The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c7.s3.56

c7.s3.56

8 or 9 was the usual marriageable age of girls at the advent of the British rule. With the introduction of western ideas and civilisation the educated sections of society began to feel the necessity of deferring marriages to a more advanced age. Social conferences began to advocate the cause of post-puberty marriages during the nineties of the last century, but their efforts were not appreciably successful till the beginning of the 20th century. The terrible havoc caused by the plague advanced the marriageable age of girls from 8 to 12 or 13. Society, however, was still afraid to cross openly the fateful age of puberty. The gradual disruption of the joint family system, the progressive realisation of the usefulness of female education, and above all, the hard necessities of the economic struggle for existence have now induced the advanced sections of Hindu society to throw overboard the Smṛiti injunctions, and to openly adopt post-puberty marriages. If, on account of economic factors, youths find it necessary to postpone marriage to the age of 24 or 25, they have naturally to choose their partners in life who are at least 16 or 17 at the time of the marriage. The Sarda Act, which has laid down 18 and 14 as the minimum legal age of marriage for boys and girls respectively, follows the actual practice of the advanced middle classes of society. Of course early marriages still prevail in lower sections of the community, and working on the data of the census of 1921, the Age of Consent Committee of 1929 computed that about 39% of girls were married before the age of 10. But the factors favouring late marriages will soon begin to operate even in the case of lower classes and in less than a generation post-puberty marriages will become the order of the day.