Chapter II: Introduction

“That is true knowledge which can make
Us mortals saintlike, holy, pure,
The strange thirst of the spirit slake
And strengthen suffering to endure.”
+TORU DUTT.+

To write a book on the education of Indian women is a prosaic action impelled by Western devotion to matter of fact; it would be more fitting to write of the veil of mystic romance which has hidden the sorrows and the joys of Indian women from the world; of the Rajput women who issued from the royal zenana to lead a forlorn cause against their country’s foes, or passed by hundreds to a fiery death rather than touch the conqueror’s hand; of those whose intrigue and strategy were redeemed from falseness by underlying devotion to others, of those who rose above the symbols of ritual and worship to the true perception of the Divine in life. But the modern world of the East has its own romance, that of the meeting of diverse civilizations, of the craving for truth and reality, of multitudes in the valley of decision. The old chivalry is there in a new form. It is not a little thing to open the door of self-realization, with its opportunity for an even greater selflessness, to the myriads of Indian women. The new thought and new ideals which are permeating the whole East have no more striking phase than their manifestation in the life of women. The tentative attitude towards growing freedom, the hesitation to enter in and possess, the recurring tragedy of those who are ahead of their times, and of others for whom the new wine is too strong, are only partial aspects of a problem which cuts deep into modern civilization. The women who live behind the veil in India, or who, though without, are utterly untouched by modern education and modern ideas, are still the vast majority, and there is in no sense a Feminist movement such as exists in Japan and to a certain extent in China; still, the new type is there, the pioneer in a transitional period and the fruit of modern education. A Mohammedan lady of good social standing in Bombay keeps a school for poor girls in her own house, and has completely given up _parda_; Brāhma-Samāj[1] ladies are doing excellent work on Government Education Committees; an orthodox Hindu lady goes on tour to advocate a special system of Hindu schools; an Ārya Samāj[2] widow staffs a school for high-caste girls in her own house with entirely voluntary teachers. An excellent Ladies’ Magazine is edited by an Indian woman graduate in Madras. A Parsi woman holds the position of Legal Adviser for _parda-nashin_[3] women to the Government of Bengal. Indian women are found doing excellent work as doctors, and a few as principals of girls’ schools. It would be easy to multiply examples not only of those who have taken up definite professional life, but also of others who share in the work and interests of their husbands as closely as any woman of the West, and who use their social influence on the side of progress; the Maharani of Baroda has written a book to interpret to her more secluded countrywomen the many phases of the Englishwoman’s life; the Begum of Bhopal, on her return from the Coronation, summoned the Ladies’ Club of her capital to exhort them once more on the never-failing theme of education as the root of all progress; the Rani of Gondal and many other Indian princesses take a personal interest in the welfare of their people. The same phase is also to be seen in other ranks; we find the orthodox Hindu wife of an Indian Deputy Commissioner accompanying him on tour through his district, rather than that he should live the greater part of his life apart from her.[4] Then there are the transitional types, women who venture thus far and tremble on the brink of many complicated problems; the wives of “England-returned” men, whose anglicized husbands have done their best to educate them, and by leading them painfully through the new ideas to bring them, to some extent at least, into the “reformed life.”[5] There is much that is pathetic here, and the tragedy of “The Broken Road,” has its counterpart to-day in the heart of many an Indian girl, who knows that the husband who is studying in Britain will, when he returns, have entered a new world in which she can never share. And so by many stages one passes back to the old, the real, India, where the woman graduates in suffering, and where the babies seem to grow, with no stage of girlhood, into little women on whom the burden of life falls heavily. Yet who can say whether the influence of these “secluded ones” is not even yet the most potent factor in modern India?

