he financial results of his own labours and
accumulate wealth apart from the property of the family. The matter
was fully argued in the Legislature, and the injustice of the Joint
Family System was so clearly revealed in this matter, that the bill
was carried through. Thereupon, orthodox Hindus raised such a storm of
opposition to the bill and decried it so vehemently, as a subversion
of their faith and an overthrow of their most ancient and cherished
institution, that the governor never signed the bill; and it has
therefore never become law.

Nevertheless, the agitation against the system is increasing, and the
incongruity of the Joint Family System with modern social conditions
is becoming so marked that the day of its overthrow is approaching.

A well-known Hindu writer describes the injustice of this system as
follows: "As one of the usual consequences of a patriarchal system, a
respectable Hindu is often obliged to support a number of hangers-on,
more or less related to him by kinship. A brother, an uncle, a nephew,
a brother-in-law, etc., with their families, are not infrequently
placed in this dependent position, notwithstanding the trite apothegm,
which says, 'it is better to be dependent on another for _food_ than
to live in his _house_.'"

Moreover, this system fosters family dissension. It requires an ideal
family, under the strong guidance of an ideal head, to live in peace
and harmony under this system. The writer above quoted, himself a
Hindu who had long lived under the system, expressed himself strongly
upon the subject: "The millennium is not yet come. Seven brothers
living together with their wives and children, under one and the same
paternal roof, cannot reasonably be expected to abide in a state of
perfect harmony, so long as selfishness and incongruous tastes and
interests are continually working to sap the very foundation of
friendliness and good-fellowship. Union is strength, but harmonious
union, under the peculiar regime indicated above, is already a
remarkable exception in the present state of Hindu society. On careful
inquiry it will be found that women are at the bottom of that
mischievous discord which eats into the very vitals of domestic
felicity. Separation, therefore, is the only means that promises to
afford relief from this social incubus; and to separation many
families have now resorted, much after the fashion of the dominant
race, with a view to the uninterrupted enjoyment of do