here is no greater curse than
poverty--I say this with due respect to our spiritualism. It is not in a
spirit of reproach that restraint in married life is urged in these
pages. It is solely from a vivid realization of the hardships caused by
large families and a profound sympathy with the difficulties under which
large numbers of respectable persons struggle through life in this
country that I have made bold to speak in plain terms what comes to
every young man, but which he does not care to give utterance to in a
manner that would prevent the recurrence of the evil."[265]

After this appeal to reason in his readers, Mr. Wattal develops his
thesis. The first prime cause of over-population in India, he asserts,
is early marriage. Contrary to Western lands, where population is kept
down by prudential marriages and by birth-control, "for the Hindus
marriage is a sacrament which must be performed, regardless of the
fitness of the parties to bear the responsibilities of a mated
existence. A Hindu male must marry and beget children--sons, if you
please--to perform his funeral rites lest his spirit wander uneasily in
the waste places of the earth. The very name of son, 'putra,' means one
who saves his father's soul from the hell called Puta. A Hindu maiden
unmarried at puberty is a source of social obloquy to her family and of
damnation to her ancestors. Among the Mohammedans, who are not
handicapped by such penalties, the married state is equally common,
partly owing to Hindu example and partly to the general conditions of
primitive society, where a wife is almost a necessity both as a domestic
drudge and as a helpmate in field work."[266] The worst of the matter is
that, despite the efforts of social reformers child-marriage seems to be
increasing. The census of 1911 showed that during the decade 1901-10 the
numbers of married females per 1000 of ages 0-5 years rose from 13 to
14; of ages 5-10 from 102 to 105; of 10-15 from 423 to 430, and of 15-20
from 770 to 800. In other words, in the year 1911, out of every 1000
Indian girls, over one-tenth were married before they were 10 years old,
nearly one-half before they were 15, and four-fifths before they were
20.[267]

The result of all this is a tremendous birth-rate, but this is "no
matter for congratulation. We have heard so often of our high death-rate
and the means for combating it, but can it be seriously believed that
with a birth-rate of 30 per 1000 it is possible to