. It cannot be too often repeated that the first great step in our Indian social reform is to do away with the shackles imposed on our youths by the system of unreasonable matrimony, which practice prevails even among the native Christians; and that steps must be taken without loss of time, to prolong the period of single condition, when there will arise a manly population in India worthy of the country and on whose intelligence and effective help our British rulers could count upon in the hour of need. This will be a far more satisfactory state of affairs, than to have a listless and an apathetic people, as there is now-a-days, who are useless to themselves and who will be perfectly worthless in grave emergencies.
It is therefore evident, that it is imperative, in the interests of the British rulers on the one hand, and the Indian people themselves on the other, that theXV
latter should be more educated and be made manly, and that the sooner this state of affairs is brought about, the better will it be for both our present rulers and the Indian people. Thus invigorated India will not be taken by surprise by any power, but will be ready to manfully and loyally, in time of trouble, do her duty in conjunction with her present rulers who will have helped her in her social and political advancement.
The following are three processes by which really useful social reforms can be brought about in the country :•—
1 stly, by legislation, which will be the most expeditious in its results; or
2ndlyf by empowering and recommending Municipalities to bring them about; or
3rdlu, by a voluntary movement of the people themselves.THE SOCIAL PHASE.
No. 1.
Caste.
The Indian caste system is one of the most remarkable institutions of the East. It is not only a religious organisation, but a social bond of peculiar strength. Opinion is much divided even among our own countrymen as to its merits. Some look upon it as an evil of the greatest magnitude,—a social curse which tends to keep us low as a nation in the scale of civilization; others go into the opposite extreme,— and they still form the majority in the country,—■ and assert that the institution is, and has been throughout our historic past, the salvation of the country, to which they attribute the vitality of our national life and our religious and social autonomy in the state-system of the world. These are, however, extreme views. There is a third school of thinkers who consider that, whatever good it may have done in times past, and however indispensable it may have been for the progress of the nation at the initial stages, the institution has now, in the altered circumstances of the country, clearly outlived its usefulness in its original rigid form, and has no longer its old raison d’etre.
Such being the divergence of opinion on the subject, it is worth our while to consider, in the light of history and experience, how long our caste system, in the form in which it now exists and 12
with all its cast-iron rigidity, will continue to unfavourably influence or retard the cause of our national improvement.
Apart from its religious aspects, caste is not peculiar to India. A hierarchical organisation of society of some sort or other is to be found in every country on the globe. Unity of mankind in one great brotherhood is rather an abstract theory or a dream of the distant future. Strong differences— physical, moral, and intellectual, exist—whether historically traceable to race, color, or habitat—in every community, resulting in more or less sharply defined social divisions ; and we find in the West no less than in the East a graded system of social organisation. The different nationalities in the world also are framed after the principle of caste divisions, the only difference being that they bind together larger body of men than of a caste. But there is one feature peculiar to our caste, and which differentiates it from every other similar institution elsewhere. Our social classes are divided one from another by barriers immutably fixed and impassable ; and this inter-class exclusiveness is enforced under stern religious sanction^ Birth is the basal principle of division [the underlying theory is the theory of predestination which does not much differ from the Calvinistic doctrine.] The brotherhood of man, though not observed in its strict sense, is a grand idea which is working out wonderful developments of vast ameliorative influence in the structure of European Society; but the Hindu constitution utterly ignores it, as things are, and works practically counter to it.
What must have been the origin of such a system of social gradation,—what social or other necessities could have led to its establishment,—what has given it its present stiff rigidity,—how it main-3
tains its hold on the affections of the people,;— how it has survived to this day in all its vital strength,—these are questions which still await decision. History, however, affords some light on the point Regarded as one step towards the final unification of the race, it does not present much difficulty to the historical inquirer. This constitution of the family is the starting point in the building-up of human society, and clans, tribes, tribal communities and nationalities represent each a higher social formation. And though 4,000 years and more have rolled by since the beginning of the world’s history, we have not yet advanced beyond the highest stage of national organisations. Nations are with us the highest type of social aggregates reached in the course of evolution.
The onward development of the race, however, cannot stop here 5 and in the march of time and events under the orderings of Providence, we may rest assured, a further advance will be achieved and nations will be linked in the strong bonds of mutual interest and love, into one universal brotherhood, at least in the cessation of wars for the acquisition of one another’s territories. As men’s minds enlarge and their interests interlace over ever-widening areas “ with the process of the suns,’’ distinctions, which keep men and classes and nations apart—distinctions of race, color, creed and habitat—opposed alike to the design of nature and the laws of God—will be toned down at least in the grand te whirli gig” of time. But this is a consummation from which we are as yet far away ; and in India much distance has to be made up before we can place overselves in line even with the other advanced nations of the world.
All the same, however, it is striking no less than encouraging to find, as one reads her history, that4
India had once a brighter period of life. The Aryans as they came down from their Central Asian home from the North-West, and spread themselves over the Gangetic Valley, united themselves into a strong community with a polity and a creed distinctly their own. Caste, as we have it at present, had no place in their arrangements; and their institutions, both social and political, tended to strengthen the social bond and organise a superior type of national life. Education was made compulsory; and civilization had made rapid strides. But such a national organisation was difficult to work, and social and political inequalities—in the circumstances of the period—soon scattered themselves. Education, though widely diffused, was necessarily unequal ; and inequality in ‘‘ knowledge and the power which knowledge brings naturally worked as a dissenting force. The result was that the Aryans of India fell away, after a brief period of superior national existence, from the noble ideal which they had striven to attain. And this fall marked a turning point in their history. This type of life underwent a distinct deterioration; the idea of national unity based on equality of social, religious and political conditions, was lost and a new system of social gradations formed itself. Inequality of education and culture was the new fundamentum divisionis, and caste was organised professedly to maintain and perpetuate these inequalities, giving them a legal recognition in the social and political institutions of the country. The social classes, in the new organisation, developed into the four castes—the Brahmin, the Kshatrya, the Vaishya and the Sudra—each had its definite duties, possibly in conformity with the requirements of the age, and representing different degrees of education and culture. The account of the origin of the castes as given in the
o	o5
Purusha Sulctee might be set down as fairly allegorical. The Brahmins constituted themselves into a priestly and literary caste; the Kshatryas formed the warc?ior caste, entrusted with the defence of the empire; the Vaishyas represented the rest of the community, cultivating the arts of peace, with the Sudras marked out for agricultural work. To each caste, besides, was prescribed a distinctive code of religious observances, which were enforced under penal sanctions. There was no more imperative duty enjoined on Hindu princes than the maintenance of the social system of caste with its differential code of duties and religious observances, Underneath their whole organisation lay relative inequality of education and culture—among the different sections of the community—an inequality which was most jealously maintained. The lower classes were debarred from the benefits of higher education and the sphere of higher national duties; and the literary caste, aided by the warrior classes, evolved a system of theocratic domination. Hindu society, as we find at present, is essentially, with all its unprogressive and stationary instincts, a product of the system of theocratic rule exercised through a long course of generations with relentless rigour. Intellectual inequalities, resulting from the working of a one-sided educational scheme, supply the basal substratum on which rests the whole fabric. And though at times the sceptre passed from the Hindu Princes, this moral leverage with which to work the system, continued in the hands of the literary caste and was kept up also through force of habit of centuries. Hence the social constitution of the Hindu has escaped the disintegrating effects of political revolutions. Moghul domination made but little impression on it.
Under British rule, however, new forces are at work. The India of the railways and the6
•telegraph, the India of the Queen with its reign of law and political equality and with its vast and wide branching educational machinery, presents conditions of life essentially different from those under which Hindu caste has been evolved and hitherto worked. The secular system of education as at present organised will be a most powerful force of moral upheaval. Already its influence has begun to be felt. The educational facilities are open to all classes without distinction; and it is gratifying to observe how even the humblest order are availing themselves of the advantage* It will be of course some time before these classes show a proper appreciation of the benefits placed within their reach, under the benign rule of the British Government. But even now signs are not wanting to show the progress they are already making in this direction. In Western India, the Deccan (Maratha) and Lingayat educational associations are doing good work in the field, and will reap the fruit of their labors in the fulness of time. Education under Government and private agencies is diffusing itself among the different sections of the community, and a general gradation of classes resting principally on Educational basis is proceeding slowly but surely, the final result of which will manifest itself sooner or later. The domination of a literary caste cannot survive the blow, and its baneful results will pass away with its overthrow. Aryan society will then once more recover its original vital unity, and resume its career of national life,
Hindu caste is thus, under the operation of ameliorative forces at present working among us, doomed to fall, bat there is one feature of it, which ought not to be lost sight of. I mean, its restrictions in regard to marriage. The Hindus cannot marry outside their respective castes under pain of expulsion from the7
community. The prohibitions regarding caste inter-marriages are perhaps useless and unnecessary ; but as regards foreign alliances, I hold the Hindu Shfistras impose most salutary restraints. But for such restraints, the Hindu social system could hardly have withstood the disintegrating action of foreign dominations. Foreign connections come, and as a necessary consequence, create opportunities for foreign matrimonial alliances and the moral effects of such laxity, in regard to the marriage bond on the compactness and solidity of national life, must be baneful in the extreme. With all their castes and caste divisions, we have still to recognise the fact that the Hindus yet form a compact nation with strong autonomous tendencies 5 and we attribute this result, among other things, to their caste restrictions in regard to marriage. Those who have doubts on this point, have only to look at the condition of the native Christians in this country. With change of faith, they shake off these restraints and freely marry outside their community and race. The race limits are overstepped ; marriages of Indians of education and position with non-Indians are not uncommon and amalgamation with foreign and non-Indian races is sought as a means of social elevation, forgetting all national obligations.
The political result of such action on the part of the native Christians and even thedomiciled Anglo-Indians and Eurasians need hardly be pointed out. While the Hindu sections, notwithstanding all their retrogressive practices and observances, amidst all the changes and chances of time, hold together strongly and firmly and are steadily advancing in the arena of national life, the Indian Christians are unable to maintain their autonomous position and take their own share in the race of national advancement. The former cannot marry outside8
their castes, and must keep within their pale in regard to their matrimonial alliances under every improved condition and station of its members; the latter are not under any such restraints. Most of the native Christians, and even the Eurasians and domiciled Europeans, as soon as they rise to high positions, cut themselves off from their old moorings, and marry outside their respective community, and eventually even change their habitat, becoming domiciled in foreign countries. The loss to the community is heavy and irreparable. The community under such losses must sink lower and lower in position when its best members desert it, and its permanent debasement must be the final result. We would therefore urge that the native Christians and the domiciled Anglo-Indians and Eurasians would do well to borrow from the Hindu caste system its restraints in regard to marriage and submit to this discipline, at least for a time with a view of improving their social and political position in India. A lax system of matrimonial connexions, without due regard to race and physical and local surroundings, seldom succeeds; it can only work disaster, and be fatal in its ulterior effects to the community that permits it. We would therefore draw the attention of our Indian Christian brethren to this feature of the Hindu caste system and commend it for their adoption. It will immensely improve their position as a section of the Indian community, keep the members all within the pale and bind them more firmly than is at present possible in the bonds of common interests, and thereby enable them to co-operate with the other sections of the nation for common ends. There is no fear of the matrimonial restraints working to stiffen the community into a separate caste; it will only help to maintain its position as a component part of the Indian nation. And we see therefore no reason why there should be any hesitation on the9
point on the part of our Indian Christian members for its strict observance.
