After this there seems nothing more to be
said. You will perceive it is useless to try to turn me from it; but
if you have anything to say I am ready to argue with you. If any one
says that widow-marriage is contrary to religion, I will give him
Vidya Sagar's essay to read. When so learned a teacher affirms that
widow-marriage is approved by the Shastras, who can contradict? And
if you say that though allowed by the Shastras it is not countenanced
by society, that if I carry out this marriage I shall be excluded from
society, the answer is, 'Who in Govindpur can exclude me from society?
In a place where I constitute society, who is there to banish me?'
Nevertheless, for your sakes I will effect the marriage secretly; no
one shall know anything about it. You will not make the foregoing
objections; you will say a double marriage is contrary to morals.
Brother, how do you know that it is opposed to morality? You have
learned this from the English; it was not held so in India formerly.
Are the English infallible? They have taken this idea from the law of
Moses;[14] but we do not hold Moses' law to be the word of God,
therefore why should we say that for a man to marry two wives is
immoral? You will say if a man may marry two wives why should not a
woman have two husbands? The answer is, if a woman had two husbands
certain evils would follow which would not result from a man's having
two wives.
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