some at least the injustice has been acknowledged since many years. At
Calcutta, between 1840 and 1850, Babu Mati Lal Seal promised Rs10,000 to
any Hindu, poor or rich, who would marry a widow of his own faith, but
no one came forward.[29] The late Pandit Iswar Chander Vidyasagar of
Calcutta has also already been mentioned as a champion of the widow's
rights. But though legalised in 1856, the cases of re-marriage among the
higher castes of Hindus in any year can still be counted on the fingers
of one hand. The _Report of the Census of India_, 1901, takes a gloomy
view regarding the province of Bengal, the most forward in many
respects, but the most backward in respect of child-marriage and
prohibition of the marriage of widows. The latter custom, we are told,
"shows signs of extending itself far beyond its present limits, and
finally of suppressing widow marriage throughout the entire Hindu
community of Bengal."[30] The actual number of widows in all India in
1901 was 25,891,936, or about 2 out of every 11 of the female
population, more than twice the proportion [1 in 13] in Great Britain.
As in the matters of the repudiation of caste and the raising of the
marriage age, the three new religious bodies, namely, the Indian
Christians, the Brahmas, and the [=A]ryas, stand side by side for the
right of the widow.




CHAPTER VI

THE TERMS WE EMPLOY

"Precise ideas and precisely defined words are the wealth and
the currency of the mind."