This much of the Hindu caste system retained as essential to the national fusion of the different sections of the Indian community, we think the time is coming in India for a grand effort to rise to a higher , form of national life. Caste with its rigid, code will not retain its hold in the face of the solvent influences working all over the community much longer, and India will, before many generations have gone, rise into the fulness of a higher national life, and regain her place among the nations of the world in the race of progress.
5>10
No. 2.
Religious System.
Nowhere, perhaps in all the world, does religious belief exercise such extensive sway as in India. With us, in fact, it influences the entire life of the country. There is no institution, no custom, no practice; not even the commonest detail of daily life, but has its coloring from the same source And yet it is distressing to observe how this almost all-pervading force, once the source of their best aspirations, being perverted, and turned into wrong channels, is working in India more for evil than for good. The essentials, of true Aryan faith are, as things are, utterly lost in a wild and unmeaning maze of cold ritualism. The true religion of the heart, supplicating for grace and mercy in silent communion with God as found in the best richas of the Rigveda, seems, so to speak, crushed and smothered under the thick incrustations of ceremonial formalism. The result is that rites, practices, and ceremonies prevail all over tho country under cover of religious sanction, which exercise a deleterious and deteriorating influence over the life of the people. It is the object of the present
{)aper to draw attention to this chaotic state of re-igious belief and practice, and suggest ways in which it can be corrected and remedied.
Religion is one of the necessities of man’s moral nature. It is the spontaneous homage of the human heart to Nature and Nature’s God. Go where you ■will from amongst the most ignorant and wildest of barbarian tribes to the most enlightened and advanced communities in the world,—the religious yearnings of man’s nature, you will find, assert11
and manifest themselves in some form or other. Life here below is uncertain and fleeting, and Death marks its closing scene. But the soul within man—that spark Divine—lives, and lives undying, after the destruction of this mortal tabernacle of the flesh, and finds its strength and its solace, even while confined within its fleshy enclosure, in the hopes and aspirations of a future life—a life where the trials and temptations of the present life exist not—a life of the purest peace and bliss. Its expectation of a life hereafter, after the cessation of this mortal life of care, misery, and sorrow, even if it be, as some seem to fancy, a day dream or a fond delusion, is still a mighty living moral force which rules man’s action here, to an extent to which no other influence is found to do. These undying hopes of future bliss sustain us under the severest trials, and cheer us on in the noblest paths of self-denial and self-sacrifice; but for them, virtue would lose one of its most powerful sanctions.
It would be beyond the scope of this paper to dwell at any length on the various forms of Faith that prevail in the different countries of the world 5 and I would confine myself only to such as once prevailed in India and still prevail. Broadly speaking, we have in India two dominant creeds— Vedie and Buddhist. Buddhism has now but few followers in the country, but such is its vast influence over the life of the people, even within the Hindu fold, as to entitle it to a co-ordinate place with Hinduism itself.
The Yedic religion appears, in its origin and in its original purity, to have been the religion of Nature. The worship enjoined is the worship of the Powers of Nature symbolized as Divine essences (or Devas), and the worshipper’s prayer to God is fpr the joys of Earth and the blessings of Heaven.12
This is the central aim of the ritualism prescribed, as of course in the case of other religions. But in none other is it so complex and so varied. The mass of rites and ceremonies formulated for the worshipper’s guidance is simply bewildering; but in this respect, it will seen, there have been well marked stages in the development of Hindu ritualism. In old Vedic times, worship was probably of the simplest and purest kind: man stood before Nature, and addressed his prayers directly to the Author of Nature. But, later, as society developed, the different social functions were differentiated, and the priesthood came to be organized as a distinct social order and with distinct privileges, commanding the homage of the people. Vedic ritualism seems to have undergone a change. The priest was left to himself, the irresponsible guide of his worshippers: and the system of ritualistic worship, as we see it at the present day, was developed and elaborated to an extent and to a degree of ingenuity not surpassed in the history of any other faith. Rites and ceremonies were piled one upon another with no regard to the real essence of religious worship, and probably with an eye to the consolidation and strengthening of priestly sway, till the accumulated mass has grown to its present proportions. The credulity and ignorance of the age helped the process; the priest gained, but the worshipper has lost. True religion is almost obscured and lost in a cloud of elaborate ceremonialism, and the result is regrettable. The worshipper, as guided by the priest, pays, as it is, more regard to outer symbols and forms than to the essentials of a sincere worship, and the moral efficacy of faith in the regulation of the people’s life is lamentably impaired.
This change, however, in the national faith and ritualism of the country was not effected without a strong and determined protest. In India, the protest assumed the form of an organised secession*13
This is the history of the origin of Buddhism in India. It was a formal protest against the new fangled ritualism and cold and rigid symbolism of the time. Forms and empty ceremonies, sacrifices ana; incantations, unaccompanied by godly piety, could in no way lead to heaven, and Gautama Buddha boldly preached that a godly life Avas the only true way to heaven. The imploring of grace and mercy from Heaven together with the practice of universal charity and benevolence was the only way in which the sinner could atone for his sins and save his soul ; purity in word, deed and thought was the essence of true faith, without which Nirvana or heavenly bliss could never be reached. The weaknesses of the flesh, and the temptation of the life, had to be got over, self-denial and self-sacrifice to be acquired, and life to be consecrated to the service of Grod and humanity, to works of piety and charity. But it was perhaps too high and noble an ideal of life and religious worship for the age. It attracted the best minds of the country and the new faith had its following from the more enlightened sections of the community. The masses, however, continued their homage to their old priests and their ordinances. Steeped in ignorance they could hardly be expected to appreciate the moral charm and elevation of the new Dispensation, and it is no wonder that Buddhism never secured in the land of its birth a firm foothold. For a time however it prospered under the j3Egis of power •, the rulers embraced it, and Asoka, the greatest of them, made it the religion of his extensive Empire. Missionaries spread it in other lands; and royal •edicts inscribed on rocks and pillars enforced it in Indjia. But the period of its sunshine was brief. The masses never accepted it; the classes too were not all on its side; the Yedic priest attacked it with all the weapons of bigoted zeal and love of power;14
and consequently the new religion of Buddha did not long hold its sway in the country. It fell beneath the blow. But it has to be said to the lasting honor of its founder that it did not fall without leaving on the religious life of the country an abiding impress. It had a purifying and elevating influence over the religious beliefs and
O	o
practices of the country. Much of the incrustation fell and crumbled away ; and the priest was taught a severe lesson which he has not forgotten. But still the Hindu faith is far from its original purity of Vedic times, and its ritual, as arranged in a multiplicity of forms and symbols, is not such as is calculated to promote true piety and religious earnestness.
It is to this point that we desire particularly to-direct our Indian people’s attention. Our countrymen too often seem to forget that outward forms and ceremonies do not constitute the essence of true religion. True religion is emphatically an affair of each individual conscience, and consists in the piety and godliness of the heart, and purity and moral elevation of life. Hinduism, as we now find it, in its petrified form, exercises neither a purifying influence over the heart nor an elevating influence over the life of the country. The question of religious reform is,, thus, one of urgency and importance with us—and peculiarly so because all our institutions and customs and rules of life whatever they are—prevail and claim obedience under religious sanction. It is clear, there can be, under these circumstances, no social or moral advance, unless we put our house in order in respect of our religion. A reform of the national faith and ritual is therefore one of the primary objects to which we should direct our efforts if we desire to achieve progress on other lines: without it, it would not be possible to give a healthier tone to our social life, or place our home and home-life on a better or more moral basis.15
The question for consideration is, are our present practices and observances such as to promote the end they are intended to serve ? Do they conduce to piety and religious earnestness ? and above all, do th$f exercise a healthy influence over the morals of the nation ? Bold must be the man who will answer these questions in the affirmative. Do not we—many of us we mean—who have given some thought to the subject, feel that they are, for the most part, more or Jess empty forms, unmeaning pageantries which only delude the credulous and impose upon the ignorant ? Do we not, we ask, feel inwardly convinced that many of what pass for religious practices are so many forms of debasing ceremonial ? Every one will admit that true worship is best offered when the worshipper is left to himself to commune with Nature in silence and privacy, in solemn reverential awe. Much of the ostentatious show which accompanies so many of our rites and ceremonies only distracts the mind and promotes and encourages love of display instead of strengthening the true religious sentiment. Is this a desirable state of things ? Is it not an evil which requires to be arrested in time and shall we suffer it to continue and gather in volume and power with lapse of time, and get past cure ? We must not disguise from ourselves the fact that the evil would have wide reaching effects over the national life of the community, and would poison it at its source in the domestic and social life of the people. We would therefore appeal to every patriotic Hindu to pause and consider, while there is yet time, the serious nature of the evil, and in what way it can be counteracted.
No radical change is needed or suggested in the doctrine or discipline of the Hindu faith. What is required is a restoration of both to their original simplicity and purity. The worship has to be sim-16
plified; the prayers have to be made more sincere and earnest, the mass of rites and ceremonies to be cut down to necessary proportions, those only being retained which are essential. In fact, the whole cobweb, so skilfully woven round it by priestly ingenuity, has to be swept off and the faith of the country to be re-established on its older footing. A beginning might be made in some such way as this. Let each family make it a daily practice to gather into some silent corner of the house and offer its humble supplications for grace to the Almighty, without unnecessary formalities and without the intervention of the priest ; let all pomp and show be banished from this communion service of the heart within the bosom of the family as degrading ; and let the Hindu home be made once more what it was a home of sincerity, piety and the purest affection and morals ; the home reformed, social life will then participate in the amelioration.
Let us always bearin mind that such amelioration of the domestic and social life of the community on its religious side is a necessary preliminary to any effort at progress, moral or political.
Here, we think, we must guard ourselves against misapprehensions. We do not advocate the foundation of new sects 01* sectarian forms for worship ; on the contrary we most earnestly deprecate them. We cannot speak against the different modes of worship so far as they are innocent, and cause no mischief. We do not find fault with the resorts for worship, nor have we anything to say against the religious notions and beliefs which underlie these practices. But what we most desire to impress upon the minds-of our countrymen is the vast importance of restoring purity and sincerity to the national faith and practices, and make religion what it should be and what it once was with us—a vast force of moral elevation. Religion ought to17
lave its roots deep in the sincere and pious sentiments of the heart, and must not be allowed to degenerate into a mere jumble of empty symbols, and certainly not in the encouragement of hypocrisy or immorality or error. The aim should be to so develop and discipline the religious side of man’s nature as to make it a means of bis moral importance, and thereby to bring the religious aspirations of the people to bear on the moral advancement of the community.
