The Position of Women :
A fair friend, who has hitherto successfully resisted the matrimonial temptation, writes :
There was a women’s conference yesterday at the Malabari Hill [in Bombay], at which many sound speeches were made and many resolutions passed. The question of the evening was the Sarada Bill. We are so glad you uphold the age of 18 for girls. Another important resolution dealt with the laws of inheritance. What a help it would be, if you wrote a strong article on this subject in ‘Navajivan’ and ‘Young India’ Why should women have either to beg or to fight in order to win back their birthright ? It is strange -- and also tragically comic --to hear man born of woman talk loftily of ‘the weaker sex’ and nobly promising to ‘give us our due’!What is this nonsense about ‘giving’ ? Where is the ‘nobility’ and ‘chivalry’ in restoring to people that which has been unlawfully wrested from them by those having brute power in their hands ? Wherein are women less important than men ? Why should their share of inheritance be less than that of men ? Why should it not be equal ? We were discussing this very heatedly with some people a couple of days ago. A lady said, “We don’t need any change in the law. We are quite content. After all, it is but fair that the son, who carries on the name and family traditions, should have the greater share. He is the mainstay of the family. We said, ‘And what about the girl’ ? ‘Oh,’ intervened a strapping young man who was there, ‘the other fellow will look after her!’ There you are.The ‘other fellow’ ! Always the other fellow ! This other fellow is an absolute nuisance !Why should there be another fellow ? Why should it be taken for granted that there will be another fellow ? They talk as though a girl were a bale of goods to be tolerated in the parental house until ‘the other fellow’ comes round and then coolly handed over to him with a sigh of relief. Really wouldn’t you be wild, if you were a girl ?”
I do not need to be a girl to be wild over man’s atrocities towards woman. I count the law of inheritance among the least in the list. The Sarada Bill deals with an evil for greater than the one which the law of inheritance connotes. But I am uncompromising in the matter of woman’s rights. In my opinion she should labour under no legal disability not suffered by man. I should treat the daughters and sons on a footing of perfect equality. As women begin to realize their strength, as they must in proportion to the education they receive, they will naturally resent the glaring inequalities to which they are subjected.
But to remove legal inequalities will be a mere palliative. The root of the evil lies much deeper than most people realize. It lies in man’s greed of power and fame and deeper still in mutual lust. Man has always desired power. Ownership of property gives this power. Man hankers also after posthumous fame based on power. This cannot be had, if property is progressively cut up in pieces, as it must be if all the posterity become equal co-sharers. Hence the descent of property for the most part on the eldest male issue. Most women are married. And they are co-sharers, in spite of the law being against them, in their husbands’ power and privileges. They delight in being ladies and what not simply for the fact of being the wives of particular lords. Though, therefore, they may vote for radical reform in academic discussions over inequalities, when it comes to acting up to their vote they will be found to be unwilling to part with privileges.
1. The phrase ‘give us our due’ indicates that the friend is
(A) A liberal male politician
(B) A progressive male activist
(C) A woman
(D) A conservative woman
2. The letter writer is very critical of men for
(A) Being patronising towards women
(B) Refusing to accept any reform
(C) Bringing harsher laws against women
(D) Being unresponsive to their demands
3. The letter writer argues that most
families
(A) Are ready to abdicate their
responsibilities towards daughters
(B) Consider daughters a curse
(C) Will only put up with daughters till they are married
(D) Recognise the worth o f the
daughters
4. The author supports the Sarada Bill because
(A) He is sympathetic towards women
(B) Women need men’s support
(C) Genuinely believes in equality
between men and women
(D) All the provisions of Sarada Bill are acceptable to him
5. In the last paragraph, do you think the author
(A) Contradicts all he has said so far
(B) Has reservations about women sharing property
(C) Opposes greed in everyone
(D) Mentions his reservations to reject the Sarada Bill
Answer Key
1) C
2) A
3) C
4) C
5) B
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