Chapter VIII: Bombay

“The true reformer has not to write on a clean slate. His work is more often to complete the half-written sentence.” --+RANADE.+

The problem of women’s education in the Bombay Presidency is to a certain extent that of the whole of India in miniature. Nothing is better calculated to impress the mind with the variety of races and social conditions, the conflicting ideals and different stages of progress throughout the whole Indian Empire, than a study of these in a smaller area at close quarters. Under the rule of the Governor are some 20,000,000 souls,[111] 75% Hindus, 20% Moslem, 1% Jains, rather over 1% Christians, and some 81,000 Parsis, whose social influence is out of all proportion to their numerical importance; a territory of 123,000 square miles, embracing the sun-beaten deserts of Sind, the fertile plains of Gujerat, the Deccan districts ever subject to the spectre of famine, the Carnatic regions with their glorious forests, and the low-lying tract below the Ghāts with its well-watered, broad reaches of alluvial soil--climates offering almost every variety of Indian possibilities except perhaps that of extreme cold. About a third of this territory belongs to Native States with a varying relation to the Presidency Government, and politically linked, though not strictly speaking attached, is the important State of Baroda with its 2,000,000 inhabitants. Linguistically considered, the province has four main languages, Marathi, Gujerati, Kanarese, and Hindi, with numerous linked dialects, and English will by no means take you everywhere, as some Anglophiles fondly imagine. Like all the rest of India it is a land of villages, only 19% of the people living in towns of more than 5000 inhabitants; a land of child-marriage, only 50% of the girl children under ten being unmarried, and a land therefore of young widows. These three facts involve a great difficulty in the distribution of schools, a brief curriculum, and a dearth of teachers. From a historical point of view the province presents stratum upon stratum; early records point to an Aryan settlement on the Indus amongst a people of Dravidian stock; Persian, Bactrian, and White Hun invasions have left their mark, but always the prevailing element is the Hindu--absorbing and Hinduizing the successive streams. The peaceful dominance of Asoka[112] is felt, and the Buddhist establishments whose records are left in the rock caves and temples must have been numerous and far-reaching. There are tales of chiefs who honoured alike Siva, Buddha, and Jaina. In the seventh century +A.D.+ trade brought the Parsis, a people of a book and a faith which still preserves them as a unity. In the eighth century came the first wave of the Moslem tide which was destined in later centuries to overrun the Deccan. In the fifteenth century came the Portuguese in search of “spices and Christians”; there are caves to-day where the ruins of Catholic altars lie side by side with Buddhist semi-reliefs, mingled with the ever-present Hindu forms and figures. The romance of the province, however, lies in the history of the Mahrattas, whose forts dominate the frowning eminences of the Ghāts, memorials of the gradual consolidation of the scattered Hindu chieftains, of prolonged struggle with Delhi, of internal strife, of defeat, of victory, until finally a new power from the West came to impose the dominance of the Pax Britannica upon the conflicting forces. The Presidency assumed something like its present form between 1803 and 1827, and the history of Western education may be said to begin with Mountstuart Elphinstone (1819-1827), in whose Governorship the first schools were opened.

The same factors which we found to be present elsewhere, working in favour of female education or against it, are felt in the Bombay Presidency. In some places, especially in the country districts, there is strong opposition to the establishment of any kind of schools at all, and most of all to girls’ schools. To the zemindar or villager the establishment of a school merely means that educational and revenue officers will come round worrying him to support it. The children are wanted for work in the fields, and where the margin of subsistence is so small it is no wonder that every mite of labour is needed. In sixty villages out of every hundred there is no school at all. The women are conservative; they have not been educated themselves: why should their daughters be educated? Above all it is not _dustūr_ (custom), and with that the would-be recruiting agency strikes against a solid argument which it will take decades to remove. But to set against this, there is the fact that, speaking broadly, it is not a _parda_ country. Except for the Moslems, who are in considerable minority, and a small proportion of the Hindus influenced by tradition and contact with Mohammedanism, especially in the district of Sind, the women of both high and low caste have a certain degree of freedom, and their general position is greatly influenced by the presence of the Parsi ladies, who mingle in society very much as do their sisters of the West. To see an Indian lady walking on the streets of Bombay is no strange sight, as it still is in Calcutta, in spite of the half-shy efforts of Christian and Brāhma-Samāj women. The indigenous Indian feeling in favour of education is stronger than in the district round Calcutta, and there is more of the orthodox element in it. Poona, the centre of the Deccan Brahmans and of cultured Hinduism, stands for a certain well-defined attitude towards education in which women share. The Prabhu Brahmans especially are noted for the many cultured women in their ranks; they do not marry young, and as a rule afford almost equal opportunity to boys and girls. The Prārthanā Samāj,[113] an unorthodox meeting-ground for the “multitudes in the valley of decision,” throws its emphasis on women’s education, and the general impression given is that, while all educated India has talked about this crucial problem, here much honest effort has been made to solve it. It is a very pure form of patriotism which leads a Hindu student to give up two hours daily of his college time to voluntary teaching in a girls’ High school, yet this is by no means rare in Bombay. The Parsi element and influence has also been a very potent one. The leading Parsi men in the early days spared neither money nor personal trouble, with the result that to-day out of 1465 girls receiving higher education, 1054 are drawn from the Parsi community, and their contribution to the supply of teachers is a very important one.