The “advanced ones” have their corporate life, and one of the most interesting features in India to-day is the number of women’s societies which are springing up, partly in conjunction with European ladies and partly by entirely spontaneous effort. The traveller accustomed to read of secluded Indian ladies would be surprised to visit the Princess Mary Victoria Gymkhana in Bombay and meet Parsi, Mohammedan and Hindu women playing croquet and Badminton, or having tea with their friends, and even entertaining men of their acquaintance twice a year. It is true that Parsi influence marks off the social life of Bombay from that of more conservative India, but the Bombay women do not always remain in Bombay. Some of the societies are linked with the various religious movements, others are purely social and educational. One society, the _Bharat Stri Mahamandal_, in the United Provinces and in Bengal, has been founded by Hindu and Moslem women, but is intended to include all sympathizers. Its aim is “to form a common centre for all women thinkers and co-workers of every race, creed, class, and party in India to associate themselves together for the progress of humanity.”[6] Another, the _Gujerati Stri Mandal_, in Bombay, is a purely Hindu society, which aims at bringing many of the Gujerati women, who keep _parda_, into contact with other women, and has a definite if somewhat ambitious educational programme. _The Seva Sadan_, or Sisters Ministrant, a society established in Bombay in 1909, with four branches, is under a united committee of Hindu, Mohammedan, and Parsi representatives, and aims at philanthropic and educational work. “In the name of Him, Who has given us so many benedictions, we call upon every woman to become a Benediction, and we call upon all who realize that India’s two great sins are her sin against women and her sin against the depressed, to help us in creating Sisters Ministrant.”[7] The vow which these Sisters Ministrant are called upon to take, is to “look upon life as a sacred trust for loving, self-sacrificing service, and to do such service. So help me God.” It is true that when the high idealism of this prospectus and report are compared with actual fact, there is evident a certain lack of reality, characteristic of many Indian schemes. Still, good work, not unlike that of a London Settlement, is being actually done by two splendid women at the society’s Settlement in Bombay, and idealism never fails of its ultimate fruit.

No account of the corporate life of Indian women would be complete without mention of the National Indian Association, which, though organized from London, has many Indian ladies as secretaries or committee members of its Ladies’ Branches in India. Amongst its many activities one of the most effective has been the holding of _parda_ lectures and other gatherings for the encouragement of education, and scholarships are also awarded through it to suitable candidates. Apart from all organization, the _parda_ party, pure and simple, whether given by the wives of Government officials, or by private individuals, has its own part to play. The honour of holding the first of these, as a species of feminine _durbar_, belongs probably to Lady Amherst.[8] At the request of the famous Baiza Pai, wife of the Maharaj of Scindhia, she received a deputation of Maratha ladies at Agra in 1827, and the account translated from a Persian letter by one of the guests reveals the quaint misconception of all things Western under which the deputation laboured. The number of Lord Amherst’s supposed wives, the English “nautch girls,” who played the table with the ivory teeth, the strange attitude of the English ladies, reveal a world far apart, and though the modern _parda_ party may not be needed to-day to dispel such extreme delusions, it is still a meeting ground for worlds far apart, and the source of many new ideas to both English and Indian ladies. These gatherings and societies have an extraordinary influence especially on those who have fought shy of the proffered friendship of the missionaries, or of Government educational effort, and they certainly count for much in the breaking down of artificial barriers to progress.

The “secluded ones” of the real India have no corporate life and belong to no society save that of the family. The unit of Indian civilization is the family, and where that word includes the joint-family to remote degrees, one may perhaps faintly understand what the corporate influence of the women of the household means, and measure it against the impotence of a mere society.

Such in all its variety is the diverse life of the women of India to-day, the meeting-place of two civilizations, and fraught with untold consequences and influences for the future. Hitherto the weight of woman’s opinion has been conservative and religious. “A combination of enforced ignorance and overdone religion have not only made women in India willing victims of customs unjust and hurtful in the highest degree, but it has also made them the most formidable because the most effective opponents of all change or innovation.”[9] But signs have not been wanting to show that this same influence has been inflammatory of revolution and sedition, and instances are given, by a recent writer, of ladies’ meetings in which sympathy was extended even to anarchists who had been guilty of murder, and in which ladies gathered together in zenanas were urged to do all they could to advance a mischievous propaganda.[10] True, this kind of influence is not widespread, but it is a natural result when impressionable characters are brought into contact with ideas which they have not the knowledge nor opportunity of weighing aright. There is the farther risk of recoil from enforced restraint towards the liberty which is not a law unto itself. The slavish imitation of the West which has marred much of the modern movement in the past and from which the Swadeshi of to-day is a reaction, is even more repellent in the life of women than of men, and the Indian world would lose much of its fascination and charm if instead of a rehabilitation of the ancient ideals of womanhood the modern type were to develop merely as a denationalized caricature. The classic Indian ideal of womanhood, with its wonderful vicarious suffering, its selflessness and devotion, is enough to make the world weep, yet it may be that it has proved throughout the centuries one of the subtlest temptations to the strong. “It is a terrible thing,” writes Sister Nivedita, who made the Hindu woman’s life her own; “it dwarfs the wife. I often think that it would be good for the husbands themselves if their wives were less soft and good.” But the glory and the grace of it may live, and its gentle womanliness transfigure modern life. The Indian woman need lose none of those qualities which made her loved in Vedic times, but may prove to the world that she is conscious of her own heritage and capable of choosing only what is good from the life of the West.

