WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
"Young India talks of political slavery, of foreign despotism, and of the British yoke, but these, if they really exist, are nothing in comparison with the despotism incarnate which rules the family life of the people, and until they reform that family life they will not be worthy to call for and to receive political freedom."
Nand Lai Ghose takes a Bengali woman as a type representing the indifferent social status of the Indian wife.
This writer gives a picture of the whole career of a Hindu woman from her birth in the zenana to old age. He asserts that children are brought into the world without adequate medical assistance. The midwives are chiefly of the low caste, and they are old women who know scarcely anything of maternity treatment. They occupy, however, an important position in India, and are called "second mothers." Many infants die through defective attention and a lack of knowledge of children's ailments.
The mother is convalescent for thirty-one days after the birth of her child. She then undergoes a ceremony, and is allowed to leave her couch. The suckling of infants is prolonged.
The Babu Ghose writes that Hindu girls are brought up strictly and practically secluded. Their diversions are few. They are fond of dolls, and they
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