Lighted to Lighten: The Hope of India | Page 7

hundred miles away, and the mother-in-law's
face is strange.
Will Meenachi be sad or happy? The answer is complex and hard to
find, for it depends on many contingencies. The husband--what will he
be? He is not of Meenachi's choosing. Did she choose her father and
mother, and the house in which she was born? Were they not chosen
for her, "written upon her forehead" by her Karma, her inscrutable fate?
Her husband has been chosen; let her make the best of the choice.
Will she be happy? The future years shall make answer by many things.
Will she bear sons to her husband? If so, will her young body have
strength for the pains of childbirth and the torturings of ignorant and
brutal midwives? Will her Karma spare to her the life of husband and
children? In India sudden death is never far; pestilence walks in

darkness and destruction wastes at noon day. The fear of disease, the
fear of demons, the fear of death will be never far away; for these fears
there will be none to say, "Be not afraid."
So Meenachi, the bride, passes out into the unknown of life, and later
into the greater unknown of death. No one has taught her to say in the
valley of the shadow, "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." The
terrors of life are with her, but its consolations are not hers.
[Illustration: MARRIED TO THE GOD A Little Temple Girl]
Widowhood.
Of widowhood I shall say little. Since the ancient days of suttee when
the wife mounted her husband's funeral pyre volumes have been written
on the lot of the Indian widow. To-day in some cases the power of
Christianity has awakened the spirit of social reform and the rigors of
widowhood are lessened. Among the majority the old remains. In
general, the higher you rise in the social scale, the sterner the
conventions and fashions of widowhood become.
In Madras you may visit a Widow's Home, where through the wise
efforts of a large-hearted woman in the Educational Department of
Government more than a hundred Brahman girl-widows live the life of
a normal schoolgirl. No fastings, no shaven heads, no lack of pretty
clothes or jewels mark them off from the rest of womanhood. Schools
and colleges open their doors and professional life as teacher or doctor
offers hope of human contact and interest for these to whom husband
and child and home are forever forbidden. In all India you may find a
very few such institutions, but "what are these among so many?" The
millions of repressed child widows still go on.
Wives of the Idol.
Worse is the fate of those whose Karma condemns them to a life of
religious prostitution. Perhaps the first-born son of the family lies near
to death. The parents vow a frantic vow to the deity of the local temple.
"Save our son's life, O Govinda; our youngest daughter shall be

dedicated to thy service." The son recovers, the vow must be fulfilled,
and bright-eyed, laughing Lakshmi, aged eight, is led to the temple, put
through the mockery of a ceremony of marriage to the black and
misshapen image in the inmost shrine, and thenceforth trained to a
religious service of nameless infamy.
The story of Hinduism holds the history of some devout seekers after
God, of sincere aspiration, in some cases of beautiful thought and life.
This deepest blot is acknowledged and condemned by its better
members. Yet in countless temples, under the brightness of the Indian
sun, the iniquity, protected by vested interests, goes on and no hand is
lifted to stay. Suppose each American church to shelter its own house
of prostitution, its forces recruited from the young girls of the
congregation, their services at the disposal of its worshippers. The
thought is too black for utterance; yet just so in the life of India has the
service of the gods been prostituted to the lusts of men.
Reform.
The achievements of Christianity in India are not confined to the four
million who constitute the community that have followed the new Way.
Perhaps even greater has been the reaction it has excited in the ranks of
Hinduism among those who would repudiate the name of Christian.
Chief among the abuses of Hinduism to be attacked has been the
traditional attitude toward woman. Child marriage and compulsory
widowhood are condemned by every social reformer up and down the
length of India. The battle is fought not only for women, but by them
also. Agitation for the suffrage has been carried on in India's chief
cities. In Poona not long since the educated women of the city, Hindu,
Muhammadan, and Christian, joined in a procession with banners,
demanding compulsory education for girls.
Of women not Christian,