<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
<h3>The Secret Traffic</h3>
<div class="blockquot"><p>"Sir, to leave things out of a book because they will not be
believed, is meanness."—<span class="smcap">Dr. Johnson.</span></p>
</div>
<div class='cap'>WHEN first, upon March 7, 1901, we heard from the
lips of a little child the story of her life in a
Temple house, we were startled and distressed, and
penetrated with the conviction that such a story ought to
be impossible in a land ruled by a Christian Power. The
subject was new to us; we knew nothing of the magnitude
of what may be called "The Secret Traffic of India"—a traffic
in little children, mere infants oftentimes, for wrong purposes;
and we did not appreciate, as we do now, the delicacy and
difficulty of the position from a Government point of view,
or the quiet might of the forces upon the other side. And
though with added knowledge comes an added sense of
responsibility, and a fear of all careless appeal to those
whose burden is already so heavy, yet with every fresh discovery
the conviction deepens that something should be done—and
done, if possible, soon—to save at least this generation
of children, or some of them, from destruction.</div>
<p>"It is useless to move without a body of evidence at
your back," said a friend in the Civil Service to us at the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</SPAN></span>
close of a long conversation. "If you can get the children,
of course they themselves will furnish the best evidence;
but, anyhow, collect facts." And this was the beginning of
a Note-book, into which we entered whatever we could
learn about the Temple children, and in which we kept
letters relating to them.</p>
<p>By Temple children throughout this book we mean children
dedicated to gods, or in danger of being so dedicated. Dedication
to gods implies a form of marriage which makes
ordinary marriage impossible. The child is regarded as
belonging to the gods. In Southern India, where religious
feeling runs strong, and the great Temples are the centres
of Hindu influence, this that I have called "The Traffic"
is worked upon religious lines; and so in trying to save the
children we have to contend with the perverted religious
sense. Something of the same kind exists in other parts of
India, and the traffic under another name is common in
provinces where Temple service as we have it in the South
is unknown. Again, in areas where, owing to the action of
the native Government, Temple service, as such, is not recognised,
so that children in danger of wrong cannot, strictly
speaking, be called Temple children, there is yet need of
legislation which shall touch all houses where little children
are being brought up for the same purpose; so that the
subject is immense and involved, and the thought of it
suggests a net thrown over millions of square miles of
territory, so finely woven as to be almost invisible, but
so strong in its mesh that in no place yet has it ever given
way. And the net is alive: it can feel and it can hold.</p>
<p>But all through this book we have kept to the South—to
the area where the evil is distinctly and recognisably
religious. Others elsewhere have told their own story;
ours, though in touch with theirs (in that its whole motive
is to save the little children), is yet different in manner,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</SPAN></span>
in that it is avowedly Christian. India is a land where
generalisations are deceptive. So we have kept to the South.</p>
<p>We ourselves became only very gradually aware of what
was happening about us. As fact after fact came to light,
we were forced to certain conclusions which we could not
doubt were correct. But at first we were almost alone in
these conclusions, because it was impossible to take others
with us in our tedious underground hunt after facts. So
the question was often asked: "But do the children really
exist?"</p>
<div class="sidenote">"If"</div>
<p>I have said we were almost alone, not quite. Members
of the Indian Civil Service, who are much among the people,
knew something of the custom of child-dedication, but found
themselves unable to touch it. Hindu Reformers, of course,
knew; and two or three veteran missionaries had come into
contact with it and had grieved over their helplessness to
do anything. One of these had written a pamphlet on the
subject twenty years before our Nursery work began. He
sent it to me with a sorrowful word written across it,
"Result? Nil." But we do not often meet our civilian
friends, for they are busy, and so are we; and the few
missionaries whose inspiring sympathy helped us through
those earlier years were in places far from us, and so were
all the Reformers. So perhaps it was not wonderful that,
beset by doubting letters from home and a certain
amount of not unnatural incredulity in India, we sometimes
almost wondered if we ourselves were dreaming. "Well, if
they do exist, I hope you will be able to find them!"—varied
by, "Well, if you do find them, they will be a proof of their
own existence!"—were two of the most encouraging remarks
of those early days.</p>
<p>From the beginning of this work, as stated before, we
have tried to collect facts about the traffic and the customs
connected with it. Notes were kept of conversations with<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</SPAN></span>
Hindus and others, and these notes were compared with
what evidence we were able to gather from trustworthy
sources. These brief notes of various kinds we offer in
their simplicity. We have made no attempt to tabulate or
put into shape the information thus acquired, believing that
the notes of conversations taken down at the time, and the
quotations from letters copied as they stand, will do their
work more directly than anything more elaborate would.