Education, as it develops and spreads in India, will have a vast effect in purifying the atmosphere, and will be a powerful correction of the evils we have drawn your attention to. There is still much to be done in the field, without seeking for innovation, aDd redoubled efforts in restoring the purity of religion are necessary. The accumulated evils of the past cannot be easily removed and the national life bettered and improved without energetic action on the part of the educated classes in the country. And it is therefore to these classes that our appeal for action in the direction for religious reform is addressed, and we hope there will be a response.
318
No. 3.
Education.
Education is an intellectual equipment for the business of life, and ranges itself, according to the varied requirements of modern civilization, in three grades—Primary, Secondary and Higher. (1) The Primary stage, as it has been arranged in most countries of Europe and America, divides itself into Lower Primary and Upper Primary, the lower Primary limited to the simple elements of reading, writing and arithmetic, and the upper Primary, marking a further advance and embracing a wider course of instruction in useful subjects of a practical nature, e.g., Science, History, Geography, Drawing, &c. This stage is also the jinal^st&ge with the mass of learners, who cannot afford to go beyond it, and should be, of course, within the limits of its scope, as complete and practical as possible. It should be such as to ensure a fair average of general knowledge of a practical and useful kind and some amount of preparatory mental discipline as useful and indispensable in all works of life. (2) The Secondary stage is an advanced stage, and constitutes a stage intermediate between the Primary and Higher. It proceeds upon the basis of Primary instruction, and should mark a beginning in specialized education. It should combine general with special instruction, the latter on two parallel lines of literary and technical; the technical section, in all ijts three branches of Agriculture, Mechanical Arts and Commerce. Like the Primary, it should be also complete in itself, as far as possible, as intended for those ■who do not proceed beyond. The literary course19
must necessarily be a preparatory course—preparing the learner for higher instruction in Philosophy and Literature ; but the technical curricula should be so arranged as to be, as far as possible, complete ia themselves, whether as a preparation for agricultural, manufacturing, or commercial pursuits. In Europe and America, much importance is attached to this stage of education, which is the final stage for the majority of the middle classes. It is essential that it should aim high enough and assure to the learners not only a high degree of liberal culture, and mental discipline, but also some knowledge of applied science and art, sufficient for the daily purposes of practical life. (3) The Higher stage, lastly carries the course of specialized instruction to the upper stages, along the two parallel lines of literary and technical, and represents the higher type of superior education attainable in the field of Literature and Philosophy, on the one hand, and of Applied Science and Art on the other. This is a stage which must of course be only for the few—the best men of the country—men who are, as being of superior talent and mental calibre, qualified for the higher functions in the life of this country, of directive guidance and control in various branches of national activity. Thus, while the Primary stage is for the masses, and the secondary for the middle classes, the higher or final stage of education is needed for the higher interests and purposes of the nation.
The question of Education in India is, from every point of view, one of paramount and pressing importance. As things are, there is perhaps no country in the world so sunk in ignorance as ours. While all over Europe and America, education is, under statutory compulsion or otherwise, almost universal, in India it reaches, if even so much, only the fringe of the population. By the census figures,20
we have little more than 5 per cent, of the people able to read and write ; 95 per cent, or thereabout being steeped in ignorance, and living little better than animal lives! In the presence of such an appalling state of things, it is really distressing to find so much indifference shown to the subject. The advantages of education seem yet to be imperfectly grasped and too much dependence is placed on Government in the matter. And yet it is clear that the whole question deserves to be treated from a higher point of view and under a deeper sense of responsibility since our hopes of national improvement and progress must depend upon our educational advance. Education, widely and generally diffused among the masses, is what alone can give us the requisite motive force with which to work at the task of national amelioration; and nothing can be clearer than that, without such moral leverage any solid achievements in the direction of reform and progress must be impossible. Heavy is the incubus ot the past, the legacy of evils bequeathed by centuries of alien despotism and priestly domination ; and resolute, united, national efforts are required to cope with the situation. If the future of India is not to be a blank—a dark, dismal future,—we are bound to recognise our duties in the present. Any culpable indifferences on our part to what we owe to ourselves and to future generations would bring down upon our heads a heavy responsibility before God and man.
In the case of nations, in a far more real sense than even in the ease of individuals, it is true that Knowledge is Power. Education is the motor muscle of all useful activity, and all forward movement in the body politic. It is on this educational basis that the whole fabric of modern civilization rests. In all countries of Europe and America, popular education is recognised as the21
fwraii afad most sacred of national duties; Government action and popular self-help divide the field, and educational facilities are within the reach of all claves and ranks : no one—not even the poorest of the poor-^-is debarred from the benefits of education. Wherever necessary if: is allowed gratis. It is education, so widely diffused, which forms the strength and support of European and American progress. Knowledge is Heaven’s Light to our steps, and a nation that shuts it out, seals its own doom and cannot stand.
In ancient times, India also followed the general law of human progress; and like Greece in the West, led the van of civilization in the East. The early Aryans were a most progressive nation who, by the vigour of their genius and force of character, succeeded in developing a polity and a religion, a language and literature which still, after the lapse of over 20 centuries, command the admiration of the world. They worked out a free system of national life, and devoted themselves to the higher and nobler arts of peace. The strength of their national organisation lay in its moral supports. Under Aryan law, and under Aryan institutions, education was universal, and in a sense compulsory. It was looked upon as a sacred duty, a religious obligation, a Sacrament, and enforced as such under legal and moral sanctions. It was one of the necessary conditions attached to Aryan citizenship; and whoever chose to keep himself illiterate and ignorant of Vedic law was kept out of the pale of Aryan life, debarred from the privileges of an Aryan citizen. Universal education so ensured, and so enforced was in fact the chief corner-stone of our old Aryan polity, a fundamental institution on which all Aryan greatness and strength were virtually built up. It guaranteed a high level of public intelligence; and national work could always proceed on a high moral plane.22
And the progress of Ancient India under Aryan direction and under Aryan institutions forms a most brilliant chapter in the world’s history. But before many centuries had rolled by, India’s progress under Aryan lead was arrested in mid-career by causes over which she had no control. The era of peace closed, and foreign aggressions commenced, which left the Aryans of India no breathing time for over a thousand years. Invasion followed invasion ; and wave on wave of foreign conquest swept over the land. Religious schisms were superadded to political troubles; and the whole fabric of Aryan civilization was shaken to its foundation. The Aryans stood their ground nobly and bravely, as long as they could, maintaining their free institutions and their autonomous existence against heavy odds. The fates, however, were against them; and the circumstances of the present period too strong for them ; and they fell. Amidst the clash of arms and the din of civil and religious strife, the Aryan system, built up with such care and skill, fell to pieces out of joint and dislocated. The cornerstone of their fabric of civilization was gone, and the institution of universal education broke down. This was the deadliest blow that fell on Aryan India, and under the fateful blow, India lost her place among the nations of the world. Her sun of glory set, and with the sunset, closed her career of progress and prosperity. A long night ensued, and a deep darkness settled on the land.
And now even under British rule, the night does not appear to be nearing its close: and the darkness of ignorance and superstition continues as deep, dense and widespread as it ever was, in spite of there being facilities to emerge from it. And if the lessons of history and experience are of any value, it is certain—morally certain—that even under British rule with its Roman peace and all the23
moral advantages it brings Avith it, including close contact with a higher type of civilization, India cannot regain her lost greatness and her place among the nations of the world unless and until she puts herself in line with them, in regard to popular education. The laws of human progress are as inoxorable as the laws of Nature, and they cannot, with impunity, be defied.
Education thus, is the first of our duties, as it is the best and strongest support of our national hope of reform and progress ; to this duty India must apply herself with a resoluteness of purpose which alone can ensure success. And it is the object of the present paper to suggest in what directions efforts are most needed from the point of view of higher national interests.
In India, education organised in all these grades and branches is one of our first and most urgent wants. Primary education must be universal before any forward move can be successfully attempted. When it is widely diffused, as it is in Europe and America, a great step will have been taken as a preparation for the higher struggles of national life. It will go a great way to lift the masses from the dark ignorance of ages into the broad light of knowledge and the higher moral influences it brings with it. It will help them to a better understanding of their position, its difficulties and dangers, and a sounder appreciation of the duties of a free life. It will encourage among them a higher sense of self-respect and self-reliance. They will learn to think for themselves and act on their judgments and convictions It will serve to stir in them higher hopes and aspirations. It will open their eyes to the enormous evils and disadvantages of some of the social institutions under which they live. For instance, they will see how pernicious is the national24
custom of early marriage, which offers a formidable bar to all high ambition in man, principally by too early creation of family encumbrances and cares. They will also see the evils of over-populaHon, the result of reckless and improvident marriages, and learn the importance of the exercise of jjrudential restraints in the matter. But it is needless to dwell on these and such other benefits of education, elementary though it should be to the masses. Suffice it to say that it will prove to be the most effective means of raising the general level of popular intelligence, and allow of the national life of the country being organised on a higher plane.
As regards secondary education on its technical side, it is, apart from our intellectual wants, an economic necessity. Agriculture remains at present in the country the only industry for the masses, under the limited scope for enterprise from periodic revenue settlement, all other trades and industries having collapsed in the storm and stress of foreign competition. But, it is obvious, this industry cannot support an expanding population. Already, the situation with us is grave enough; 40 millions are in a state of semi-starvation, 40 millions more are already on the verge and find the struggle for existence harder and harder, and yet every year secs an addition of between 2 and 3 millions to the population of the country. The most serious economic question under these circumstances is how to find work and food for the growing numbers. Other lines of industry must be opened up to occupy the surplus population, or suffering and starvation must be the lot of millions. Education, at the secondary stage in Applied Science and Art, will supply, when properly organised, the necessary working power ; and help, when widespread, in promoting the growth of that “ diversity of occupations which, the Famine Commissions think, is the25
only economic salvation of the country. Secondary education in i*s literary section will give us a cultured middle class, which must ever be the backbone of every progressive community.
But the requisite leaven for the general moral and emancipatory upheaval of the nation must come from the final stages of education. These will embrace the highest types of instruction available for the most promising youths of the country here or elsewhere, and will, when it comes to be arranged on a broad basis, create for the advancement of the country a superior type of directive power. India’s needs are many and various, but none is so important and pressing as that of a class of men who by their cultured talents and attainments in the higher powers of Science, Philosophy, Literature and Art are fitted to initiate and guide a general movement of progress. Without the help of such a class, to guide and direct, it seems impossible to set on foot any movement of advance in any line of national activity, and if India is ever to become a leading nation in the world, she can only do so by some such help as this.
