The Dancing Girls of India by Rev. J. P. Jones

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 5, 1910

The Dancing Girls of India

By Rev. J. P. Jones

ONE of the most significant and dramatic acts of legislation enacted in India for many a year is that of the native state of Mysore in abolishing the dancing-girl curse from the Hindu temples of its territory. The dancing girl is a product of the grossest and the most debasing custom of Hinduism. It may have originated, like the old Roman vestal-virgin system, from noble religious ideas, but it has become one of the most hideous blemishes upon that faith of many evils. It is a dedication by mothers of their infant daughters to “temple service.” They are “married to the gods.” The mother and temple authorities know that the child, thus dedicated, is forever and inevitably doomed to a life of shame. Many thousands of girls now living have thus been dedicated, in the name of that religion to this life of infamy and degradation.

The best men of India have, during recent times, been vainly struggling against this system, and trying to overthrow it. It was too deeply entrenched for their efforts to be of any practical utility.

But now, with one stroke of the pen, that most progressive native state in India, Mysore, has prohibited this whole custom within its own territory. It has made illegal and criminal the whole dancing-girl system. Hereafter, within the Hindu temples of that state, no mother shall be permitted thus to dedicate her daughter; nor shall a temple recognize such an offering. Doubtless the Indian government, which has thus far feared to interfere with this religious custom, because of its pledge to religious neutrality, will note this action of a Hindu state, take courage, and abolish this accursed evil within all its territory. It is an encouraging fact that some of the most advanced native states of India are moving on lines of progress with more fearlessness and determination than the British government itself.—Rev. J. P. Jones, D. D., in The Congregationalist.