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THE IDEAL OF INDIAN WOMANHOOD
samo discipline as in the case of women; because their vow, formally as sacred as in the case of women, is nevertheless very clastic. The indissolubility of the marriage bond does not place them under any disadvantage. The bord is really indissoluble only when it precludes another marriage. It was so under mediaeval Christianity. Neither the man for the woman could contract a second marriage; and, divorce being disallowed, the bond was equally binding for both the partics. That practice should logically follow from the doctrine that marriage is a sacred tie. The Hindu practice is not only illogical; it is positively immoral.
Polygamy mocks at the supposeul sacredness of marriage. Thosc who take the doctrine of sacredness seriously must condemn polygamy as no less criminal than adultery. But, instead of doing what is demanded by an clementary sense of morality, Hinduism sanctions polygamy. The immoral practice of adultcry is religiously sanctioned. That is one of the achievements of the spiritualist culture of India. What should we think of religious social codes which sanction an obviously immoral practice ? Intelligent and frec-thinking people cannot but condemn them in the severest possible terms,
Drawing the logical conclusion from the doctrine that marriage is a sacred bond, Catholicism prohibits its dissolution. Hindus arc also vociferous in their condemnation of divorce which is regarded as
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