Excerpt from The Life and Life-Work of Behramji M. Mlabari: Being a Biographical Sketch, With Selections From His Writings and Speeches on Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood, and Also His "Rambles of a Pilgrim Reformer"

Men of originality are apt to be misunderstood. While some consider Malabari sufficiently enthusiastic to be a "Western Reformer," there are others who, utterly ignorant of the almost ascetic life he leads, have dubbed him "a Luther of rose and lavender." It occurred to me that a plain unvarnished narrative of his career was likely to do good, and I therefore induced Malabari to permit me to publish what I knew about it.

I also thought that a selection from his writings and speeches on the Hindu Social Reform question would be welcome to all interested in it. It seemed an anomaly that while the opinions elicited by his writings should be before the public in two bulky volumes, the writings themselves should lie scattered in the files of the Indian Spectator. It was no part of my plan to publish all his writings on the subject, and this volume contains only what appeared to me to be worth preserving.

The net proceeds of this book, should there be any, will be set apart as a nucleus of a fund to be handed over to any Social Reform Association or Mission which the educated Hindus might organize. It is sad to see that, in spite of so much talk about social reform from within, during the past three years and a half, nothing has yet been done to create a machinery for carrying out such reform. The creation of such machinery means self-sacrifice, and self-sacrifice ought certainly to be the distinguishing characteristic of all really educated men. I trust they may still fulfil the just expectations of all our well-wishers, and found a National Association, equipped with even larger funds than the Countess of Dufferin's Association, and sustained by a genuine unselfish missionary spirit, without which there is no hope for India.

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