We can see, therefore, how pressing are the requirements of the country in regard to education; whether we look to the courses 6f study as at present organised or the institutions provided, we find the existing arrangements are not equal to the requirements ; and the results are consequently unsatisfactory. First, as regards the curricula taught. The course as at present laid down for our primary schools, makes only a beginning in general knowledge and none is practical. The subjects prescribed do not cover a sufficient range and are otherwise more or less impractical. Next, our system of secondary education is admittedly too literary to suit the wants of all grades of scholars; and though now an effort is made in26
a province here and there to vary the course by introducing the subjects of Science, Agriculture, and Drawing, still the “ modern side” is yet undeveloped, and the system, as far as technical education is concerned, quite inadequate, and leaves much room for improvement. Lastly, as to the final stage, our colleges no doubt carry on secondary education to more advanced courses, and some effort is apparent to make the instruction imparted as diversified and specialized as possible under the present circumstances ; but still it has to be confessed that our college education, even in the best of our higher institutions, taken as a whole, marks only an introduction, and no more, to really superior types of instruction; and unless supplemented by further courses of studies in the first class Universities of Europe and America, can hardly be regarded, in any sense, adequate for our purpose.
But next if we pass on from courses of study taught to the facilities provided for the various grades of education, the weakness of the existing organization becomes most glaring. A few facts may be here conveniently quoted from the latest returns (1890-91):
(1)	The number of towns and villages in British
India is, exclusive of Upper Burma, 575,458-, the total number of educational institutions, both public and private, is 138,054, so that the percentage of schools to number of towns and villages, is 23*9. Thus 437,431 towns and villages in British territory (	76‘1 per cent.) are still without educational
facilities of any kind.
(2)	The total number of scholars is 3,682,707, of whom 3,368,930 are boys and 313,777 girls. The population of school-going age taken at 15 percent, of the total population of the country, is 34,200,000, of which only 10 per cent, (or 3,682,707) is at school.27
This means that 30 millions and more of boys and girls i of school-going age are condemned to be brought up illiterate and in ignorance, and lead no better than mere animal lives.
«
(3)	The total expenditure on education in India per year is Es. 2,90,70,575, or a trifle over 2 annas per head of the population. The Government contribution is only 81 lakhs, or about 7 pies per caput. England spends on Primary Education alone 2s. 9d. per head; the United States spend about 2-25 dollars, or 8 rupees per year. The British Government has not been able to pay—consistently with more pressing and important demands upon the national revenues—more than 7 pies per caput.
(4)	The educational facilities for the various grades we have at present may be thus summarised:—
University Education:—
■p i	r	(	f	102 for males
t U+*+°	) Arts colleges ....	<	= 105
t‘“r . i 3»femaies
{Professional colleges for males only....	31
School Education:—	136
(Secondary { *'449	}	= 4,970
] Primary	}	= 94,094
fTraining f	121 for boys 1 _
c	! schools....!	35 ,, girls/-
Special...^.	/	m	Joy. ...
Others	8;;girls}=	419
Total of Public Institutions .... 99,775 Add to these Private Institutions—
Advanced	• • •	••••	5,490
Others ••••	••••	••••	••••	...	32,787
General.
Grand Total of Educational Institutions.... 138,05288
The utter inadequacy of the provision as at present existing for national education needs no demonstra* tion, 105 Arts colleges, 31 Professional colleges and about 5,000 schools teaching the “Secondary” courses. These are all the facilities we have for education beyond the elementary stage, and that in a country seven times as large as France or Germany and with a population forming one-sixth of the whole human race. The results are just as might be expected. Only 10'7 of boys and girls of school-going age are at school; and they are distributed as under :—
Scholars.
Arts colleges......................................	12,165	1 . - ~qn
Professional colleges.... 3,425 J ’ Secondary schools ....	468,536=	468,536
Primary schools ......... 2,694,685 = 2,694,685
Special schools..........	20,401
Total.... 3,199,212 Private Institutions.... 483,497
Grand Total.............. 3,682,709 = 10’7 per
cent, of boys and girls of school-going age.
Only 15,590 out of a total of 34 millions of our young boys and girls are in the higher institutions and 4^ lakhs in Secondary schools; the remaining about 3 millions being unable to proceed beyond the Primary stage !
Any comment on these facts and figures we have quoted above seems superfluous. What a waste of talent and opportunity is here ?—amoral waste which cannot be exaggerated. Kind reader, just think of the 30 millions and more of our young men and women shut out from the refreshing and elevating light of education and knowledge, and condemned to darkness and ignorance and the moral helplessness which it involves. Think, Sir, further of the29
, sip and the ©rime, the moral guilt, of a country that thus neglects the education of its children. India has already sunk to the lowest depths of moral and intellectual degradation, and is there any one who thinks that she can recover her position among the nations oi the world, without making a determined effort to educate her children to a higher life of freedom and conscious endeavour ? Here is a field fqrphilanthropic effort; here is an opportunity,—a golden opportunity,—of delivering a historic nation from the thraldom of ignorance and mental servitude to which it has doomed itself by its culpable neglect of a duty, the most sacred of all. And whoever sees and seizes the opportunity, and begins work in the field in right earnest, will be not only a benefactor of India, but even of the whole world.
Under these circumstances we would strongly xecommend that strenuous efforts should be made in this matter of national education. The object in view is of supreme importance, and no expenditure of energy or funds can be too great. Self-help should be the principle of action, and too much dependence on Government aid is to be deprecated. Of course, Government may be trusted to do all it can in this regard, but it must not be forgotten that its resources are after all limited. It is a matter of the people’s own concern, and they must help themselves. The aims should be sufficiently high and clearly defined; and the efforts should be organised on a commensurate scale. Let -there be no halting hesitation, no grudging reluctance in this connexion. It has to be distinctly recognised that the question is one of vital interest to the future of the country. If we, of the present generation, do our part properly and cheerfully, the future is assured ; if we neglect our duty, the future is dark. Let us therefore manfully gird our loins for the task and success is certain.30
Our suggestions on this point of national importance may now be briefly indicated in a rough outline.
For Primary Education it seems absolutely noces-sary that every village and township in the country should have a school of its own. At present, as remarked before, 4^ lakhs of people of such villages and townships are without schools and yet they pay some sort of local cesses. The arrangements strike us as extremely unfair. If the cesses are levied, the-cess-payers have a right to ask that part of the money so raised be spent for educational purposes within the local limits and for the benefit of the local population. As it is, those who pay the cesses do not all get a return, and this is clearly not as it should be. This is a point well worth the consideration of the provincial conference, and we advert to it merely to draw public attention to a feature of the existing arrangements which seems unjustifiable.
For Secondary Education, the existing institutions are clearly too few-only 5,000 such schools, or about one for every 100 villages and townships or every 50,000 of the population. The number of such schools must be largely increased to meet in any satisfactory manner the requirements of the country in this regard. Besides the courses of study also require much change and recasting. They should be arranged as far as possible on parallel lines of literary and technical instruction, combining with it general education.
But much—very much—remains and is needed to be done for this higher stages of instruction. The existing provision, viewed in whatever way, is most inadequate ; 104 Arts colleges and 31 professional colleges for such a vast country as India. And even these do not carry superior instruction beyond the31
introductory stages. There are only 6 Government of India Scholarships to enable the most promising1 of our young men to proceed to Europe for advanced courses of study. And yet here, on a proper supply and organisation of higher education, centre all our best hopes. The aid of Government is of course indispensable. There must be many more colleges in the country than we have at present. But we think there are ways in which the people can help themselves also; and our impression is, that if the matter is only appreciated, and our duty is properly recognised, the question resolves itself only into one of funds. And in this connection we have a few suggestions to offer which we hope will receive at the hands of the public the consideration they deserve.
(1)	We would most earnestly recommend that there may be a number of foreign scholarships to enable the best men of the rising generation to complete and finish their higher education in the Universities of Europe and America. We have in British India 751 municipalities with an aggregate income of over 4 crores, and we suggest they may take some action in this direction. If about 300 scholarships such as we propose be founded, each worth Rs. 3,000 a year, involving an yearly outlay of say 9 lakhs of rupees, our Indian Municipalities could send year after year 100 of her best and most promising youths. The outlay comes up to about
2	per cent, of the total municipal expenditure of the country; but the benefit will be great and lasting. Indian youths will be brought into living touch with the life and thought of the West, and on their return home will form a most powerful leaven, so to speak, for the upheaval of the nation. They will be our guides in the new departure, and will supply us the necessary direct power for the general movement of advance. (2) We would also suggest with the Hon. Mr. Justice Telang that the people32
might be invited to divert to these higher purposes of educational effort part of the moneys they spend year after year on charities. The construction of temples and ghats, pious offerings on a hundred occasions in life to priests and mendicants, religious feasts, marriage festivities: these are some of the objects on which vast sums are spent every year; and if a tithe of them were devoted to higher education and the foundation of some such scholarships as we recommend, what a great benefit would accrue to the country ? Education is as charitable an object as any other, perhaps more sacred and higher, and money spent on it will be as piously spent and more fruitful of good result than any other. (3) At all events, we think, it will not be difficult for the people to combine for some common effort in the matter. They might form associations to promote the end, and start special funds for the purpose on the principles of the Indian Fund Association and the Indian League. Here we can stand on our own ground, and aid our education with a freedom of discretion otherwise impossible ; and independently of extraneous embarrassments or interference. We earnestly hope that the idea may find acceptance.
Whichever, however, is the plan which might eventually, after free discussion, commend itself to public judgment, we trust this matter of higher education which is of such paramount moment will receive its due measure of consideration, and means devised of dealing with it in a comprehensive and effective way.
These are some of our ideas on the general subject of education, and they will not have been put down, on paper in vain if they only serve to draw public attention and elicit discussion.33
No. 4.
Marriage.
Marriage ijS a fundamental institution of human society. It the foundation of domestic life and the basis of social order. The relation it creates between the sexes is a most solemn relation of life, and is—in all ages and countries as it deserves t@ be— surrounded with all the hallowness and sanctity of a sacrament, and a divine ordinance.
It is essential for the peace and happiness of both domestic and social life that this relation should be entered into by the parties concerned, under a due sense of duty, and with a proper appreciation of the responsibilities it carries with it. The privilege to marry is a sacred privilege, and demand for its right exercise the utmost care and judgment. An abuse of it will make marriage a curse instead of a blessing to society. Obviously, no one is entitled to exercise it except under proper conditions.
The chances of abuse in this connexion are minimized where as in Europe and America, no marriages are permitted before the age of discretion is reached, and full freedom of action is allowed to the parties thereto. Here, the responsibility is direct and immediate, and cannot be evaded. Religion, law, and public opinion enforce it with the sternest rigour, and the misuse of this power to marry is effectively guarded against. Marriages prove in these countries blessed unions and thus controlled, are productive of the happiest results, But in countries where different social arrangements obtain, as in India, and the power is34
vested in the father of a family to marry his children whenever and under whatever conditions he pleases, there is, and in fact, there can be no guarantee that this power will be always rightly used. On the contrary, as all experience suggests, there is too frequently grave risk of its abuse. In no country perhaps in the world is the abuse so serious or attended with such disastrous national results as in India, and it is no exaggeration to say that our present degradation, social and domestic, and even national, is primarily attributable to the operation of this cause. The Indian pater familias, left free to indulge in the grossest license in this respect, and unrestrained by any sense of what he owes to his children and to his country, uses in the absence of the moral control of public opinion, his patria potestas in the most guilty manner imaginable, and inflicts, by such abuse, one of the worst evils on his country. He has it in his power to make or mar the fortunes of his children directly and indirectly of his community, and in the wantonness of unreasoning caprice, prefers the latter course. The power is then entrusted, by the law and usage of his country, to irresponsible hands, and what wonder if it is most culpably abused.
