WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
flagrant and callous manner than in the Western civilisations. Seduction is a very serious offence in India, and the betrayed girl is always acutely distressed. There is, however, proper provision for the few children born out of marriage.
In the light of the careful evidence of such an authority as Mrs. Steel, it is time for us to recognize that all the sexual virtues are not restricted to the West. It is to be regretted that missionary zeal has fostered the view in England that the women of India are merely the serfs of sensual, tyrannous men. As Mrs. Steel remarks, we have been told by the ordinary Anglo-Indian and the missionaries that India is "thoroughly degraded, hopelessly, helplessly depraved, and utterly enslaved." Yet, in spite of polygamy, the Hindu woman's position compares very favourably with that of her Western sisters.
Mrs. Steel would perhaps go further than this. The following extract is from a lecture delivered by her:—
"In an original address on 'The Women of India,' at the Manor House Club, Bredon's Norton, yesterday, Mrs. Steel championed the superior domestic position of the Indian woman as against the European woman.
"According to Mrs. Steel the Eastern wife has a very easy time of it. She does not have to rise to prepare her husband's breakfast or that of her children, for the simple reason that having supped plentifully they do not require any breakfast beyond a chunk of food, to which they help themselves. And so throughout the day the Indian woman's domestic duties83
