Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1910 Book 06

SR No.: 536506
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference
Publication Year: 1910
Total Pages: 422
Language: Gujarati
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald, & India
File Size: 13 MB

Page 186

30)
જૈન ટ્રાન્ફરન્સ હેરડ
( જીન.
reatest offenders, and therefore one of the worst sufferers in this espect, for Nature is a stern impartial judge and makes no distinction f caste or creed. I have noticed a tendency towards the increase of hthisis and other wasting diseases among the members of our Commuity. I have had personal experience of several cases in our midst,-of oung men and women cut off in the prime of their life, and I have 10 hesitation in saying that they are all ultimately traceable to the inister influence of early marriage and premature sexual connexion. In fact, it has been eating into the very core of our existence as a trong, an efficient, a virile community. The pressure of economic considerations has, to a certain extent, forced the marriageable age of Hindu boys to go up. No such influence however is discernible in our Commuuity. It is therefore all the more incumbent on us to take up the question and try to minimize the evil by an organized effort.
The only forcible argument in favour of early marriage,-one that is likely to weigh with sensible people, is its tendency to prevent and correct the terrible vice of self-abuse so frequently met with among the youths of this country as indeed of all civilized Communities. It can not be denied that the secret vice, which cuts at the very root of life and progeny, is an evil of the first magnitude. To my mind, however, the particular remedy in the shape of early marriage is only a shade less harmful than the evil it is meant to cure or prevent. It is at best a questionable remedy to be resorted to, in exceptional circumstances only, when all other remedies have failed. As a matter of fact, the wide prevalence of this unnatural and pernicious habit which has been fitly called "the curse of civilization," must be laid to the charge of parents and guardians who fail to keep watch on their children, to shield them from the evil influence of low company and a low standard of literature, and to warn them, if necessary, of the dangers and pitfalls that beset a growing youth on his way to puberty. And the situation is not likely to be improved unless the parents themselves recognise their duty in the matter and get the better of their culpable indifference and false sense of delicacy. Taking into consideration all the factors bearing upon the ques*ion and the peculiar circumstances of our Society, I hold that The proper age for marriage ought to be fixed at from 18 to 20 for ales and 13 to 15 for females. It i It would not of course be an ideal