(Letter to the Editor: An Excerpt)
Sir: On behalf of the members of the 46 Branches of the Women’s Indian Association, all of which have signed requisitions in favour of women suffrage, I protest vigorously against the decision of the Southborough Committee that the franchise shall not be extended to women because, forsooth, “the social conditions of India make it premature”. Is this handful of men better able to judge of these conditions than were the thousands of Indian delegates to the Bombay and Delhi Congresses? These latter were the fathers, husbands, brothers and sons of the women concerned and knowing at first hand their social conditions, with full understanding of what the necessary steps to women’s voting would be, they voted enthusiastically for the removal of the sex disqualification in all the terms of the Reform Scheme; as also did the men in many Provincial and District Conferences such as Madras and Bombay. Are the considered opinions of these representative bodies of Indian men and women to be flouted by these few Committee members, some of the Englishmen already known to be opposed to the grant of the vote even to their own Englishwomen and who are thus dated as behind the times?
— Margaret M. Cousins, Acting Secretary, Brookhampton, Ooty.
