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THE IDEAL OF INDIAN WOMANHOOD
periods of a woman's life, in which she “ belongs” respectively to the father, husband and the son ; and the refrain of the famous code is that the woman can never be independent. The caves of Manu arc said to be the treasure-house of the highest and noblesi social idcals. The bulk of our modern women are still deluded by those spurious jewels. But there are some who are realising the reality of their position. The other day, one of them exploded the bubble of the fondly cherished delusions, and laid bare the lie about the cxalted position of the woman in Hindu society.
“In India, for centuries, the woman's drama of life has been enacted on a puppet stage crowded with futilc, frustrated and tragic characters, and it is a drama that appears to have evolved the highest rcligious sentiments. Her mute surrender to things as they had been ordained became synonimous with the highest manifestation of feminine virtue and the glory attached to it. The more she bore injustice and wrong without murmur, the more she subjugated her personal life to the dictates of primitive proprietory tribalism, the more woman-likc, the more virtuous, she became. For centuries, the woman was regarded as a living ware that should belong to some man ; so she was married off at the earliest possible opportunity. Once possessed, she went through life as man's
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