All is a matter of bargain and sale. Those who have money must pay,
in proportion to their means, to marry their daughters into families
a shade higher in caste or dignity, or to get daughters from them
when such families are reduced to the necessity of selling their
daughters to families of a lower grade.
Among Brahmins it is the same. Take, for example, the Kunojee
Brahmins, among whom there are several shades of caste. The member of
a family a shade higher will not give his son in marriage to a
daughter of a family a shade lower, without receiving a sum in
proportion to its means; nor will he give a daughter in marriage to
such a family till he is so exalted as to be able to disregard the
feelings of his clan, or reduced to such a degree of poverty as shall
seem to his clan sufficient to justify it. This bargain and sale of
sons and daughters prevails, more or less, throughout all Hindoo
society, and is not, even now, altogether unknown among Christian
nations. In Oude, this has led to the stealing of young girls from
our own districts. Some men and women from our districts make a trade
of it. They pretend to be of Rajpoot caste, and inveigle away girls
from their parents, to be united in marriage to Rajpoots in Oude.
They pretend to have brought them with the consent of their parents,
of the same or higher caste, in our territories, and make large sums
by the trade.
Pages:
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375