The custom of child-marriages is thus almost universal amongst us, especially in the higher and middle classes, and is a source of innumerable evils. No institution does or has done us more harm. Nothing tends so much to blast the happiness of the Indian home or impede the progress of the Indian nation. Economic evils— e. g. over-population and its fatal consequences as of famines and epidemics apart, the moral injury resulting from the prevalence of this pernicious custom is something appalling to comtemplate. In the domestic sphere, the harm done to the boy-husband is even greater than to the girl-wife. It35
stifles his rising aspirations, and disables him at too early a stage of his life for freer efforts at moral and intellectual improvement. In the majority of ca^ps, this premature assumption of the cases of a wedded life forced upon the young man, blights his fairest hopes and mars his best prospects, the encumbrance leaving him no margin of time or means for higher effort than is implied in a mere struggle for subsistence. But, still more serious are the evil results arising from the custom of child-marriages, to the largest and higher interests of the nation as a whole. The entire manhood of the country is thus incapacitated for noble national works and the nation is Kept at a low level of thought, aspiration and action. The best hopes of a people for moral, national and intellectual elevation must always rest on the capacity and effort of their young men; and in countries where these latter are disqualified for the higher duties of citizenship, their onward movement is a practical impossibility. Our highest aspirations for the amelioration of our condition are thus ship-wrecked on the rock of this monstrous institution. And it is our firm conviction that as long as this social evil is suffered to remain untouched, and continues as a canker to eat up the life and vital force of our national character, no solid reform or substantial progress in India is possible; and we therefore submit that it is the bounden duty of every honest patriot of India to exert himself to the best of his power and opportunities to do what he can to stamp out this curse of early marriages from the land, especially of the boy population of India.
The detailed returns of the recent Census (1891) are not yet before us; but a few extracts from the Report on the Census of 1881 bearing on the civil condition of the population will serve to mark and illustrate the extent of the evil we have to combat.36
The following table shows 1‘ civil condition by ages” for e/ach religion from 0—19years, (page 93):—-
Age- period.	Hindu.	Mahomedan.	Aboriginal.	Buddhist.	ChrirMan.
0 9	296	94	95	1	34
10 14	1755	905	796	15	139
15 19	3952	3061	3303	583	996
0 19	1930	1312	1320	200	370
Thus it will be seen the Hindus marry nearly 20 per cent, of their male children before they reach the 20th year, the Mahomedans 13 per cent., the aboriginals 13, the Buddhists 2 per cent, and the Christians 4 per cent. The Hindus who form the overwhelming majority of the population are the greatest offenders in the matter. Among the Mahomedans these early marriages are not so prevalent: but they too marry 13 per cent, of their boys before they are out of their teens; next come the aboriginal tribes with an almost equal percentage of such marriages. Even the Indian Christians ean claim no exemption from the evil. The Buddhists alone show remarkable good sense, and early marriages are rare among them. Speaking of the N.-W. Provinces, the official Reporter writes: “ While in England not one in a hundred of the boys between 15 and 20 is married in these provincenearly half of them are married ” (p. 98), a fact which best illustrates tha striking difference that exists as regards civil condition between the two countries. Similarly writing from Madras, in regard to marriages under 15 years of alge, Mr. Mclure says that 173 in 10,000 of the men under 15 are married: in England only 11 in 10,000 of the men under 20 are married.”37
As a general result for the various Provinces and for the various sections of the Indian population, we may take it that 20 per cent, of Our boys under 20 years of age are married.
The appalling significance of these figures will be rightly understood when read in the light of the facts of the economic condition of the country. There is always a very close connexion between the civil and the economic condition of the people. In India, it is now beyond controversy that while one-fifth of the population goes through life on insufficient food, and two-fifths are engaged in a hard struggle for life, only one-fifth is fairly well-off. And precisely it is this one-fifth of the population that can afford the luxury of early marriage and indulges in it. To prove the matter in another way, we may say, that ail those among us who can, do marry their children early before 20 years of age ; and that if such child marriages are infrequent among the lower strata of Indian society, the fact is owing to their poverty and want of resource. The most capable youths of the country with means and opportunities for improvement and culture are in this way fettered, even before they are 20 years of age, with a domestic encumbrance which renders it impossible in most cases that they should ever riae to the level of high citizenship; and the nation that permits such a monstrous evil has to pay a most heavy penalty, being condemned, for want of good and capable citizens, to linger and sit on a low level of life.
Thus does the Indian pater familias exercise his patria poteslas. Blind to his own obligations and duties to his children whose most sacred interests are entrusted to his keeping; blind to the interest of the community to which he belongs, the Indian father uses his irresponsible power to the grievous injury of all the parties concerned. It is left entirely to his38
discretion to marry his boys and girls whenever he likes ; no checks of limits are set to his freedom o£ action in the matter by the civil law or the public opinion of his country. Thus unrestrained and uncontrolled the Indian pater familias marries his children even in the cradle. The laws of nature are defied ; the restraints suggested by prudential considerations are disregarded and the scriptural injunctions of a sober and nobler age are set at nought ; reason is allowed no voice in the matter and in blind adherence to the degenerate practices of a degenerate age, which will agree with the suggestion of his own corrupt inclinations, the head of an Indian family exercises his authority in a manner which brings woe on his family, and ruin and disaster on his country.
Thus, is the Indian youth encumbered and handicapped in the race of life at too early an age. He is wedded and weighted with the cares of a household even before he is out of his teens. No margin is left to him of time for education and culture: and he is trammelled with a load he finds too heavy to bear, and yet cannot shake off, Advantage is taken of his filial dutifulness and helplessness, and all his freedom of action is stolen away from him, and the best promise of his life is blighted.
He must henceforth maintain himself and his family as best he can. He must perforce give up his studies and all serious endeavours to rise higher and devote himself to the cares of self and family. All his youthful ambitions, all his buoyant aspirations are chilled in his breast under the damper ; and losing his proud and saving sense of self-respect, he has to yield himself up to a mean and degrading “ struggle for bread.’’ He has little time and less thought to give to anything outside and above the39
little circle of his home. Patriotism, a noble desire to serve his country, cannot find room in his breast, engrossed as he must henceforward be in the cares and struggles of a selfish existence. Even if he be a youth of generous sentiments and of superior calibre, he is seldom in a position, in the absence of a proper training, and for want of a “margin of means,” to discharge adequately his duties as a citizen.
Such is the woeful plight to which the most promising and capable youths of the country are in general reduceed. They can never under the circumstances make the sort of citizens India requires for her regeneration, a class of men qualified by training, and disciplined capacity to lead their countrymen out into the bolder, higher and nobler paths of national advancement ; men who. with generous purposes and animated by a noble enthusiasm will endeavour to revolutionize the existing modes of national life and thought, and work out a higher ideal of national well-being. And where there is uo such class of citizens; where social arrangements are so shaped and moulded as to render impossible the growth of such national progress on healthy lines is, and must ever be, an idle hope, a fond day dream; and a people who permit such a state of things must submit to live on the lower level of civilization and at the mercy of others and without a national existence.
These are some of the evil results flowingfrom the prevalence of this custom of early marriages. Child-marriage involves a violation of the laws of Nature and Reason, and these laws of Nature and Reason cannot be defied with impunity. The evils are serious, whether we regard them from the point of view of individual interests, domestic peace, or social well-being; and we would earnestly appeal to our countrymen to pause and consider whether tha40
continuance of the custom, whatever its excuse or justification in ages gone by, is any longer compatible with ,the best interests of the nation; and whether national ,-duty does not suggest the imperative necessity for seeking its abolition. We would appeal to the good sense and judgment of the Indian pater familias to ask himself whether he is doing his duty by his family and country in marrying his children before they are of a fit age and in a fit condition, by training and culture, to enter on the relations of a wedded life, and whether it would not be more in accordance with interest, affection and parental duty to postpone such marriages till a suitable moment.
We trust, our appeal may not be in vain. The “ Young India” movement recently started at Shola-pur is but a very small preliminary attempt, at remedying the present state of things. It seeks to secure this postponement of marriage till a fit age is reached, and a fit condition of training and culture is attained in the case, at least, of one male child in an Indian family, which is the smallest beginning one can make with any advantage. The object is to create in Indian society a class of young men who shall be free from domestic and other encumbrances, to pursue a career of self-improvement and advance, and who can, with a sufficient margin of time and means, be expected to qualify themselves for the higher duties and responsibilities of citizenship. We earnestly hope the movement so reasonable and moderate in its aims and demands will succeed ; and we conclude by commending it for the favourable acceptance of our patriotic countrymen.THE POLITICAL PHASE-
The healthy political constitution of a people is the outcome of the perfected state of the constituent elements of their social condition, in which the male individual plays the more prominent part. A youth, after he has finished his education and training under the guidance of his parents, has to emerge from his dependant condition and cultivate in himself, through his own efforts, all the requisites, both physical and intellectual, to be able to take part in the good government of the country. He has to serve it with ability and honesty, and has frequently to make patriotic sacrifices; as he is often called upon to offer the best of his capabilities and disinterested help and even life itself for the benefit of his country. But such a culmination of the career of man, although apparently singular, considering his selfish nature, arises from his sociable disposition; when he willingly makes sacrifices on behalf of his nearest of kin, his community and his country. But still no generous and self-sacrificing sentiments can arise in any one when he himself is in an extremity of distress and want; and which has often been proved by the unnatural conduct of persons with the closest ties of relationship during famines and extreme privations, which visit India pretty frequently. Nevertheless, it is evident to every reflecting individual, that .M ature offers man every facility to assert his independence, however humble and unlettered he may be. His principal need of food and clothes, he can easily secure to himself by the exercise of his physical qualities; and a day’s remuneration for his labours amply suffices him for his wants for more days than one, if used sparingly. After such a guide, were he even to embark into matrimony, with the natural precautions of making anticipatedly the necessary provision for the married state, matters would still run smoothly with him. It is after this that he can competently take a part in the political condition of his country. The members of42
European parliaments are men of the best abilities and accomplishments, besides being of thorough independent means, and capable of making every sacrifice for the benefit of their respective countries. We Indians, therefore, when we soar up to national aspirations, which is the pinnacle of the loftiest desires of educated man, must ascertain for ourselves, whether we have secured the necessary competency in every respect and in every individual, or in at least a majority of them in the country ; as the political acquisitions have to spring up from such aggregates ; else they must sound hollow and meaningless. The heterogenous composition of the Indian population, were the competency of the people for political concessions asserted,could never be a bar to their attainment; since the greatest uniting force among people of every nation, in spite of the existence of antagonistic factions, is of common national interest, if only there should be a favourable condition for its intelligent conception and assertion by its people.