But this leads us to a detailed study of the early history of the movement, and its present conditions in relation to the different communities. Owing to the influences described, it is not surprising that, at the last Quinquennial Survey, Bombay stood second only to Burma in its percentage of girls at school, and a glance at the gradually increasing number shows the steady upward progress.

1881--1.2 per cent. of girls of school age at school.
1896--3.75 ” ” ” ”
1901--4.74 ” ” ” ”
1907--5.9 ” ” ” ”
1910--7.2 ” ” ” ”

In earlier days it is impossible to get separate figures. Where girls shared in education it was incidentally in the boys’ schools, or separately in mission schools, and they owed nothing to any special effort on their behalf; even to-day 21% of the girls at school are studying in boys’ schools. The initial impulse came from Mrs Margaret Wilson and other workers of the Scottish Mission, who from 1824 onwards gradually gathered together a few girls for instruction. The first step taken by Indians was due to the Students’ Literary and Scientific Society connected with the Elphinstone College in Bombay, when five leading Indian members volunteered in 1849 to open schools for girls in their own houses. One of these was Mr Dadabhai Nauraji, India’s “Grand Old Man,” who may be regarded as the pioneer of women’s education in the Presidency, if not in all India, and who still, in his eighty-sixth year, advocates their cause by his pen. A description of the celebrations in honour of his birthday organized recently by the “Gujerati Stri Mandal,” a women’s society founded in 1909 to further the educational and social progress of women, may give some idea of the distance which has been traversed since these early days. Some thousand women in their graceful Indian dresses, diaphanous draperies and brilliant jewels, gathered together in a hall which they themselves had garlanded and cross-garlanded with sweet-scented wreaths in his honour, while on the platform the Rani of Gondal presided, surrounded by all the leading Indian women in Bombay who were interested, either as organizers or teachers, in women’s education. A short, terse speech was made by Miss Cursetji, whose main interest and energy for the last twenty-five years have been devoted to the Alexandra Girls’ High School, founded by her father in 1863; another by the Hindu Head-mistress of the High School under the auspices of the Scientific and Literary Society; another by a young Parsi B.A., Head-mistress of the first Hindu Girls’ High School; another, in the general interests of education, by a Saraswat Brahman lady, whose husband is Prime Minister in an adjacent Native State--and the one European member of the audience realized that India has initiative and purpose of her own, and women of whom she may well be proud. The progress in the different communities and the share which is borne by the Government and private efforts respectively can best be seen by the accompanying tables. Private effort divides itself naturally, as elsewhere, into the work of Christian missions and of the Indian community, but a further sub-division is necessary in the latter in consequence of the special position of the Parsis.

1909-1910
+TABLE OF SCHOOLS FOR INDIAN GIRLS IN BOMBAY PRESIDENCY+

+----------------+------------------------------+-------------------+
| | +UNDER | +UNDER |
| | PUBLIC | PRIVATE |
| | MANAGEMENT.+ | MANAGEMENT.+ |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+
| Type of | |District or|Native| | |
| School |Government.| Municipal |State.| Aided. | Unaided.|
| | | Board. | | | |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+
|High Schools | 2 | .. | .. | 9 | 2 |
| | | | | | |
|Middle[114]-- | | | | | |
| English | .. | 1 | 2 | 30 | 4 |
| Vernacular | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
| | | | | | |
|Primary[115] | 6 | 573 | 249 | 257 | 19 |
| | | | | | |
|Training Schools| 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+
| | 12 | 575 | 252 | 301 | 27 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+

This Table has been formed by the subtraction of the Anglo-Indian schools from Statistical Table III., _Public Instruction Report, Bombay Presidency_, 1910.