Where there is a difference of detail it is because the
customs differ slightly in different places. No names are
given, for obvious reasons; but the letters were written by
men of standing, living in widely scattered districts in
the South. The evidence contained in them was carefully
sifted, and in many cases corroborated by personal investigation,
before being considered evidence: so that we believe
these chapters may be accepted as fact. Dated quotations
from the <i>Madras Mail</i> are sufficient to prove that we are
not writing ancient history:—</p>
<p><i>January 2, 1909.</i>—"The following resolution was put
from the chair and carried unanimously: 'The Conference
(consisting of Hindu Social Reformers) cordially supports
the movement started to better the condition of unprotected
children in general, and appreciates particularly the
agitation started to protect girls and young women from
being dedicated to Temples.'"</p>
<div class="sidenote">Mysore</div>
<p><i>May 8, 1909.</i>—"Once more we have an illustration from
Mysore of the fact that the Government of a Native State
are able to tread boldly on ground which the British
Government in India are unable to approach. At various
times, in these columns and elsewhere, has the cry raised
against the employment of servants of the gods in Hindu
Temples been uttered; but, as far as the Government are
concerned, it has fallen, if not on deaf ears, on ears stopped
to appeals of this kind, which demand action that can be<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</SPAN></span>
interpreted as a breach of that religious neutrality which is
one of the cardinal principles of British rule in India. The
agitation against it is not the agitation of the European
whose susceptibility is offended at a state of things that he
finds hard to reconcile with the reverence and purity of
Divine worship; but it is the outcry of the reverent Hindu
against one of the corrupt and degrading practices that, in
the course of centuries, have crept into his religion. In this
particular instance the Mysore Government cannot be accused
of acting hastily. As long ago as February, 1892, they issued
a circular order describing the legitimate services to be performed
in Temples by Temple women. In 1899, the Muzrai
Superintendent, Rai Bahadur A. Sreenivasa Charlu, directed
that the Temple women borne on the Nanjangud Temple
establishment should not be allowed to perform <i>tafe</i> (or
dancing) service in the Temple; but that the allowances
payable to them should be continued for their lifetime, and
that at their death the vacancies should not be filled up.
Against this order the Temple women concerned memorialised
H.H. the Maharajah as long ago as 1905, and the order
disposing of it has only just been issued. In the course of
the latter the Government say:—</p>
<p>"'From the Shastraic authorities quoted by the two
Agamiks employed in the Muzrai Secretariat, it is observed
that the services to be performed by Temple women form
part and parcel of the worship of the god in Hindu Temples,
and that singing and dancing in the presence of the deity
are also prescribed. It is, however, observed that in the
case of Temple women personal purity and rectitude of
conduct and a vow of celibacy were considered essential.
But the high ideals entertained in ancient days have now
degenerated. . . . The Government now observe that whatever
may have been the original object of the institution
of Temple women in Temples, the state in which these<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</SPAN></span>
Temple servants are now found fully justifies the action
taken by them in excluding the Temple women from every
kind of service in sacred institutions like Temples. Further,
the absence of the services of these women in certain
important Temples in the State has become established
for nearly fifteen years past, and the public have become
accustomed to the idea of doing without such services.'</p>
<p>"The exclusion of Temple women from Temple services
obtains in Mysore in the case of a few large Temples whose
<i>Tasdik Pattis</i> have been revised. But the time has come, the
Government think, for its general application, and they
therefore direct that the policy enunciated in the abstract
given above should be extended to all Muzrai Temples in the
State. It is to be hoped that the good example thus set
will bear fruit elsewhere, where the Temple women evil is
more notorious than it was in Temples of Mysore."</p>
<p>A copy of the Government document to which this cutting
relates lies before me. It is bravely and clearly worded, and
its intention is evident. The high-minded Hindu—and there
are such, let it not be forgotten—revolts from the degradation
and pollution of this travesty of religion, and will
abolish it where he can. <i>But let it be remembered that,
good as this law is, it does not and it cannot touch the
great Secret Traffic itself. That will go on behind the law,
and behind the next that is made, and the next, unless
measures are devised to ensure its being thoroughly enforced.</i></p>
<p>Cuttings from newspapers, quotations, evidence—it is not
interesting reading, and yet we look to our friends to
go through to the end with us. Let us pause for a moment
here and remember the purpose of it all; and may the
thought of some little, loved child make an atmosphere for
these chapters!</p>
<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</SPAN></span></p>
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