It cannot be said that India has been altogether a stranger to such a climax of political existence, considering that it had a repute, although relatively inferior to the standards of the day, of having been a civilized and independent country in ages past. The times of Rama, for example, which date before the beginning of the Christian era, as the records extant tell us, speak of high enlightenment, chivalry and noble deportment of both men and women in their domestic, social and political conditions. The very prominent weakness of those times was the too great a preference given to military distinction, although there existed councils for the good administration of the country, of which the Village Puncha-yets, in the remotest towns and villages, formed its connecting links, The Rajas and Maharajas of India of old evidently recognized even imperialistic doctrines, if we accept the political ceremony of the Aswa-meda of the times. But the basal feature of a high moral tone and of generalised education amongst43
the masses, which is absolutely necessary for stable political institutions, had not spread sufficiently to give them tone and perpetuity, and help the steady progressive development of national and imperialistic doctrines as exist in the European countries of the present day. Although there were the noble characters of the type of Rama and his wife Shita, which even the best of instances of to-day could not surpass, yet the tendency which the times had for the transformation of authority to military dictatorship, invariably degenerated some of the chieftains, into unprincipled autocrats or even despots, indulging in all sorts of unrighteous excesses, polygamy and even concubinage being a few of the commonly known of their failings. Even to-day our enlightened Native rulers and even men of learning allow the practice to prevail, regardless of its debasing influences. And no wonder that these unfortunate results paved the way for foreign invasions of India’s territories, under which the people commenced to degenerate, getting worse at every fresh incursion. This result, however, cannot be ascribed to any spe* cial failing of India, but to the defective political institutions then existing. And it is not India alone, of the prominent countries of ancient times, that is known to have suffered such a decay in her political institutions, to the extent of affecting her national existence; but the once powerful empires of Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome had undergone similar periods of rise followed by their fall. The political institutions of these countries were very much alike. Some of them had the municipal government corresponding to the Panchayet system of India ; they had the different councils of state to rule over the different departments of administration ; but the one unfortunate tendency to give preference to martial prowess invariably tended to bring about the wreck of these ancient nationalities, however promising might have been their condition.
But the present advanced times and the experi-44
ences of- the past are bringing about a wonderful revolution of the political constitution of modern countries. The several countries of Europe of today present examples of different types of advanced and sound government of their respective countries.
From absolute monarchy or autocratic rule they are gradually passing on to different grades of limited monarchies till the people themselves, in some of the countries, have assumed the sovereign power. They rule all the issues of their countries with calm and corporate deliberations, supported by high-educated intelligence and patriotism, and a moral backbone where military prowess, once so ascendant a quality, has now to take a subordinate place. What concerns India, therefore, to-day is to raise her social institutions to enable her passage into the political condition of the quality of the advanced countries of the West. Her people have every capability to entertain such hopes, however distant they may appear at present. Besides, India has the world’s example to copy from; and, above all, is under the guiding direction of one of the most advanced constitutional countries of the world, with peace reigning throughout the land. But to attain such an end, it will not do for India to crawl on at the rate she is doing, if she aspires for a high national existence. She must move on by leaps and bounds, if she ever hopes to overtake the advanced people of the world in their political existence. The present bureaucratic rule over the country cannot entirely be attributed to England’s hesitation to concede to India more liberal political institutions, but rather to her people’s unpreparedness to undertake such responsibilities as yet. High political concessions are the outcome of the practical competency of a people for them, which must overcome opposition of every magnitude or power. After receiving her lessons on sound government of her distant possessions in the Western Continent, England has been guided, in subsequent years, by a very wise principle in bind-ing together her vast territories over the globe, by conceding liberal political institutions to her subjects who have proved themselves fit for them as in Canada, Australia, New .Zealand, and lastly Cape Colony. They all got advanced liberal institutions in the fulness of time; while unfortunate India is yet floundering in the background, not as yet even ranking with the South American States, or China or Japan. Its people, in their ignorance or innocence, are yet holding 011 tenaciously to the hampering prejudices, such as the barriers for foreign travel and free association with foreign people, forgetting that these are the very causes which are keeping her in the background.
The rulers of our Native States, from whom the Indian people justly hope for a good deal, since they belong to the country and are intimately concerned with the people’s welfare, have been extremely slow in applying to their respective territories enlightened principles of administration; though there are a few, such as the Maharajas of Mysore and Travancore, Barodaand Bhownuggur, who have signalised the rule of their respective territories with a deal of enlightenment. Some of them have set a good example in following strictly monogamous lives. These states represent two forms of government: one is the constitutional form and the other an enlightened autocracy. Which of these can claim preference over the other cannot easily be adjudged, since there are some salient features in each of them as applied to the present condition of India. In the constitutional form, in which Mysore takes the lead, all measures require a vote of the constitutional assembly, which is not at all times possible to secure, in regard to e^en the most important and necessary of measures ; and consequently much valuable time is lost. Yet the progress that is made is steady and lasting, with every prospect of its continuity. In an enlightened autocracy, on the other hand, where the ruler takes pains to keep himself abreast of the times, and is wall
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observation, there is a chance of greater expedition of work and the easier introduction of the most advanced measures. But it lacks perpetuity or steady continuation of the progress introduced ; since the successor may be a minor or may hold views different from those of his predecessor.
Such are the qualities that characterise the prominent independent rulers of India, who rule their States on comparatively enlightened principles ; and which the Indians have to view with extreme satisfaction, hoping that they will be able to introduce steadily a more improved system of government in their territories, and thereby give opportunities for indigenous talent to distinguish itself in all manner of ways.
No doubt, the British administration of India is compared with the Native States, the more superior and enlightened form, since individual merit and
O	/
upright principles and character are more appreciated; and persons have greater freedom in their actions and privileges ; but yet it is very glaringly evident that the form of procedure is decidedly different, from that in the other portions of the BritishEm-pire. It stands as an anomaly ; in so far as it is ruled by periodic drafts of officials from Great Britain who have only a pecuniary interest in the country, for a limited number of years of their service in it; and whether the system is going to yield good results only the test of time can tell. One patent result of this form of government observed in British India is that high government officialdom are ever discouraged from having any permanent connection with the country, or settling down in it even if they choose when they retire from active service, on account the sterling pension rules, which allow them their sterling pension only when they leave India; otherwise they have to suffer a loss from 80 to 40 per cent, on their pensions, which make them ever impatient to leave the country. The majority of the Indian people themselves, on the47
Other hand, not having a lasting interest in the land arising from the periodic system of land assessment, live a listless and apathetic life. The exchange question, likewise, is increasing the ever-growing liabilities of the country to an embarrassing extent, while all remedies that have been created to mitigate the results some opine as being of such doubtful efficacy that they threaten to give contrary results, driving matters faster to a financial crisis. What the aggregate results of such a policy will be it is difficult to predict ; but it is sure to dawn upon us sooner or later, when we shall have to face stern realities. In the meantime, in the presence of such indiffer-entism of the rulers and the ruled as characterise the present prevailing feature of the Indian Empire, the administra tion is suffering likewise in its superior attributes, of which the results of the Crawford Commission gave ample evidence. It is to be hoped, however, it was the only instance ; and that the evil has not its roots spread far and wide as to affect seriously the whole fabric of the administration.
Nature has placed within the reach of every man the path to greatness, to which he has to apply himself with assiduity, on upright principles ; and not to try to supplant them with faulty ones to suit human selfishness. We have lessons in the past to guide our future, and to tell us that under no circumstances has the attempt, to distort Nature’s upright principles, been successful. We have not now to lose as much time as our forefathers did to take sound lessons; or to work up our advancement to the need of the present times in every thing we may choose ; although it might have taken the discoverer of each solitary principle a lifetime. India can, therefore, move on far more rapidly towards her national restoration than what she is doing to-day. She has, above all, to get over her hampering social prejudices, as the sound political institutions of a country can only get planted successfully on the sound moral backbone of the people. The trans-48
formation of Europe into its present state of high advancement, is principally to be attributed to the 'practical operation of strict monogamy incorporated in its laws for both high and low ; which we Indians, were we to take up with equal scrupulousness, coupling pi’ovidence with it, we could hope to attain similar results. For all that, various improvements are being insidiously forced upon the people, as the inevitable result of circumstances. For example, although polygamy is alicensed practice for every Hindu, yet very few can take to themselves more than one single wife; and many cannot marry at all, through sheer want of means. .But these matters have to be adopted more generally and systematically to show any palpable results, so as to influence our better worldly destiny. For instance, let the one practice of the improvident marriage of our boys be checked in either of the following ways, as it is pivot on which our regeneration rests :—
(1)	By Government confirmation of the illegality
of the marriage contract, according to the existing law, of boys before their attaining their majority of 21 years.
(2)	Or, by the imposition of a municipal license-■ fee on marriage of boys before they are 21
years old, and when not contracted by the parties concerned; the fee being—
(a)	For a rayat or a day labourer, Rs. 300.
(b)	For a middle class man, Es. 600.
(c)	Bigamy to be charged double the above rates, and polygamy prohibited.
All revenue from this source is to be in the hands of municipal bodies and to be exclusively employed for the spread of education throughout the land.
If any of the above suggestions should not find favour with Government or the people, then the only alternative left us will be to appeal to the youthful male population of India and get them to enlist into the “ .New India ” Scheme, which simply proposes to put off the marriage of our boys till they are of a right age and pecuniary competency to contract it.THE AGRICULTURAL LAND-REVENUE SETTLEMENT OF INDIA IN ITS SOCIAL BEARING-*
With the subject of Indian social reform, which we have been considering in its several aspects, we will blend two other questions of great importance—lsf, the assessment of the agricultural land-revenue in India, on the results of which the greater bulk of the Indian population subsist; and, 2ndli/, the development of the mineral treasures and the manufacturing industries of the country, which will offer numerous openings for the employment of Indians without work at present.
We will take up the agricultural land-revenue settlement first. There are two principal kinds of settlement of revenue of agricultural land in India ; one is the permanent settlement, which exists only in the provinces of Bengal, Behar and Orissa ; and the other, the settlement for periods of 30 years or even less, which is applied to the rest of British India and to the Native States. The former was introduced in some provinces of Upper India during the viceroyalty of Lord Cornwallis, where it has passed from the tentative to the practical stage; and the prosperity arising therefrom has been very graphically described by Mr. Reynolds in a paper read by him, before a meeting of the Society of Arts in London.
The periodic land settlement is commonly called the rayatwaree system, because the agreement for the payment of the assessment is made directly with the cultivators of the fields, called rayats. This system of
*	The subject in its economic bearing will be found in two communications in the journal of the Barvajanik Sabha for Jan. and Oct. 1890.
750
raising land-revenue can be traced back to the times of the Mahomedan supremacy over India. Its adoption by British Government in India has led to a controversy as to the comparative merits of both these systems. The temporary settlement as it exists at the present day, some think, receives its support from the demoralized condition of the people of India resulting from the general early marriage system, .which throws on the country a superfluous population ; and which, for want of something to do, take up the cultivation of the land for a questionable return.