+TABLE SHOWING RACE OR CREED+[116]

+---------+-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
| Type |Eura- |Native |Brah- |Non- |Moslems.|Parsis.|Others.|
| of |sians. |Christ- |mans. |Brahmin | | | |
|School | |ians. | |Hindus. | | | |
+------- +-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
|Primary | 4 | 2,905 |15,329| 42,185 | 10,077 | 3,934 | 492 |
| | | | | | | | |
|Middle | 636 | 1,656 | 74| 447 | 15 | 252 | 31 |
| | | | | | | | |
|High | 1,492 | 151 | 107| 77 | 42 | 1,095 | 86 |
| | | | | | | | |
|Training | | | | | | | |
| Colleges| 16 | 83 | 97| 115 | 21 | 2 | 11 |
+---------+-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
| | 2,148 | 4,795 |15,607| 42,824 | 10,155 | 5,283 | 620 |
+---------+-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+

Of the Hindu effort first:--the Scientific and Literary Society, after its initial private efforts, proceeded with a definite educational policy in the founding of schools, and, though at present only one school in Bombay is directly under its auspices, its influence in combating prejudice is considerable. This school is exceedingly popular, as the girls are passed quickly into the higher stages, thus earning a certain matrimonial prestige, though it is unfortunately true that a girl from the Matriculation class on transference to a mission school had to be placed three classes lower to find her proper level. In consequence of the amateur staff of voluntary teachers who supply the upper forms, this school does not rank as one of the eleven High schools. This feature is interesting, as it shows the earnestness of purpose in the members of the Society, but from an educational point of view the system does not seem very effective. As a whole the school presents no specially Indian features, except that French is excluded and Sanskrit is compulsory as a Matriculation subject. Religion is taught by a special teacher, and there are daily prayers. One Hindu school in Poona ranks as a genuine High school, and one other in Bombay hopes shortly to be classed as such. This Chanda Ramji School owes its foundation to a legacy left for the building of a huge gilded idol. The idol was indeed built, but the times have advanced, and only some 10% of the funds were thus utilized. The school is excellently staffed with fourteen mistresses, four of whom are graduates, and with additional pandits for Sanskrit and mathematics for some two hundred girls; there is a splendid hall for drill and games, a well-stocked science museum, and practically every modern apparatus. Religion is taught from a book of Hindu Moral Maxims by a special teacher. The Gujerati Stri Mandal, mentioned above, has its own functions in endeavouring to secure the attendance at its afternoon classes of young married girls and others from the _parda_-keeping sections. Educationally, their influence is probably important rather in the direction of making the next generation accessible to proper education than in much actual attainment on the part of the present pupils. They also organize regular lectures on such subjects as “The Aim of Life,” “The Advantages of a Spiritual Temperament,” and “The Duties of Motherhood,” from which may be seen the close connexion in the mind of the Indian woman between religion and education. The Prārthanā Samāj, though they have a weekly women’s meeting for the discussion of ethical subjects, and a “Sunday School,” do not organize any separate secular education, and their girls are to be found wherever the best education seems obtainable. In Hyderabad there are five large girls’ Primary schools, managed by the Hindu Reform Association, which the Government Report notes as doing useful work. It will thus be seen that the actual Hindu contribution to organized education is not an extensive one, nor has it, as in Bengal, any special characteristic; but it should be borne in mind that the Hindus take good advantage of the mission and Government schools, and are even found in some of the Parsi High schools. Though their percentage of girls in the High school stage is small in comparison with their overwhelming majority in the community, it is probably true that every orthodox girl venturing to continue her school career beyond the Primary classes, does so in spite of the opposition, if not of her own immediate family, at least of her grandmother and cousins.

The Mohammedan factor is numerically a small one; the girls belonging to families of the better class are educated at home or in one of the mission “English-teaching”[117] schools, and it is interesting to note one Mohammedan lady of good social position guiding a school for poor Moslem girls in her own house. Two Mohammedan schools are also on the Government list of Primary schools, but the pupils are mostly in the lower Primary stage.