History is made quietly, and the modern movement for the education of the women of India and its guidance along right lines is a matter of Imperial importance. On education of some sort they will insist. The latest Quinquennial Report (1907) shows an increase in the period of over 45 per cent. of the total number of girls at school, and since then some districts show even more.[11] The emphasis at present laid on girls’ schools is in part the result of the general educational ferment in India. One hundred years have elapsed since Lord Minto wrote his famous letter to the Directors of the East India Company, animadverting on the decay of Hindu and Mohammedan science and learning; this letter was followed two years later by the decision to spend a lac of rupees annually for educational purposes, a paltry sum in comparison with the Government’s educational outlay to-day, yet representing the inauguration of a new policy. The great principles of the systematic introduction of Western learning, with the English language as a medium of instruction in the higher stages; of the possession of English education as the criterion for Government service; of the direct responsibility of the State for secular instruction only, together with the encouragement of voluntary effort on other lines by a policy of grants-in-aid, have borne fruit far beyond the imagination of those who laid them down in the early half of last century. A vast system has grown up: five Universities with magnificent Government and missionary colleges, a network of Primary and Secondary schools both in British territory and the Native States, an Educational Department in every province under a Director of Public Instruction, centralized till recently under a Director-General, an expenditure in 1907 of public funds amounting to 559 lacs, and, along with all this, to-day, a grave criticism, representing various shades of political and religious opinion, of the work done, with a questioning of its beneficial influence and of the fundamental principles involved. Good results there certainly have been, but there is a tendency to-day to emphasize the weak points in the system rather than to lay stress on the actual good done, as always happens in a world bent on reform. The main points of the indictment brought against the system by current journalism are briefly these: an educated minority has been created, while only 28.7 per cent. of the present generation of boys are at school; the ranks of the lower Government services are overcrowded, and disappointed candidates turn only too readily to sedition; the Code tends to an abnormal development of the repetitive faculty; intellect is emphasized at the expense of character; the whole tendency is to take away from the Indian child his own historical heritage of thought and feeling. The Government is now devoting careful attention to the whole problem in its relation to the general political situation. In January 1911, a new Central Department of Education was formed, with a representative on the Governor-General’s Council. Under its auspices a special Conference of the higher educational officials and others was recently held at Allahabad to discuss outlines of future policy, with special emphasis on the burning topics of Primary education and moral teaching. Lord Hardinge personally visited incognito some of the students’ “Messes”[12] in Calcutta to see the facts with his own eyes. The boon granted at the Durbar includes an additional expenditure of fifty lacs of rupees for educational purposes.

Apart from Government there is an expression in Indian circles of the sense of crisis, and of the need for the extension of popular education. Though doubtless engineered by a minority, still it is not without value. The Indian National Congress and the All-Indian Moslem League have passed resolutions in favour of compulsory Primary education which show some sense of what education really means. “Its universal diffusion is a matter of primary importance, for literacy is better than illiteracy; education is something more than the mere capacity to read and write. It means a keener enjoyment of life and a more refined standard of living. It means the greater moral and economic efficiency of the individual.” In March 1911, Mr Gokhale introduced his Bill for Compulsory Primary Education to the Governor-General’s Council, and thereby awakened discussion throughout the country. Idealistic it certainly is, when the dearth of trained teachers is considered and the conservatism of the real India taken into account, but it marks the trend of a certain section of Indian opinion. There is, moreover, a movement on the part of others for the establishment of Mohammedan and Hindu Universities, as a reaction from the secularism of the Government institutions.