A comparative Tabular Statement of Land-tax pa'd by different Countries of Europe and India is given below from NuthalVs Dictionary :—
Country.	Value of gross produce per acre in &.	Rent- in Shillings per acre.	Ratio of rent to gross produce.
United Kingdom		& 33	s. £ 20 or 1	1/33
France 		36-	24 „ 1-2	1/3 0
Germany ...	25	18 „ *9	1/28
Russia 		3	2 „ '8	1/30
Austria ... ...	15	8 „ -4	1/38
Jtal7	22	11 „ -55	1/40
Spam	18	5 „ *25	1/72
Portugal	25	8 „ ’4	1/62
Belgium	48	30 „ 15	1/32
Holland ...	42	30 „ 1-5	1/28 1/27
Denmark ... 		33	24 „ 1*2	
Sweden	.12	5;; -25	1/48
Norway 		11	4 „ *2	1/55
Greece	18	12 „ *G	1/30
All Europe	£20	8s. or £-G	1/50.
India ... 	 \	:C 1'8 Famine Commr.’s	| 125. or £-6	f/3 to 1/4
I	estimate.		
Again, the payment of the revenue, which is contracted with the rayats,-being in coin, and they, not holding any ready cash, have naturally to fall back on the money-lender for pecuniary assistance. The money-lender, who generally belongs to the lower mid-51
die class having a capital from Es. 500 to Rs. 2,000-, becomes, at one ancl the same time, the saviour and persecutor of the rayats. He is a saviour in so far feat he saves the rayats from the operation of Government measures, on failure or delay in the payment of the assessment dues at fixed periods ; and persecutor in so far that, taking advantage of their urgent need for money to pay Government assessment, he fixes his own rates of interest on money lent, since the credit of the rayats is very low in the market from their impecuniosity and from the great uncertainty of the fall of the periodic rains, on which the crops depend. Besides the ordinary advances to the rayats, the money-lender has very often to advance a year’s supply of food-grain to them and their families when they are out of provision ; and to ensure payment for which all the money-lender is obliged to keep a watch over the field operations, from commencement to termination of the agricultural operations,—a period of four months. In order to do this with effect, the moneylender has even to employ paid servants to watch the field operations of his debtors, raising the interest on his advances in proportion ; and which actually turns out to be the ordinary interest plus the cost incurred in watching the field operations for the above period. Thus the rayats, from the necessity they have of borrowing money from year to year, find "themselves very much involved, and eventually entertain very littlejiope of ever getting out of debt. And neither is the money-lender any better off, as one would imagine, for he seldom expects to be paid in full. Very often the creditor finds himself in a great dilemma, when, after the harvest operations are over, the rayats leave their homes to earn their living elsewhere during the remainder of'the year; when, to minimise the risks of the rayats giving him the slip altogether, or rather to strengthen his hold on them, the52
money-lender encourages the early marriage of the boy-rayats, for which purpose he willingly makes further advances of money ; as that increases the chances of the young rayats returning to their homes on account of their wives, whom they generally leave behind. The result of all this, however, is that most of the rayats, who constitute the bulk of the Indian population, have a fictitious income and a precarious existence, and who, for want of education on the one hand, and the improvident marriages that are forced on them by their parents on the other, cannot get out of their village homes and out of the clutches of the money-lender ; since every grown-up boy has a family dependent on him long before he has secured an independent competence even for himself. As matters stand at present, the majority of the peasantry as a class is hopelessly involved, and the money-lender by offering more money for marriages keep it in a state of chronic poverty. They are generally so badly off that, in spite of'tlieir very thrifty habits, the majority of them are in debt. In the face of these facts, it is surprising that the youthful rayats do take to agricultural pursuits, knowing the indebtedness of their parents and the impoverishment entailing on them from working at the fields, on the periodic settlement system. The cause of this evil is to be traced to the unfortunate social practice of improvident marriage, which throws on the hands of the rayats more individuals than they can provide for, and so they get completely demoralized. It is self-evident, therefore, that it could not be a profitable nor a happy state of affairs for the bulk of the population of a country to live in such a chronic state of misery, because a bankrupt people can hardly contribute to the prosperity of a country, and in their state of poverty and embarrassment they would be utterly useless to render any help worth having at any time or to anybody.Over-populating the country with paupers only 4eads to demoralization, and the temporary land settlement adds to it, by removing from the people every vestige of interest in the land they till, and making them /utterly indifferent as to what becomes of it. It is apparent, therefore, that whatever be the reasons for delaying the introduction of the permanent agricultural settlement all over India, it cannot be a profitable thing for our administrators to have the- country swarming with listless individuals, with no lasting interest in the country they occupy or cultivate. But if the land-revenue settlement was made permanent, the relation of the people with regard to their holdings would be immediately altered ; and in their own interest they would have to support their Government. On this reflection, therefore, Mr. Reynolds has expressed himself very forcibly on the loyalty of the Bengalis, in his paper alluded to above. It is this condition of the land tenure that imparts stability and solidity to the Government of a country, as it induces the middle class people of a country, with permanently invested interest in the soil, to help the Government as much as lies in their power on the one hand, and, on the other, to protect the actual cultivators, on whom they are dependent for the actual cultivation of their land.
But if the permanent revenue settlement be introduced all over India, it will have to be safe-guarded against the great tendency such a system has to very greatly over-populate a place. Where the vital statistics of a country are on a par with its prosperity, it indicates a healthy equilibrium, but where the reverse, i.e., where the former preponderates over the latter, it must indicate poverty an d misery in a country. Bengal, Behar and Orissa, where the permanent settlement has been in exist-ence for the last century, from being formerly sparingly populated provinces, now contain one-fifth of the population of the whole of India. Their population lias outgrown all safe proportions, the number of individuals to the square mile, in some places, being about 750, Avhile the greatest feeding capability of tilled land is one person to every half a square acre. No wonder that the prosperity of these provinces is considerably lessened by the multiplicity of mouths that have to be fed on it. This state .of'affairsis evidently brought about by the landholders, who, to secure an abundant and cheap labour for work in the land they own, encourage to a very considerable degree the early and improvident marriage of the boys of the rayats ; and very often even favour polygamy. For this reason, should the permanent land-rent be introduced in India, it will have to be made conditional on the acceptance by the people of a legislative enactment of some wise and sensible restraint on the prevailing practice of early and improvident marriage system of boys, otherwise the responsibilities of our Government in providing for the wants of an abnormal growth of population and to meet their demands especially during epidemics and famines, would be something terrific. Another legislative enactment that seems necessary, in case of the concession of the permanent land settlement, is to restrict every sub-letting of land by the landlord to a fixed number of acres, always bargaining with the lessee for his rent in kind only, and the proportion not to exceed half the net produce of the field. The procedure of taking up the respective shares of land produce will also have to be determined carefully, as very often the landlords, in taking up their respective shares, either wilfully or negligently delay it to the very great detriment of the rayats. All these measures, although very necessary, will want a deal of mature delibera-55
tion before their introduction, for which if the people were to come forward and, voluntarily help Government in all that is necessary, it will very much lighten their task and add to the chance of their success to the satisfaction of everybody concerned, bringing about the happiness and contentment of the people of India, as well as the greater stability of Government.
The Development of the Mineral Treasures and the Manufacturing Industries in India in its Social Bearing.
This is the second of the great means, after the permanent land settlement in India, which will contribute to its prosperity. It is only during the winter of 1890 that attention was directed to the development of the industrial and mineral resources of the country, and to the advisability of the matter being periodically considered in an Industrial Conference to be held every year.
The labours of the first Conference commenced with an able address by Mr. M. G. Ranade, who expatiated at great length on the urgency of the Indian people directing their earnest endeavours in developing the manufacturing and mineral resources of the country, since the prosperity of the country very much depended on it. He rightly advised us that we must, in the first place, realize to ourselves our situation; and, instead of making vain efforts to battle against circumstances over which we have no control, we ought to husband the resources within our power, and that, above all, we should depend principally on ourselves for the means necessary to accomplish the object. To begin with, we can only expect from our rulers help on broad and general56
principles, in attaining any good end that falls within the sphere of an enlightened administration. In this regard, we have a pretty widespread education in the country. We have increased facilities for communication, not only with different parts of India, but all over the world; and, above all, we have irofound peace over and throughout the length and ireadth of the land, which enables us to develop any ' egitimate measures we may think of to materially improve our condition.
A start to technical education has been given by the establishment of the Victoria Technical Institute in the Bombay Presidency ; but +,his is not enough, because we have not only to know how different objects of commerce are made, but how they can be economically produced to enable us to compete successfully with others in the open market. It will require a little patience, to enable newly-established industries to succeed and to compete advantageously with those firmly established in popular estimation ; but considering that we have abundance of coal and iron in the country, and since Indian labour is the cheapest in the world, Ave are justified in reckoning upon our ultimate success. But before we can arrive at this desirable stage, we must reckon upon the immense advantage which articles produced by steam-power have over those turned out by manual industry. Of this we have had proofs in the attempts of some of our enterprising countrymen, which were successful as far as production of new articles of industry was concerned, but unremuner-ative as regards its economic results, which are indispensable to success. The Technical Institute of Bombay* is on too narrow a basis to enable us to expect its influence on the high training of our youths in
*	See the Industrial Quarterly Review of Western India for October 1892.57
various industries. The School of Arts in Bombay, which has been in existence a good number of years, has not as yet given any appreciable results in the teaching of any art, which could be compared with such results in the European institutions.
Such being the case, our first endeavour should be to send every year a certain number of ' picked young men to Europe and America to be trained there in the chief industrial arts ; so that, when they have been mastered to perfection, the youths on theirreturn home will be able to start and direct new useful industries in India. This is the course followed even in Europe itself, where artisans from one country travel to another in order to perfect themselves in their particular profession. Russia would not be what she is if Peter the Great, with the true instinct of a patriot, had not visited England to learn the art of ship-building and other kindred industries, in which he subsequently trained his subjects, and gave them that impetus which has made Russia one of the great poAvers of the West. There need be no difficulty whatever in establishing foreign fellowships, for Avhich steps should at once be taken all over India. There are above 5 lakhs of individuals in each zilla, and there are about 500 zillas throughout India, so that if each bread-winner contributed once for all, say, only a rupee, the interest of the sum thus raised would enable each zilla to support with ease a foreign scholarship for candidates from their respective areas, in any of the chief centres of industry in Europe or America, and while the pecuniary sacrifice would be nominal the results would be magnificent. In a short time India would possess men of the highest culture and training in all the branches of science and manufacture, who would be quite competent to develop her industrial and mineral resources, and thus enrich the Indian people by 858
putting a stop to that drain of money which has been going on, in procuring articles from abroad, since they would be manufactured in the country itself. With such agencies in operation, ways and mean a will readily suggest themselves for the raising of the requisite capital to start workshops and manufactories to supply the demands of our people; for, as with individuals so with nations, Providence helps those who help themselves. Such foreign scholarships could be also established by the municipalities of India, and bind their respective candidates, on their return to India, to start factories under Municipal guarautee and protection, for which sanction could be obtained by inducing the authorities to legislate accordingly, as is done in the countries of Europe.APPENDIX A.
