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YRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
wonnen is no more unnatural than are the forms of socicty not based on private property. The sex-impulse is the only natural thing in this relaion. The condition, under which that impulse is satisticd is a matter of social convention, and as such must change from time to time in course of social progress. No onc form of sex-rclation is more or less natural than another; and none is unnatural, because always it is the fulfilment of a natural urge. The freer the relation, the fuller the life, and thereforc the more natural it is.
Divorce is condemneil on the ground that it is not compatible with the ideal of Indian womanhood. It was on this ground that Dr. Bhagwan Das denounced the Western practice of divorce. ilie ideal thus is sub-ordination of women to men, --an absence, in the case of the former, of the freedom of scy-relation which is accorded to the letter. That certainly is not a very poble ideal. Enlightened women, at any rate, can no longer be deluded by it ; nor can it be justified, much less glorifici, by frec-thinking men with a sense of justice and morality.
While our nationalist leaders wax eloqucnt about traditional ideals, the resctionary nature of which is palpable to anyone able to distinguish sacts from fiction, there are others who have the courage and progressive spirit to take a realistic view of the position of women in Hindu society, 142
