Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 347

TXFILIAL BEHAVIOUR
307
with dissimulation, and fraud witli fraud. The prolonged
use of weapons for which excuse may be found in their
natural desire to resist the oppression of their rulers, ended
by becoming a habit which it is now impossible for them
An almost unconquerable propensity to
to get rid of.
theft is also to be noticed amongst the Hindus.
They
never let slip an opportunity of stealing, unless they think
they are likely to be found out. With them honesty is
always secondary to their own personal interest. The
natural sentiments of filial respect and devotion, the
foundation of all other virtues and the first link in the
social chain, exercise very little influence over a Brahmin's
children.
The outward show of love and respect that they
occasionally make is purely formal, and means nothing.
Young children will obey their father, because they fear
punishment if they do not but they will overwhelm their
mother with abuse, and will insult her grossly, even going
so far at times as to strike her.
When they grow older
they fail to respect even their father, and it often happens
that he is obliged to give way to his sons, who have made
themselves masters of the house. Strange to say, nowhere
are parents fonder of their children than they are in India
but this fondness usually degenerates into weakness. If
the children are good, they are extravagantly praised if
they are naughty, their parents show the utmost ingenuity
in rinding excuses for them.
The mild punishments that
their naughtiness or disobedience brings down upon them
invariably err on the side of leniency.
The parents do not
dare to whip them or scold them sharply, or even inflict
any punishment that they would be likely to feel. The
father and mother content themselves with making feeble
remonstrances about their bad behaviour, and if these
produce no effect, they leave them to grow up in their
evil ways.
The few sensible parents who show more firm-
ness and severity with their children are met with a show
of temper.
Sons do not hesitate to resist the parental
authority, and threaten to escape it by running away and
living elsewhere.
This threat rarely fails to produce the
desired effect
the parents' severity melts away and they
become passive witnesses of the disorderly conduct of
;
;
;
;
their sons,
who, encouraged by
this first victory,
end by