The Parsi contribution is, as has already been indicated, a very considerable one, and in its extent, thoroughness, and modern character, it is quite what one might have expected of the “French of the East.” A few notes on their general position are needed to show their attitude towards education. The Parsis are one of the most adaptable races of the world, and in Bombay, where 46,000 of them reside, they have been the leaders in women’s education. Lady Frere speaks of a time in her remembrance when not a single Parsi lady could speak English, whereas to-day it is almost as much a common tongue among the wealthy families as Gujerati, which they adopted on their original immigration to India. In 1842 Lady Arthur opened Government House for the first time to Indian ladies, and the Parsis were naturally the first to respond. To-day all the larger social functions in Bombay are attended by Indian ladies, the large majority of whom are Parsi.[118] They are to be seen daily at the Princess Mary Gymkhana, a ladies’ club, playing Badminton and croquet, and discussing matters of interest with their friends, some wearing the orthodox _sari_ and sacred shirt symbolic of their ancient faith, others in modern European dress. Socially they have been much affected by the hedonism of the West. Religiously their evolution has been rather negative than positive. Zoroastrianism as a cult had survived only in curious forms and ceremonies, and the sacred language of its books was unknown even to the priests; the educated Parsi inclined to agnosticism or theosophy while retaining his ceremonial adherence to a religion which was the binding tie of his community. Under the influence of the modern Renaissance and general revival of the ethnic faiths, the sacred books have been translated; brief extracts published in dainty vellum volumes, together with the Lord’s Prayer and Christian hymns (with significant omissions), are used as manuals of devotion. When the Parsi girls’ schools were first started no religious instruction was given, but now a special Zoroastrian committee exists for preparing literature and sending an instructor to each. Quick to perceive the general bearing of British rule and modern education on their position as a wealthy minority in an alien land, the Parsi leaders adopted, in 1857, a definite educational policy for their women. They separated from the Scientific and Literary Society and formed one of their own, the Parsi School Association, to which they gave most liberally both in money and personal service. Other leading Parsis founded special schools, and it is difficult when looking down the Government list to know which to select for description. Two perhaps may be taken as typical, one of the three Association schools and the Alexandra Native Girls’ High School. The former owes its special characteristics to the Honorary Secretary of the Association, Khan Bahadur Chichgar, who visited the best schools in Europe in order to study the Herbartian principles of education in actual practice. He was the first to introduce this method in the Bombay Presidency, and has done so without imitation of detail, and with the most wonderful adaptation to the environment of Parsi children. The school is kept continually supplied with the latest appliances and the newest books, and Mr Chichgar has for many years visited the school on Saturday afternoons to train the teachers in the use of them. The result is that, though the teachers may hold no Normal certificates, the school is alert and keen, from the youngest baby rejoicing in plaiting its neighbour’s hair, to the girls of the fifth form, whose curriculum is varied by ambulance work, cooking, and dress-cutting. On the occasion of the writer’s visit every child had some practical handwork of its own to exhibit; the action songs were definitely related to the subsequent lesson on weights and measures, while the mud modelling of the Bombay water-system done by one of the higher forms showed a thorough sense of neatness and proportion, with an intelligent knowledge of the principle involved. The shadow of an examination never falls upon this school; it aims at providing a thorough training for life for middle-class Parsi girls, and its success in doing so in entirely due to the unsparing devotion and labour given to it by its founder--a man engaged in ordinary business.

The Alexandra Native Girls’ High School dates from the early days of pioneer work and of unsympathetic criticism. Some 20 pupils were registered for its first opening in 1863, and to-day there are about 120, practically as many as the staff of the institution is meant to deal with. Its aim is to give Parsi girls of respectable families the “blessings of an English education upon sound moral principles,” and though the blessing may be a doubtful one, the school is certainly thoroughly English in every way. Since 1890, Matriculation candidates have been sent up with a good record of success. There is no higher teaching of the vernaculars, and French is taken as the alternative Matriculation subject. The Head-mistress is from England and is fully qualified, but the rest of the staff are Parsis, only one of whom had Normal qualifications. The school is managed by a committee of leading Parsis, and though it is under Government inspection it receives no grant, as the income from fees and the endowment is sufficient. This school may be taken as fairly typical of a first-class Parsi High school. Moreover, education has advanced so far in the community that private enterprise is no longer an impossibility, and can even as in the case of the Girton High school, be made financially successful without the Government grant. The dividing line between business and philanthropy may at times be difficult to draw, but the spirit is much to be commended which keeps a school of this type alive and efficient, when in some cases the net profit to the proprietress is barely a living wage. Taken as a whole, the Parsis have provided most thoroughly for the education of their girls, both rich and poor. Of the eleven High schools under private management in the Presidency, seven are Parsi; of the Middle schools four, and of the Primary schools, whether separate or forming departments of the High schools, fifteen. Of this provision ample advantage is taken, and the proportion of daily attendance to the numbers on the roll is amazing in comparison with Upper India.

