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FRACMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
form of oppressioni-veritable slavery. If the husband is impotent, the wife has no way out. In conscqucnce of that misfortune, she is bound to have psychological complications. She is in the danger of those complications developing into the pathological staie of hystcria. Religious prejudice may taboo sex ; but the laws of nature are more powerful than the man-made laws of religion. A natural impulso cannot be killed by a fiat. Frustrated in the satisfaction of sex-impulse, normal human beings are bound to be ruined psychically, is not always physically. But let alonc thcsc considerations, which lead to the controversy over the question of sex-satisfaction, there is another consideration, having a direct bearing on the subject under discussion.
Nonc would dispute the legitimacy and naturalness of the woman's desire for motherhood. To deny her the right of release from an impotent husband is to condemn her to a life of frustration in every respect. Motherhood is said to be the crowning glory of woman. The Hindu institution of marriage deprives her even of the freedom to attain that glory, which is admittedly her sharc. It is the duty of woman to bear her husband children. If she fails, due to causes beyond her control, man has the freedom of action. But similar failure on the part of the husband does not absolve the woman from the sacred vow of marriage !
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