Monday, Apr. 12, 1926

Indian Widows

"Truly a widow is as a withered faggot. Let her then burn on her lord's funeral pyre."

With such proverbs as these, Indians have for centuries coldly praised the suttee: "a good woman" who allows herself to be burned to death at her husband's funeral. The British have, of course, largely stamped out this rite, but only after the most appalling struggle.

Occasionally, however, ^ there comes news that awakening Indians are slowly getting behind the new morality. The great reformer "Mahatma" Gandhi published last week a proposed code of conduct for women which would have caused him to be stoned in the market place a few years ago. He recommended that:

1) No girl should marry until she is 15.

2) All present widows less than 15 should remarry.

3) Girls married at 15 and widowed before 16 should be "encouraged to remarry."

4) The relatives of other classes of widows should treat them with kindness and make arrangements for their education.