It is not the purpose of this book to analyse such criticism but merely to show its relation to the problem of women’s education. To some thinkers the most fundamental flaw in the whole system has seemed the development of one-half of the community far beyond that of the other. In spite of recent progress the literate percentage is 10.50 for men, and only 10.4 for women;[13] the removal of this discrepancy might mean the raising of the whole of social life and go far towards the solution of other problems. Hence in every district there are ardent advocates of female education. “A realization of the necessity for an educated and emancipated womanhood is now no longer confined to those sections of the community which are directly influenced by Christianity, but is laying hold of Eastern nations as a whole.”[14] Hardly a Congress or debating society exists which does not pass resolutions thereon, hardly an Indian journal which does not emphasize the importance of the feminine factor. “Upon the condition of women depends the happiness and prosperity of the homes. Upon their fitness will hinge the evolution of our character. The schools and universities may make us highly intellectual, but as for character we must look to the home and the home alone. Let us frankly say to the Indian girl: ‘Here, child of God, take this key to the portals of knowledge: it belongs to you by right of birth. Enter then fearlessly and behold the beauty and the joys it reveals.’”[15] There is nothing more striking than the emphasis which is laid in these articles on the sanction found in the Vedic classics for the education of women and on the modern movement as a renaissance, and not an overthrow of ancient Aryan ideas. The Mohammedan case is a more difficult one to prove, but there are writers, such as Ameer Ali, strongly influenced by the Christian ideas of the West, who attempt it in spite of the Koran.[16] There is the even bolder spirit of those who hold that “though all the sacred _mantras_[17] were against it,” the education of her women is the only solution of India’s problem. The slow infiltration of the Christian ideal of woman has had its effect and the influence of missionary educational work has gained an increased momentum by the change in the Indian attitude. True, the conservative influence is still there with much of the old strength, as will be indicated in succeeding chapters, not only amongst the orthodox but amongst the more advanced. An Indian Reform Journal can still publish an advertisement of an undergraduate who desires a wife of eleven years, educated in Hindi and domestic matters. Such are the strange anomalies and contradictions of a country which defies generalizations. There is, however, abundant evidence to show that we have arrived at a highly critical period, in which the whole may be sacrificed to a part, in which, through lack of considering the question in all its bearings, the mistakes from which the education of men in India has not been wholly free may be repeated and intensified in the case of the women, and in which the opportunity of developing a national system in line with modern educational science may be lost.

The present volume is an attempt to sift this evidence in the different localities visited, and to give, in so far as is possible to a writer who has no expert knowledge of Indian problems, an accurate description of the conditions of girls’ education, and of the three contributing factors, the Government, the missionary, and spontaneous Indian effort. Where other localities have been treated the intention has been to show that the same factors and, to a certain extent, the same problems prevail. The survey is in no sense exhaustive; the State of Bhopal, which doubtless presents many interesting features, is not included. The great districts of South India and the Madras Presidency, where women’s education is well developed, have unfortunately had to be omitted, and any generalization made must be taken with this reserve. The geographical division has been adopted, not because the same problems do not to a certain extent repeat themselves but because of the varying environment in which they are cast through diverse religious and social influences. A brief historical survey is included to indicate the general situation as well as certain outstanding features which are present throughout the whole country. No constructive theory is offered, but the need of such in relation to the moving life of the East and the impact of Christianity upon it is made apparent.

The moral and religious problem lies at the basis of all education and is at the present moment that most acutely felt in India. A system perfected in every technical detail and embracing the whole country would prove a disintegrating and disastrous force if it lacked the religious basis for the training of character. Yet its provision through the highest revelation of religion is fraught with immense difficulty in a country of diverse and conflicting faiths. A secular policy for the education of boys has already produced its fruits, and may serve as a warning in the new feminine problem. In a final chapter this question is touched upon in its relation to the ultimate Christianization of Indian thought and life.