THE INDIAN LEAGUE.
(/« 'which are incorporated Life Assurance and Educational Movements.)
This is a movement proposed to be introduced throughout the whole of India, each town or village having its independent committee of management, in wliich a fixed rate of subscription is recovered from all subscribers compatible with their means : and after some necessary deduction, two-thirds of the remaining capital is applied towards giving Life Assurance bonuses, and one-third applied for the education of the members’ children. Any number of, classes of subscription can be formed.
INDIAN LEAGUE.*
GENERAL RULES.
1.	The- Title of the association shall be “ Indian
League,	”*
2.	The object of the association is life assurance and education. The branch of life assurance will give bonuses to nominees of deceased members. The educational branch proposes to impait a useful education to Indians of both sexes wherever it can be obtained.
3.	Certificate of membership shall be issued signed by the .Secretary and Treasurer, after a member presents his attestation of age and good health from two or more members.
4.	The Subscription for each individual shall be Rs. i|, Rs. 3 and Rs. 7! a year payable in advance for the class or
*	Here the name of the town or village is inserted.80
classes he may join, before the last day of each preceding year.
5.	Entrance'Fee.—Besides his regular annual subscription, members will have to pay the following entrance fee:—
From	First		Second		Third	
age.	year.		year.		year.	
	Rs.	as.	Rs.	as.	Us.	as.
18 to 20	O	4	O	6	O	8
21 lO 24	O	6	0	12	I	0
25 to 28	0	12	I	4	I	8
29 to 32	I	0	I	12	2	0
33 to 35	I	4	2	4	2	8
36 to 38	I	8	2	8	3	0
39 to 41	I	12	3	0	3	8
42 to 44	2	0	3	8	4	0
45 to 47	2	8	4	0	4	8
48 to 5"o	3	0	4	8	5	0
5i to 53	4	0	5	8	6	0
54 to 56	4	8	6	0	7	0
57 to 58	5	0	7	0	8	0
59 to 60	6	0	8	8	10	0
6.	Penalty for Default.—Default of a member in the payment of his regular subscription shall make him liable to the following penalty :—
F or the first month 2 ans.; for the second month 4 ah s.; and in the third month his name will be struck off.
7.	Division of Capital.—Out of the total subscription, 10 per cent, will be deducted for working expenses and 10 per cent for a reserve fund; and out of the remainder § will be divided amongst the nominees of deceased members during each year after its expiration and the remaining £ appropriated for educational purposes. The reserve fund will be added to the Life Assurance bonuses in any year when there may be an unusual number of deaths.
8.	Deposit of Capital.—The capital from the contributions shall be deposited in the Postal Office or in any other approved bank, or invested in promissory notes in the name of the Secretary and Treasurer and two other members.61
9* Administration.—The whole of the fund shall be administered by a General and a Managing Committees. The members of the General Committee shall comprise of from jo to 30 members and be elected by its members, and shall nold their respective offices for 5 years, being subject to re-election. Quorum being formed by half the members forming the committee.
10.	The Duties of the General Committee shall be to administer the concerns of the respective division on the outlines laid down above.
11.	The Managing Committee shall be formed of from 6 to 9 members,.which shall check the record book of the contributions and their deposits or investments and all other matters requiring immediate attention, quorum being formed of one-third of the members in the Committee.
12.	The Meeting of the General and Managing Committees.—The General Committee shall meet twice a year— in June and December. An extraordinary General Meeting shall be • convened when necessary; by giving 15 days’ previous notice in one or more of the local papers, stating the subject to be considered at such meeting. Such meeting shall be convened at the requisition of 15 members of the League ; or at the desire of the Managing Committee.
13.	The Managing Committee shall meet once a month and oftener if necessary.
14.	Examination of Records.—-The members of the League shall have access to its books and records, subject to the consent of the Managing Committee.
15.	Auditors.—The General Committee shall appoint two auditors every year to examine the accounts, which, aft#r audit, shall be submitted to the General Committee.
16.	Withdrawal of Amount.—All withdrawals from banks shall be made under the signatures of the Secretary and Treasurer and one or more trustees after obtaining the consent of the Managing Committee, and recorded in the minute book or as may be arranged.62
17- By-laws.—The Managing Committee shall frame by-laws, provided such by-laws are in consonance with the rules of the association.
18.	Alteration of Rides.—No rules of the association shall be altered except at a General Meeting ; but yet the essential features of the League could not be changed.
SPECIAL RULES OF THE SECTION OF LIFE ASSURANCE.
19.	Nominees.—A member shall declare his nominee or nominees when applying for admission, whose name shall be inserted in the certificate. Such nominee's name can be changed at any time by the member during his lifetime, by giving written notice to the Secretary.
20.	Application for Life Assurance Bonus.—The nominee of the deceased member shall have to produce the certificate held by the deceased member, and the nominee must be identified by two witnesses of the approval of the Managing Committee before claiming the bonus due.
21.	Loss of Certificate.—A member who has lost his certificate shall be entitled to a duplicate copy 011 payment of a penalty of one rupee, and after his giving satisfactory proofs of his indentity.
22.	Invaliding of a Member.—In case a member get invalided through paralysis, total blindness or insanity, or disabled by loss of any limb, he shall be allowed half the bonus during the year he got so invalided, and the other half shall be reserved to his nominee and given after his death. He shall not be required to pay any more subscriptions.
SPECIAL RULES OF THE SECTION OF EDUCATION.
23. jDisposal of Capital for Education.—The capital assigned for education shall be employed in giving awards to the niost competent candidates of a respective town either in Jndia or out of it and subsidies to local schools,
I	of it being held ^s a reserve fund.63
24* Co-operation of other Towns for Awards.—When two or more towns should choose to put together a portion of their capital to make awards conjointly for candidates from them, it shall be done by resolutions of the General Committees of respective towns, and the turns for such awards to the candidates shall be decided by lottery.
25.	Select Committee.—A special committee for the purpose of selecting candidates for awards shall be elected by the General Committee, and shall be composed of from
3	to 5 members.
26.	Awards in and out of India.—The selection of candidates for awards studying in India shall be made at the discretion of the Select Committee. For awards in foreign countries a candidate shall have to pass at least the Matriculation examination in British India, or the examination of the Victoria Technical Institute at Bombay. Unmarried candidates will be preferred for the awards.
27.	Right of presenting a Candidate.—Every member shall have the right of presenting a candidate, his son or daughter, brother or sister, or a fatherless Indian of his respective town.
28.	Age of the Candidates.—The age of candidates for awards in India shall be from 1 o years to 21 years ; and of those out of India from 16 to 25.
29.	Choice of Subject of Study.—The choice of any particular subject of study shall be, in some measure, left to the candidate, in order to favour his aptitude, with the approval of the Managing Committee. For the first year of the existence of the League, preference shall be given to the candidate who has chosen some subject of technical education in foreign countries.
30.	Duration of Awards.—The awards in India and out of India shall be tenable from 1 to 5 years at the most.
31.	Stoppage of Awards.—The award shall be stopped by the Select Committee, with the approval of the Managing Committee, in case a candidate cannot continue his studies through ill-health or for want of diligence and application to study, or for misconduct.€4
32.	The allowance of return passage to India.—Return passage shall be allowed to a candidate who shall have to give up his studies on account of illness if he has not himself the means to do so; but in no other case.
33.	Donations ~The League will accept donatiqfts from anybody if the donor should leave sufficient fund.to make the award from its interest. The donor can state the terms of his award, which shall be conformed to, if not inconsistent with, the principles of the association.
34.	The Secretary and Treasurer.— The salary of the Secretary and Treasurer shall be paid out of the 10 per cent, deduction of each year, and such salary shall not exceed Rs. 50 a month. The Secretary and Treasurer shall have to give a security (2,000) rupees two thousand in immovable property or in British Government Promissory Notes, before his appointment, or as the Managing Committee may direct.
35.	Deposit of ?noney by Secretary and Treasurer m the Bank.—The Secretary and Treasurer shall deposit all moneys he may receive to the credit of the League of thp respective town in the bank when it comes to Rs. 15.
36.	The Secretary and Treasurer shall act as Secretary at all meetings of the association, and shall be answerable for the pecuniary concerns of the association.APPENDIX B.
ITEW ZIST3DI-A..
THE REMOTE IDEAL.
An Association is to be formed from among the people of India with patriotic sentiments by adopting a form of behaviour of its members which will contribute to the regeneration of the country.
The ideal to be aimed at ultimately.—A highly educated, united and progressive India, for all attainments essential for a national life, and fitted by the intellectual and moral equipment of her citizens to take her proper place among the nations of the world.
The movement.—To be a general movement of national progress on the threefold bases of the widest possible spread of education, the superior training of the individual citizen and a superior type of domestic and social life. .
The organization,—To be entrusted to the new Association proposed to be formed, called
THE MEW INDIA ASSOCIATION.
The constitution of the Association—
(1)	Membership.—To be open to all statutory natives of India, without difference of race, colour or creed, of both the sexes. Women to be introduced for enlistment by their male guardians.
(2)	Conditions attached to such membership :—
(a)	Education.—At least a knowledge of the vernacular of the member is compulsory.
Exceptions.—Members of over 40 years of age to be exempted from such obligation, supposing he does not know to read and write any vernacular, but he will have to promise to make his wards learn it,
966
(b)	A strictly moral life to be observed.
(c)	Indian marriage.—Members are to marry within
at least the Indian community and nationality if not strictly in their respective classes^
(d)	Economy in expenditure.—A frugal living in all matters and concerns to be recognized.
(■e) Worship.—Private worship with the household circle to be daily observed. Outdoor forms as have a danger of detracting individuals from the right object of religion to be discouraged as much as possible.
(f)	Male members to bind themselves—
(i) to observe monogamy and (2) not to marry before 22 years of age and without having a pecuniary competence of their own.
(g)	Similar competence for female members, who are not to marry before 16 years of age and without independent Jiving being secured by the marrying man.
(/i) No widower or widow to marry again if he or she has one male child, unless under 40 and very well off.
(7) A general pledge to give a good education to the children and not to marry them, whether boys or girls, unless and before they are properly educated and unless an independent living be secured by boys. The boys not to be married before 22 and the girls before 16 years.
(/) Full liberty for women to be allowed.
(,k) Celibacy to be open to both men and women out of free choice.
3.	The duties of members—To organize the movement as set forth illustrating in their practical lives the principles taught, and to labour unselfishly, earnestly and steadily to make the movement a success.
(1)	Education to be widely diffused ; indeed, every one to be educated.67
(2)	The citizen to be properly taught, trained and disciplined in the duties and privileges attached to his status. The education of intelligent and well-to-do members to be of as superior a type as possible under the circumstances, and the course of training and improvement to be free, from every encumbrance-domestic or other.
(3)	The domestic life of the country to be organized on the high level of monogamy, and female education to be of a high type. These three things secured, the foundations of the country’s progress will be fast and properly laid down.HN686 .E88
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