Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s6.23

c6.s6.23

Other peculiarities are connected with this. Divorce, for instance, illegal for the Hindu who is a faithful follower of the law, is practised, together with the second marriage of widows, in a number of inferior castes.³ On the other hand, the custom which demands child-marriages in the case of girls, often several years before married life has become possible, is regarded as a mark of social superiority. Here, again, the tradition of the caste exerts supreme pressure. A Hindu has ingeniously attempted to explain this custom as a means of ensuring the integrity of the caste. To wait for the age of awakened desire would be to run the risk that personal fancies might outweigh religious scruples.⁴