The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c17.s3.13

c17.s3.13

The above survey of the position of Hindu women would show that their condition has been on the whole deteriorating during the last two thousand years. It is no doubt true that women as a general rule received similar and often worse treatment in contemporary times in several other civilisations both in the East and the West. But this can hardly be a sufficient consolation or justification for us. For, we had once already evolved a fairly satisfactory standard about the treatment of women and then failed to act up to it owing to our subsequent developments, which we ought to have checked. It is true that there was no female education worth the name even in the West down to the middle of the 19th century, but that would not condone its neglect by us, when we had once seen its benefits and advantages. It may be that early marriages may have been common in many countries in ancient and medieval times; but that would not justify the conduct of later Smṛiti writers in disapproving the earlier custom of post-puberty marriges. It may be that seclusion of women in one form or another was common in several European countries for several centuries; but that would hardly be a sufficient excuse for our resorting to that custom, especially when we were once going on without it.