Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 134

INCREASING BIRTH-RATE
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indolent, where customs and institutions are so many
insurmountable barriers against a better order of tilings,
and where it is more or" less a sacred duty to let things
remain as they are, I have every reason to feel convinced
that a considerable increase in the population should be
looked upon as a calamity rather than as a blessing.
It is in the nature of things that, in times of peace and
tranquillity, when the protection of a just Government is
afforded both to person and property, an increase in the
population of India should take place at an alarming rate,
since it is an indisputable fact that no women in the world
are more fruitful than the women of India, and nowhere
else is the propagationof the human race so much encouraged.
In fact, a Hindu only marries to have children, and the
more he has the richer and the happier he feels. All over
India it is enough for a woman to know how to cook, pound
rice, and give birth to children.
These three things are
expected of her, especially the last, but nothing more. It
would even appear displeasing if she aspired to anything
else.
No Hindu would ever dream of complaining that
his family was too large, however poor he might be, or
however numerous his children. A barren woman is made
to feel that there can be no worse fate, and barrenness
in a wife is the most terrible curse that can possibly fall
on a family.
Another serious cause of the poverty of modern India
and
is
the decrease in the
demand
for
hand
labour, resulting
from the introduction of machinery and the spread of
manufactures with improved methods in Europe. Indeed,
Europe no longer depends on India for anything, having
learnt to beat the Hindus on their own ground, even in
their most characteristic industries and manufactures, for
which from time immemorial we were dependent on them.
In fact, the roles have been reversed, and this revolution
threatens to ruin India completely.
Just before returning to Europe I travelled through some
of the manufacturing districts, and nothing could equal the
All the work-rooms
state of desolation prevailing in them.
were closed, and hundreds of thousands of the inhabitants,
composing the weaver caste, were dying of hunger for
through the prejudices of the country they could not adopt
;