§ MR. E. H. LAMB (Rochester)To ask the Under-Secretary for India whether his attention has been called to an Answer given to a Question put in this House by the present Lord President of the Council, to the effect that in the case of Dasappa v. Chikkamma, dated 21st December, 1894, the chief Court of Mysore decided that a convert to Christianity, in consequence of his change of faith was ipso facto deprived of his right of guardianship over his children, and it was stated that an apostate from the Hindu religion loses his civil rights; whether his attention has been called to a judgment, dated 2nd September, 1907, delivered in the same State, of which the result has been that converts to the Christian religion suffer greater disability, by Hindu law, than one 1060 convicted and imprisoned for murder, inasmuch as converts are deprived of the ability to sue for their civil rights; whether he can supply a copy of the judgment referred to; whether he is aware that the Mysore Durbar appointed an influential committee, on which all castes were represented, to draft a regulation for the removal of these disabilities, but that such regulation, although prepared and published, was not adopted; and whether, in view of this draft regulation not having been brought into force, he can see his way to approach the Government of India with a view to suggesting to the Mysore Durbar the advisability of introducing the measure in question or some similar measure in order to remove the disabilities under which native converts to Christianity now suffer.
(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) The Secretary of State is aware of the Answer given in this House on 12th March, 1903, as to the disabilities attaching to converts from Hinduism in the Mysore State. His attention has been drawn to the judgment of the chief Court of Mysore, to which the hon. Members refers, but he does not possess a copy of the judgment and cannot speak as to its exact purport. He has been informed unofficially that no steps have yet been taken by the Mysore Durbar to give effect to a regulation on the subject drawn up by a committee appointed by them. The Government of India are being asked to report upon the present position of the question.