Wherein, then, does the system fail, or is it perfect? Criticism seems ungracious where so much energy and thought have been expended, but in the main there are two things which strike a visitor--the lack in the teachers of a sense of the dignity and responsibility of their profession, with the consequent effect of such a lack on the outlook of their pupils, and the deorientalizing curriculum. These problems are, however, common to the whole educational situation, and one could hardly expect even the Parsi community to be quite immune.

It is difficult to turn from the indigenous Indian element, which has naturally something in it very spectacular and attractive to the Western visitor, to the quiet record of the immense and steady contribution of Christian missions to education in the Bombay Presidency, and to realize that the main inspiration of the former came from the gradual and unconscious infiltration of the Christian ideal of womanhood. For more than twenty years the missionaries were the sole pioneers in the face of much opposition. The pupils were gained at first through the influence of Hindu and Parsi gentlemen interested in the Scottish mission. Progress was naturally slow, there was a lack of continuity in the British workers, and continuity is essential in a country where personality counts for so much; but by 1827 three hundred girls, some of good caste, were attending school in the Konkan district, where the Scottish pioneers first started. After the transference of the mission Mrs Wilson had managed, by 1830, to organize six little schools in Bombay with 120 pupils, the story of the winning of each individual girl being almost a romance in itself. For some time the children were given weekly _paisa_[119] as a reward, and would demand their wage like weary labourers, a practice still extant in some of the Native States, and a great contrast to the sum of 407 rupees now received as fees in one of the mission institutions which traces its origin to these very schools. The Parsis in one street asked the mission to instruct all the children therein, including sixteen girls. The Beni Israel also proved an accessible community, and thus gradually the number of girls increased. The second stage of missionary education was reached when boarding-schools were created for Indian Christian girls who could be retained for a reasonable time, and some of whom could be utilized as teachers. About 1885 the first systematic attempt at Normal training is noticed, a line of work which is perhaps at present the most important missionary contribution to the whole scheme, and capable of further development. Mission schools, as might be expected, form an overwhelming majority in the list of aided schools. Of the 11 High schools they have 2, of the 34 Middle schools 14, and of the 276 Primary schools, practically all except those indicated above and a few others. Certain societies educate, as yet, mainly the children of their own communities; others, such as the American Board for Foreign Missions, the United Free Church of Scotland, and the Irish Presbyterian Mission, have a considerable number of schools, both in the cities and in the villages, for non-Christian children. The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission makes work of this kind a special feature.[120] The small proportion of High schools is partly accounted for by the fact that the Victoria High School at Poona, founded by Mrs Sorabji, and still carried on most effectively by her daughter as a Christian school, is classed as a boys’ school. It is attended by the children of many of the leading Parsi families, and is a curious example of successful co-education up to an advanced stage. Also both in Bombay and Poona there is a considerable number of good European schools in connection with Roman Catholic and Episcopal sister-hoods, to which 15% of Indian girls may be admitted on payment of double fees. These places are always eagerly sought. The Girgaum High School, under the auspices of the Z.B.M.M., may be taken as typical of a first-class “English-teaching” mission High school. About 150 girls can be seen gathered together at morning prayer, two-thirds of whom are non-Christian (Parsis, Moslems, Beni Israel, and a few Hindus); some have come in their motor-cars, others from quite poor homes. The curriculum extends from three Kindergarten classes to the seventh English standard, in which the girls go up for Matriculation. English is used as a medium throughout, which makes the school popular with Indians who desire purely English education, but it is naturally very difficult for the pupils in the early stages, in spite of the Government regulation that the teacher must be able to translate into Marathi. There are four English mistresses and several well-qualified Anglo-Indians. A new department has recently been added for the training of English Kindergarten students for the Froebel examination, but this is not yet sufficiently staffed to ensure good success. Two-thirds of the income are derived from fees and one-third from the Government grant.

