Note 102 — D. (continued 2)

Writing of Bengal Mr. O’Donnel says: “In the upper castes, in which a girl is properly looked after and secluded from dangerous acquaintances within the female apartments, it is safe to leave her unmarried till, with Asiatic precociousness, she is an adult; but in the lower orders, particularly amongst the labouring classes for Bihâr, whose women go about openly and work in the fields, it is imperatively necessary to anticipate the period of budding womanhood. The practice of infant marriage among Dusâdhs, Musahars, and Chamârs is meaningless without this explanation. The sexes are in very even proportions. There is no lack of material for husbands and wives. At the same time people that allow their girls a great deal of liberty in the way of freedom from the personal restraint of the zenâna, but who may lose caste, which even to a Dom means a very great deal, by any vagaries in their connubial arrangements, must apply another safeguard against family disgrace. It is necessary to marry their daughters as children, and not to wait to a period when great risk would be inevitable.” Census Report, 208. ↑