History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.636.3

v7.c93.636.3

The first principle of introducing reforms in the existing law is that only strictly necessary changes should be put forward. Reformers and legislators should take to heart the advice of Mr. Aldous Huxley (in 'Ends and Means,' p. 30) that change as such is more or less distressing to most human beings, that man's conservatism is a fact in any historical situation and that social reformers should abstain from making unnecessary changes or changes that are of startling magnitude. Legislators should not forget that when they introduce far-reaching changes to lessen hardships, real or supposed, deemed to be caused by existing social conditions, they very often create new problems for the immediate future. To take a simple example, under the old Hindu Law all girls were to be married before puberty, though Manu (IX. 90) provided that a girl should wait for three years thereafter during which, her parents or relatives might select a bridegroom for her, but that if they failed to do so she may herself choose her partner. This was not a bad provision. People however went in for child marriages for girls and the problem of spinsters never arose. Then over thirty years ago came the Child Marriage Restraint Act (XIX of 1929) whereby the legally allowed marriageable age for girls was fixed at 14. By subsequent amendments and by the Hindu Marriage Act (25 of 1955) the lowest marriageable age for girls is now fixed at 15.