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THE IDEAL OF INDIAN WOMANHOOD
the whole sermon is superfluous. Who preaches uncontrolled sex life? Life itself generally provides the necessary control. Only pampered parasites can dissipate, and for them, the moralist has no rebuke, as very pertinently pointed out by the correspondent quoted above.
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The prophet should study the subject before laying down absolute dictums. Homo-sexuality is rampant among Indian young men. It is an abnormality. But what is the cause? There are social as well as psychological reasons. Sex-segregation of the adolescent, and economic difficulties on the way to the satisfaction of a natural desire, in the normal and candid manner, drive young men to the homosexual habit. Remove those obstacles, and the practice would very largely disappear. No amount of moralising would have the same effect.
As regards the sexual relation between men and women, what, after all, is the basis of sexmorality, except mutual consent and love? The moralists do not realise the perversity of the role religion plays in this relation. The institution of religious marriage sanctions the commission of rape en masse. Neither consent nor love, on the part of the woman is a condition for the sexual satisfaction of the man, and this brutality is sanctioned not only by law, but by religion. Is that very moral ? A fundamental human emotion is subjected to vulgar utilitarianism, when it is held that sex
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