Mrs. E. F. Chapman

“ In order to make the work better known, and to enlist public sympathy by letting people really understand the condition of Indian women, Ramabai wrote The High-Caste Hindu Woman, a book which could hardly fail to produce a deep impression, or to awaken a widespread interest in her work. Here for the first time was recorded, in earnest but temperate language, the complete story of a Hindu woman's life her position as defined by religion and by custom, her joys, her sorrows, and her needs. From her very birth a woman, we are told, is exposed to unkindness, to contempt, and to cruelty. ”

“ Missionaries, philanthropists, educational and social reformers, have all made the condition of Indian women their theme, and have painted in dark and forcible colours the picture of their degradation, their helplessness, their ignorance, the cruel treatment and dreadful sufferings to which millions of them are exposed, and the dull, empty, colourless lives of even the happiest among them. ”

“ Once more was Ramabai left unprotected to face the world, and this time in the condition of all others which is a sad one for a Hindu woman, that of a son-less widow. To add to her desolation and loneliness, she had committed the unpardonable crime of marrying out of her own caste, and thereby incurred the wrath and contempt of all her relations and friends. Her husband had been of an inferior caste to herself, but it was the fact they were not of the same caste which constituted their marriage a crime, and caused them to be shunned by all their belongings. ”

“ Speaking of the Bible, Keshub Chunder Sen said, "However proud we may be of our own religious books, however great the value which we may attach to those ancient books inculcating the principles of pure theism bequeathed by our fathers as a precious legacy, it is a fact which must be admitted by all candid men, that India cannot do without the Bible. India must read the Bible, for there are certain things in the Gospel of Christ which are of great importance to my country in the present transition stage through which it is passing." ”

“ According to Indian ideas a woman's hope of happiness, on earth or after death, depends upon her being the mother of a son, so that the birth of daughters can only be considered a trouble and a disgrace. But Mrs. Sorabji thought otherwise ; already she had grasped the idea that the salvation and regeneration of Indian society should be wrought by its women, and she gazed proudly on her little flock, and counted them all as sons. ”

“ By the end of the year 1887 Ramabai's plans and ideas had taken a definite shape. She had come to the conclusion that she could best help her country-women, not by taking up the higher education in high schools and colleges, but by founding native schools, where the poorest, the most helpless, and the most oppressed members of society, the young widows, could find a home and learn how to gain a respectable livelihood independent of their families. ”

“ The danger, no doubt, is increased for those who go to England or America, and the damp cold of these countries has cost us more than one life that seemed destined to play a noble part in the work of regenerating Indian society. Yet, perhaps, as we mourn these early deaths, these gifted women taken from us, as we think, all too soon, we may be at fault, and that for them as well as for their country the poets words, may be true—
The fairest gift that life can give
Is to die young. ”

“ The rajahs and rich men arrive in their carnages or on gorgeously caparisoned horses, surrounded with a brilliant following; the poorer pilgrims come in "ekkas," little two-wheeled carriages, and bullock carts, while others, who cannot afford a conveyance, tramp wearily along in the dust. Men, women, and children of all ages take part in these pilgrimages and meet with a common purpose, for all alike, rich and poor, young and old, healthy and diseased, come to bathe in the purifying waters, or to offer their prayers on a spot whence they believe they gain immediate access to the gods. ”

“ At the present time, however, it is the universal custom, at least among the upper classes, in nearly all parts of India, and is regarded as the absolute condition of respectability among married women of all ages.
Centuries of seclusion and of oppression have taken from them, for the most part, the very desire for liberty or of independence of any sort. They have been taught from their earliest days that a woman's hope of happiness in this world, or the next, lies in her implicit obedience to the will of her husband or other male relatives. ”

“ Before leaving India she had told her own people, "I will go to America as a Hindu, and come back and live among my people as a Hindu." And this brave resolve she carried out unflinchingly. She wore her native dress, refused to eat anything but the vegetable food allowed by her religion, and endeavoured in every way that was possible, during the whole period of her residence in the States, to conform to the customs of her people. ”

“ As they learn more and more, they get to see the folly, the absurdity, and the falseness of their old religion, and they become ashamed of the senseless, degrading teaching of the Brahmans. But as their education is purely secular there is nothing in it to lead them to adopt Christianity, and they drift either into a cloudy, undefined Theism, or into avowed and absolute unbelief. The former is, perhaps, the most common, and it seems to have been the state of mind of Ramabai and her husband. ”

“ To quote the words of the Pundita herself, "The census of 1870 revealed the curious fact that three hundred children were stolen in one year by wolves from the city of Umritzur, all the children being girls, and this under the very nose of the English Government."
"Childhood is the heyday of a Hindu woman's life," but as almost all girls are married before they are twelve, these happy days of freedom are few in number. With her marriage begins a life of hard- ships, and oppression at the hands of her mother-in-law and other female relations of her husband. ”

“ The life, the thoughts, and love experiences of a young French girl of good family, could only have been known to Toru Dutt by the mysterious intuition of imagination and sympathy, and though no one would pretend that the attempt to portray them has entirely succeeded, yet it is a proof of the real genius of the authoress that it should not have signally failed. The domestic conditions portrayed in the story are those of an English rather than of a French home, and there are not wanting, here and there, touches which betray the oriental cast of the writer's mind. ”

