Licence: In copyright
Credit: India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
522/552 page 492
Licence: In copyright
Credit: India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![man, and sometimes to one who had not long to live.1 Though it might be certain that the girl must soon be a widow, this was considered preferable to allowing her to remain unmarried. Every one has heard of the wretched fate which widowhood in India often involves, at least among the upper classes, with whom the practice of re- marriage does not prevail. Nothing could be more valuable than to receive the advice and help of highly-educated Natives of India on such subjects as these, and to know that they were striving, by the example of their own lives, to teach their less instructed countrymen to abandon these abominations. No greater encouragement could be given to those who desire to see educated Natives admitted to a larger share in the administration than the certainty that they were anxious to help us towards ampler knowledge of the wants and feelings of the people, and to make us better able to deal with problems i]now seem too hard to solve. $' Unhappily, in regard to these great social questions the Government seldom receives such advice or assist- ance. There are admirable exceptions, and some leaders of Native opinion are generally found to support the Government when it insists on carrying out a reform which it has initiated, but it would not be easy to give instances in which an influential Native of the country has himself taken the lead in proposing a measure of social improvement. It is easy to understand why these questions are I tel i^> 4 J/} l IaI NtN DuA 1 Mr. O’Donnell, in his Report on the Census of Bengal, 1891, states that this abominable practice, known as Kulinism, now exists only to a very limited extent, and that it is strongly condemned by public opinion. An in- teresting description of the former and present marriage customs of the Kulins, and of other classes of Brahmans will be found in Mr. Risley’s Tribes and Castes of Bengal.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29351339_0522.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
