పుట:English Journalismlo Toli Telugu Velugu Dampuru Narasayya.pdf/183

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heard, they have not urged this line of argument as yet) we are prepared, we say, to contend that the mere fact that infant marriages are sanctioned and enjoined by an ancient code of laws and that this custom has been observed for a considerable length of time are no reasons at all for its continuance. Rather on the contrary, when the custom is found to be a bar to the progress of civilisation, to the spread of education, to the uprooting of ancient and pernicious prejudices, to the placing of the woman in her proper and true position in life, is it to be discountenanced and abolished than allowed to continue so great a social incubus. We are making, we should suppose, a very trite observation, when we say that customs and usages which served the necessities and requirements of one age become obsolete and unsuited to a subsequent age. If we were to refer all our acts to the customs and usages of our ancestors, we should be left far behind in the race of progress. This has been for ages the bane of the Hindus, this acting more majorum, and this accounts for the stationary character of their civilization. In these enlightened times, the Hindus have shaken off many of their ancient prejudices and baneful predelictions, but there are still many great ones standing prominently forward and making as it were the slow rate of their progress, and among these the custom of infant marriages is not the least. We are sorry that we can afford neither time nor space to extend our observations nor to recount the various and complicated evils which the continued observance of this practice entails upon the people at large. But we may mention one evil, the existence of which is not less an evil to the Hindus than to any other national community. We refer to the large extent to which prostitution, public and private, is carried on owing to the continuance of the practice of infant marriages, combined with that equally pernicious usage, the prohibition of the re-marriage of widows. It is in vain that our Hindu friends would say that the evil is not so great as is made out. The experience of every man who has been long resident in India confirms the fact. In the course of nature, we could not expect any other result but that which it has been our painful duty to point out. Here then is a remedy suggested, and it is the duty of every Hindu who has the welfare, moral and social of his country-women at heart, to join Runganada Shastry and his party and effect the reformation so much to be desired, heedless as to