Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s1.55

c7.s1.55

Mention may be made in this connection of the relation of Pardah to rules of marriage in Hindu and Muslim society. While a woman is guarded only in a general way against social intercourse with those men with whom matrimony is forbidden, greater force is used where the degree of relationship between the man and the woman can warrant a possibility of future matrimony. The original spirit of the Hindu and Muslim laws offers a wide field of choice and implies a very great degree of liberty in the relations of the parties to a marriage. A Hindu usually marries outside his own sub-caste but within the larger caste. So that while there is no liberty in social intercourse with the girls of the same sub-caste, there is greater liberty outside this limit. Intermarriage with other major castes is forbidden so strongly that it reacts rather favourably than otherwise on the relations of persons of different castes and sexes.