AFTER MOTHER INDIA

that their strength is kept up by adoption from
other Hindu communities because when the old
devadasis become sterile, which they very often are
by the nature of their profession, they buy girls
from other caste-Hindus and so, every Hindu com-
munity at one time or other shares in the degrada-
tion and misery of such a life.1

Or again :

I may point out for the benefit of the non-Hindu
Members of this Council that these women do not
belong to the brothel class and that they are only
the victims of tradition, custom or mistaken re-
ligious fervour. . . .2

Regarding the kind of religion that, as Father India
pleads, the temples instil into these children, this lady
doctor says :*

First of all, these innocent children are made
victims and are prepared for an immoral life by
a course of training from their early days. Sec-
ondly, the temple and the illiterate Hindu public
are responsible for developing a kind of mentality
in those children which makes them, when they
grow to be women, view a criminal, unholy and
anti-social act ... as a hereditary right and a
caste dharma*

1 Dr. (Mrs.) S. Muthulakshmi Reddi in the Legislative Council of
Madras, official report, November 4th, 1927, p. 416*
zlbid., November 5th, 1927, p. 514.

3 Dr. (Mrs.) S. Muthulakshmi Reddi in the Legislative Council of
Madras, November 5th, 1927, p. 514.

4 Dharma means custom or duty.

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