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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
women to resist their husbands ? Moreover, Gandhi's approach to thc problem of sex-intercourse has no regar<l for personal inclination. He looks at it from what he coulders in be a religious and moral point of view, ihe morality buing 17 peculiarly dog.natic brand uf liis own). Therefore, he advises women to do something which is totally incompatible with their place in society, allotted to them by religion and tradition.
Let alone the position of women in Hinda society ; evca in modern countries, where women have much more rights than in India, resistance is a legitimate ground for divorce. It is regarded as a violation of the marriage contract. Of course, one hears much about the spirituality of the Hindu institution of marriage : it is not a mere contract, but a religious sacramcnt. Granted it is so, it only imposes a greater obligation on the women. It is not a contract made vol:ntarily by the parties concerned. It is a sacrifice of the woman; the proprietory right over her is transferred to the husband, and the transaction is sanctified by religion. The essence of the Hindu marri. age ceremony is that the parents of the girl make of her a gift to the groom, who may have to be coaxed to accept the gift with additional inducements of more concrete value. Evidently not much importance is attached to the intrinsic value of the girl. However, the condition, on which the bridegroom accepts the gift, is that the girl will
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