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our Government ha 9 acted with vigour fn cases nearly parallel . We quote the following proofs from the " Friend of India , '' March 1821 : " In the province of Guzerat , the deluded parents had been for a long series of years in the habit of destroying their female infants as soon as they were born . Whether the custom was sanctioned by the Shatters or not , is
irrelevant ; it is enough that it was deeply rooted in the practice and prejudices of the natives . These unnatural murders at length attracted the attention of Government , and they were abolished by an order of the supreme power . Did Government immediately lose the confidence and attachment of the natives ? Not one sympton of disaffection has been manifested by the natives on this account . —From time immemorial it was the custom of mothers to
sacrifice their children to the Ganges at the annual festival held at GungaSaugur . The British Government regarded the practice with those feelings of horror which such unnatural murders are calculated to inspire ; as persuasion would have been unavailing with those who had parted with every parental feeling , the practice was prohibited by a public regulation , and the prohibition enforced by public authority . This order was promulgated in the presence
of thousands assembled at a public festival , in the highest excitement of superstitious frenzy . What was the consequence ? Not one instance of resistance was attempted by that immense crowd—the mischief vanished from the earth , and no one bewailed it ! The mothers who had brought their children to this funeral sacrifice , were constrained to carry them back unhurt ; and many , perhaps ^ to whom the heinousness of the crime had never appeared , were , by this interposition , awakened to a sense of its enormity . "
" The Hindoo laws absolutely prohibit the execution of a Brahrnun ; they forbid the Magistrate even to imagine evil against him . Thus fenced by the laws , and extolled by their sacred books , they are still more powerfully guarded by the respect and veneration of the people . When our Government commenced in the East , we were reduced to the most serious dilemma . To have inflicted punishment on Brahmuns would have been to violate the most awful sanctions of Hindoo law and the dearest prejudices of the people ; t © liave exempted them from punishment would have been to deliver over the country
to desolation , ravage , and murder . The reign of equity which we were about to introduce , was stopped at the threshold ; the destiny of millions hung in cuspeuse . How did we act on this occasion ? Did we Jay the laws of justice at the feet of the sacred tribe ? Did we abrogate our code of jurisprudence , and adopt the Vedas for our ^ uide ? Did we deprive the country of our protection because the Hindoo Shasters forbid the punishment of the aggressors , if they happen to be Brahmuns ? We did not hesitate a single moment , but boldly stepped forward in vindication of the rights of society ; and in spite of
a formidable phalanx of Hindoo juris-consults , and of the strongest prejudices , caused these delinquents to pay the forfeit of their lives to the laws of offended justice . Have the natives complained of this outrage on the sanctity of their priesthood , or considered it as an infringement of our toleration ? Have they in any one instance petitioned us to disregard their welfare , and exempt their spiritual guides from death ? Or have they not , on the contrary , tacitly sanctioned every act of punishment , and applauded the inflexible tenor of our proceedings ? Let any man read the account of Nundkomar ' s execution in Calcutta , forty years ago , and he will be convinced that Hindoos are not men
to complain of the execution of justice , even though it happen to infringe their laws and prejudices . Mr . Hastings judged there could be no danger in his execution , and his judgment provea correct . If ever it might have been expected that public feeling would have manifested itself against us , it was most assuredly in thia instance , when , for the first time , we were carrying the law into execution * against one of this sacred tribe $ where the actors in this unprecedented exhibition of justice were but a handful compared with the immense crowd ( full 200 , 000 of his own countrymen !) which surrounded
Untitled Article
836 India ' s Cries to Brithh Humanity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1829, page 836, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2579/page/20/
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