The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c10.s2.35

c10.s2.35

The cause of the widow remarriage has begun to make appreciable progress since the beginning of this century. Many sincere workers have come forward to devote themselves to it. The terrible havoc caused by the plague at the beginning of the 20th century made the problem acute. With the wider spread of western education, reason began to reassert itself; Smṛiti texts began to lose their hold, and reformers could point out earlier and more authoritative works which permitted widow remarriage. The angle of vision of society of looking to the problem is rapidly changing; the thinking section now frankly recognises that the cause of the widow marriage is a just one, deserving the sympathy and support of all humane persons. The ascetic and puritanical atmosphere, which is *a sine qua non* for the successful working of the ban on widow marriage, has now completely disappeared from society, probably never to return. The age of reason has returned which refuses to sanction a course for the widows, which widowers are unwilling and unable to follow. The authority of later Smṛitis, which prohibit the widow marrige, is being questioned in the light of the earlier Smṛitis and Śrutis, which permit it. The closer study of social data and statistics is revealing that society becomes an unconscious party to great moral inequities by refusing its sanction to remarriages.