The Ambroli School of the United Free Church Mission is Hindu throughout, and at present takes its pupils only as far as the fifth Anglo-Vernacular standard. All the instruction in the lower forms is in Marathi, and it is a stiff battle that Marathi babies have to fight with their letters. There are three scripts to learn--one printed, one cursive, and one abbreviated--and it is no wonder that, with this task to master, Indian parents tend to look on Kindergarten expedients for “time wasting” as a diversion from the royal road to knowledge. The teachers here, with the exception of one Anglo-Indian for English in the upper forms, are all Indian, and some are non-Christians, but the school is continually visited by a fully trained Scottish lady, who divides her time between this and another school. Fees are paid regularly, and there is a good municipal grant. An interesting feature of the American Mission is the stress laid at their orphanage and boarding-school upon independence in character. Each pupil must do two hours’ industrial work, and may in addition work longer for payment, which is credited to her account for payment of fees. Thus some of the pupils in the Matriculation class were beyond the usual age, but had contributed considerably to their own maintenance. The industrial training of this mission is very highly developed, both in Bombay and at Ahmednagar. The Primary schools in the villages have the usual characteristics which we have studied elsewhere, and it has only to be noted that this work is capable of practically unlimited extension.

No account of women’s education in the Presidency would be complete without reference to the work of Pandita Ramabai,[121] which stands outside all mission control, and is the unique contribution of an Indian woman to the future victory of the Christian ideal among her own people. Since the _Sharada Sadan_ (the abode of wisdom) near Poona was started in 1892, thousands of Indian widows have been given the opportunity of a self-supporting, self-respecting life, and a vision of what self-sacrifice may mean. The education given on strictly intellectual lines is naturally not carried to a High stage, but is thorough in type. The Pandita dreads the Westernization of her girls, and stands for all that is good in simple Indian life.

Though mission education bulks so largely in the statistics of voluntary schools, and has been the pioneer, it must be realized that it does _not_ hold the same position in this as in other provinces, nor influence the districts as a whole. A brief glance at the figures of Primary schools (Table, page 168) supported by other public bodies, both in British territory and in the Native States, will prove the contrary to those who imagine the mission factor still to be the dominant one.

The Government function is here, as in the other provinces, largely a co-ordinating and directing one as regards the girls’ schools. The six important Government institutions--two High schools with Primary schools attached, at Poona and at Ahmedabad, and four Training schools--are a direct outcome of the effort to standardize and raise the general tone of education in the Presidency. They are linked by the system of “stipends” to all the Primary schools. The institution at Poona under an Indian lady, Miss Bhore, is excellently housed, and had at the time of my visit 200 girls in the High school, 200 in the vernacular practising school, and about 88 Normal students. The Inspectress regrets that there is not a Government High school in Bombay to raise the general standard. Apart from these institutions directly under the Central authority, a great deal has been done with public funds under the Municipalities and Local Boards. It has been impossible to ascertain exactly when these schools under public authority were first started, but the system must have grown up somewhere in the “eighties.” At first the girls of the lower castes went, as they still go in many villages, to the boys’ schools; in other places separate schools gradually sprang up wherever there were enlightened Indian members of the Municipalities to welcome the official suggestion. In 1901, the number of girls’ Primary schools in Bombay necessitated the appointment of an Indian Inspectress to work under the Municipality, and shortly afterwards an English Inspectress was appointed from home to the Indian Educational Service, in order to develop women’s education in certain portions of the Presidency. Her time was largely occupied in the inspection and examination of Training colleges and High schools (European and Anglo-Vernacular) and in dealing with questions of general educational policy as “expert adviser” to the Department. Since Miss Ashworth’s retirement, no English Inspectress has been appointed in the Indian Educational Service to this Presidency. The value of the municipal and local board schools, if viewed from the numerical standpoint of increasing the women literates in the district, is unquestioned, but when all allowance has been made for exceptions, the real gain to the community when the schools are not well staffed and lack constant supervision is very questionable. Miss Corkery, the present Inspectress, emphasizes the need for constant inspection. “I believe that if the Municipalities employed a trained supervisor to visit each school daily the work would be carried on more methodically. From my twenty-five years’ experience of the Hindu female teacher I have come to the conclusion that she has no power of initiative and no administrative capacity. She will work hard and faithfully under supervision, but as soon as that is withdrawn her natural apathy asserts itself.”[122] When in addition to her own “natural apathy” the teacher has possibly had no Normal training herself, and suffers from untrained assistants, the spirit of the school is apt to flag. Adequate inspection of these schools would undoubtedly necessitate the appointment of women Deputy-Inspectors. The question of premises is also a very vital one. The Indian child is accustomed to be one of a crowd, to eat and sleep, to live and die as one of a crowd; but, in school, if it is to attain to individuality, it must learn the value of space. Yet in one of the best Bombay municipal schools which takes its brighter pupils up to the Anglo-Vernacular sixth Standard, I found some 300 girls crowded into the space really needed for about half that number. Several crowded pens were to be seen round a bit of flat roof, too wet in the rains and too sunny at other times for drill, one of the pens so crammed with infants that it was almost impossible to step from one division to another, infants in different classes within touch of one another, and the whole pervaded with a pungent odour from the fruit market below--surely this is not for the good of the city or of the children. “In Ahmedabad the girls are compelled to sit amid insanitary and evil-smelling surroundings, to study the advantages of pure air.”[123] It would not be difficult to multiply instances. On the other hand some municipal schools are well housed and staffed, and the system must not be condemned when it is capable of improvement. The problem is partly a financial one, and partly once more the question of the supply of teachers and of the future Inspectresses. These children pay a few _paisa_, in fair proportion to the income of their parents, whereas in many High schools receiving a Government grant the fees might with advantage be raised.[124]

