History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.510.2

v4.c63.t2.510.2

but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they abstain from all *interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects* on pain of our highest displeasure.' Notwithstanding the noble sentiments expressed here, the Indian Legislature both before and after the proclamation passed numerous laws that more or less impinged upon or affected the religious theories, sentiments and practices of millions of Hindus! The following is a list of some of the important laws of this character which will convince any one of the fact that people have always submitted to laws passed by the Governor-General or the Legislature that prevented them from carrying out their cherished ideas and practices: Regulation XVII of 1829 which declared the practice of *Satī* illegal and a crime punishable by the courts; the Caste Disabilities Removal Act (XXI of 1850); Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act (XV of 1856, which legalises the marriages of Hindu widows notwithstanding any custom or interpretation of the Hindu Law to the contrary); the Indian Penal Code (XLV of 1860, which makes sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife that is under thirteen years of age punishable as rape); the Child Marriage Restraint Act (XIX of 1929), which makes the marriage of a male below 18 and of a female below 14 punishable as a crime;