When the situation in the Presidency is viewed as a whole the present need is seen to be not so much to secure more girls by artificial means or to induce more to stay to the higher stage, for there is a steady current in favour of education which is slowly acquiring momentum, but rather to raise the standard of teaching as a whole and so to adapt the curriculum that those children who do pass through the schools will, in intellectual attainment and character, commend the system and prove a force attractive to others.

The problem of the teacher is one that is apparent throughout, alike in Indian, mission, and public authority schools. Taking the Primary teacher first, from what ranks is she usually drawn, and what are the attractions to the profession? In consequence of the shortness of supply the schoolmistress is very often found to be, in fact, an elderly man. This, however, is becoming less frequent. A glance at the table on page 168 shows that the majority of students in training are lower-caste Hindus, and that native Christians form about a fourth of the whole. Of the 1200 women actually engaged now in the teaching profession, I have been unable to obtain a religious classification, but presumably the proportion holds good. In the Ahmedabad Training College 15 of the students are wives or daughters of masters, 19 are wives of students, 15 are wives of other men, 42 are unmarried, and 36 are widows. Taking this college as typical, and assuming the certainty of marriage on the part of the spinsters, it means that in many cases teachers will be available in couples for the village schools. Those whose husbands are not teachers are often difficult to locate, and in many cases may drop out of the work. It is questionable whether the employment of married women in the schools is advisable: on the one hand, it seems at present the only method to secure the necessary female teachers; on the other hand, the British Government is facing even at home the complications which the element of married women’s work introduces into the labour market. True, Indian life is different, for the babies come with their mothers to school, and a kind Government supplies the necessary cradles and ayah, but there are undoubted hardships. “The life of the village schoolmistress has not many compensations; in addition to the long hours at school she has arduous home duties to perform. In many cases she is the sole breadwinner for five or six, none of whom consider it incumbent on them to help her with the household work. Rising at five in the morning or earlier, she has to begin her daily time-table, which extends over seventeen hours. It is marvellous that she is able to work as cheerfully as she does.”[125] The permanent hope is in the widow, and it is encouraging to see a better proportion of them here. The spinster is at best available in mission schools for a short period till her marriage. Many trained Christian girls teach for several years, often living under the superintendence of the missionary, and make most efficient teachers. The supply of such, however, is in no way equal to the demand. It is difficult for one not fully acquainted with the Indian standard of life to judge of the financial aspect, but the impression gathered from the Government Reports is that increased salaries might attract a better class. There is a proverb that when begging fails it is well to learn to be a teacher. The salaries paid by mission agencies are, as a rule, slightly less than those paid by municipal authorities, just as the salaries of educational missionaries are less than the corresponding salaries at home. As regards training, a great effort is being made on all sides to secure that all the teachers either take a preliminary course or go up for the qualifying examination: at present the proportion is 44%. Any girl in a municipal school who shows any ability or desire can pass free of charge as a “stipendiary” to the Government Training Colleges with the stipulation that she shall teach thereafter with a salary for at least two years. Five mission schools have Normal divisions attached in which much the same conditions prevail. The city of Bombay has, however, no proper provision of opportunity. None of the Government Training Colleges are situated there, and, apart from Mr Chichgar’s work, which is limited to the Parsi School Association, there is only a Saturday morning training class under the auspices of a United Missionary Committee, which is not largely attended. Poona, on the other hand, has two if not three Training institutions, and the circumstances seem to point towards redistribution. A Hindu girl is much more likely to continue her education if it does not entail leaving her relatives. Miss Wilson, Head-mistress of the Girgaum High School, in a paper recently read at the Bombay Missionary Conference, emphasized the need of more funds to aid existing institutions, and of fixing a definite rate of salaries and a date after which none but trained teachers would be allowed in any school receiving a Government grant. The latter suggestion is possibly somewhat premature, as it might mean the closing of many schools or letting them lapse into the worse state of “unrecognized” institutions. The training of the Secondary teacher is a different problem. The impression current in Great Britain a decade ago that only people who knew nothing, or who could not teach, went to training colleges, seems still to prevail; moreover, there is no college where women teachers can receive a thorough Secondary training. The Inspectress’ reply to an official inquiry as to the possibility of raising the general standard indicates the need of a central Government Training College with a graded system in the aided schools, and special salary grants to all Secondary schools staffed by trained teachers.[126] There does not, however, seem any prospect of direct action, either on the part of Government or of missionary societies. There are few vacancies in the Government Normal College, and though one woman, a Goanese student, has recently been studying there, the course is not adapted to women students. A few of the teachers go up for the Secondary Examination without a qualifying course or after attendance at a series of lectures given at the convent in Bombay. There is also a great lack of enthusiasm for the profession as such; teaching is felt to be more or less a trade finishing at certain definite hours and limited in its influence to these. A most attractive set of lectures on various educational problems arranged by the Principal of the Government Normal College, had an average attendance of some seven out of possible hundreds. In the case of the women this is perhaps largely due to the enervating influence of the climate and the consequent lassitude after a long day’s work, but there is undoubtedly a lack of some unifying and inspiring influence which would have a strong reflex effect on the tone of the schools.

The variation of the curriculum has to a certain extent been solved in this Presidency as regards the Primary stage. Bombay was the first province to issue a different set of readers for girls, and those now in use, comprising the study of heroes and heroines from a moral point of view, simple natural phenomena, domestic economy, etc., seem admirably adapted to them. The Code prescribes the usual elements with a study of forms, colours, familiar objects, drill, games, native accounts, and geography beginning in the third form, and Indian history in the fourth. The difficulty begins after the fourth Vernacular stage, corresponding to the first Anglo-Vernacular. After that stage the shadow of the Matriculation begins to fall, and so heavily that in the departmental schedule of studies, the highest Standard (VII. A.-V.) is left blank. Formerly this august portal could be passed very quickly by a well-crammed child. I met one Parsi girl who entered the University at the age of thirteen. The age was raised by the Universities Commission to sixteen. A great controversy has recently raged round the place of the vernaculars in the University, and the question of the use of English as a medium of instruction in the school. In regard to the latter, the real educators argued the impossibility of the proper comprehension of a difficult subject through a foreign medium, and the tendency to parrot-like repetition of formula or fact, while the actively “Indian” party, failing to see the real point at issue, held that any other method would weaken the standard of English and handicap the Indian in public service. The Department have sanctioned the use of the vernacular till a later stage, but though some teachers spoke warmly in favour of this method, it has not yet gone beyond experiment. Certainly the teaching of history throughout the Matriculation forms seems exceedingly weak. The Code for the Anglo-Vernacular Standards in relation to the Matriculation, and the possible substitution for it of the School Final Examination, a more practical test, is, however, under Government consideration and the defects of the present Code need not be enlarged upon. The variation of the Code for girls is a further question, and the planning of a suitable curriculum is a matter which eminently lends itself to private enterprise. The deorientalizing influence with Parsi girls is not so dangerous as with other Indian girls, but there is surely something wrong when “once a certificate, no more books” is a not infrequent cry. Some schools already vary their curriculum for girls: one mission report speaks of an alternative course better calculated to fit the girls for home life, leaving advanced mathematics, etc., to such only as have the necessary mental ability and physical strength. This effort has met with the approval of the Inspectress and of the more thoughtful parents. Matriculation has, however, in certain circles a distinct matrimonial value, and it is pathetic to see older girls, struggling at a distance of two forms from the desired goal, who would bitterly resent a change to a curriculum more suited to their diverse but not inferior powers.

It is here that the opportunity lies for English educators who can help Indian women through an exceedingly difficult transitional period to realize the meaning of modern culture, which, while possessing universal elements, must be evolved by every nation on the lines of its own genius and characteristics. In Bombay and in Poona there are Indian women who think deeply on these things, and who await as yet some constructive policy in the success of which, though the energy and initiative must be of the West, their share would not be lacking. If this constructive policy is to start from the Christian standpoint, if the Spirit of Christ is to dominate the new culture, the women of Anglo-Saxon countries must let their religion dominate them as never before, and win them out to the larger service.