“ So the faithful, patient lover is at last rewarded, and there appears a prospect of happiness for him and his bride. But the terrible tragedy in which she has played a part has shattered her constitution, and just as she is beginning to rest happily in her husband's love, she droops and dies. ”

“ A widow cannot re-marry except at the risk of becoming an outcast; she may not leave the home of her husband's people, she may not eat with them, she must have her hair cut off and wear wretched clothes, and she may only be employed in the lowest and most menial tasks; and when it is remembered that there were in India in 1881 no less than 669,100 widows under the age of nineteen, all of them doomed by the cruel and senseless customs of their country to lifelong seclusion and misery, the extent of the evil becomes appalling. ”

“ The highlands which border on the western sea-coast of India, poured forth a formidable race, a race which was long the terror of every native power, and which, after many desperate and doubtful struggles, yielded only to the fortune and genius of England. ”

“ THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI.
In spite of all the attacks that have been made upon it from time to time, by Buddhism, by Mahometanism, and by Christianity, in spite of the undermining influences of education and of civilization, Hinduism still reigns supreme over the minds of millions of the people of India. ”

“ Missionary homes and schools already existed for those who would use them; but Ramabai's aim was to provide a refuge for those who would not, for such orthodox women as, unable to bear the cruel hardships of a widow's lot, would commit suicide by drowning themselves in the sacred rivers, rather than lose their caste by putting themselves under the care of people who would teach them a strange religion and try to convert them. ”

“ In the second place, an intelligent thinker will not accept or submit to any belief without taking time to think whether it is profitable, or whether it is true. Truth is the spirit of Froebel's teaching, and I think if the Kindergarten system were introduced into India, in secular and religious schools, it would give to the people not only an advanced mode of thinking, but would also dispel the illusion of many superstitious beliefs, the wrong ideas that now keep women and children in subjection. ”

“ The Maharani speaks and writes English perfectly, and shows a good deal of the facility for acquiring foreign ways so characteristic of the people of Bengal. She has not, indeed, shown any very striking talent nor remarkable intellectual ability, like some other Indian ladies, but if she is not destined to help her countrywomen in that particular way, her life may be as useful to them in others. Her quickness, her gracious manner, her ready tact, and her readiness to please and to be pleased, have gained her many warm friends among the English residents in India ”

“ I understand you to say that it is your idea that, in teaching Christianity, the wisest way for the missionary to begin is not by showing them that Christ despised the ancestral faith of the Hindus, but by pointing out all the truth which the Hindu religion has in common with Christianity, and thus leading the mind of the Hindu from his own belief, which has in it much of good, as far as morality is concerned, and many spiritual truths as well, up to the highest revelation, which is that of Christ? ”

“ Even when the men of the family, having imbibed something of European ideas on the subject, are willing to allow a measure of freedom to the women, these latter themselves will not unfrequently refuse the proffered boon, the older ones among them over-riding the inclinations of the younger, and denouncing in unmeasured terms the proposed innovation.
We all know, even in England, how great is the force of old-fashioned prejudice and of received notions of propriety, and how difficult it is for anyone, especially for women, to set themselves in opposition to them. ”

“ The appeal to English sympathy and interest has not been in vain, and thanks to the energy, the courage, and the perseverance of many noble-minded men and women, this sympathy and interest have found expression in many well-directed efforts to extend to the women of India the blessings of civilization and of education, and to secure for them at least a share of that liberty and honourable respect, which we are accustomed to consider as among the most valuable and incontestable "rights of women." ”

“ She was the only girl student at the college, and her position as such was not an easy one, among three hundred men students, who looked on her as an intruder, and who had never been trained as English men and boys are, to look upon a woman with respect and to treat her with consideration and courtesy. On the contrary, these young Indian students had been accustomed from their boyhood to hear the women of their family spoken of with contempt, and to see them treated as inferior beings; and it is not to be wondered at that they made Miss Sorabji's life as unpleasant as they could. ”

“ If the result of all the efforts hitherto made to further the cause of woman's welfare in India appears very small, and leads some people to question its value, let us not despair, but remember that patience is needed. If those who sow are not rewarded by seeing the fruit of their labours, they must comfort themselves with the reflection that fruit there will be sooner or later, and without doubt a plenteous harvest will be gathered in, in due time. ”

“ During the seventh century of our era the country was conquered by the Saracens, who, being Mahomedans, forced the adoption of their religion on all those they overcame, and spread it with fire and sword. Although the Persians had as a nation sunk into a condition of great effeminacy, and were unable to offer any serious resistance to their fierce invaders, a nobler spirit still breathed in some parts of the country, where the inhabitants, who were chiefly engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, inherited some of the indomitable courage and patience of their forefathers. ”

“ The religion of the Hindus can boast an antiquity little less, perhaps, than that of ancient Egypt, and it can lay claim to a conservatism unequalled in any other part of the world. The unchanging custom of centuries has crystallized into social forms, which may be destroyed, but can scarcely be modified, and so closely bound up are the religious and social systems, that an attempt to alter the one must inevitably involve an attack upon the other. ”

“ The Maharajah himself is an excellent specimen of an educated Hindu gentleman, and exemplifies the ease with which a Bengali assimilates English customs and ideas. On State occasions, when he wears his native dress, adorned with pearls and diamonds of priceless value, he looks the very picture of an Eastern potentate, but otherwise he dresses like any ordinary English gentleman, and there is nothing in his speech or manner to betray that he is not one by birth as by education. ”

“ The Kunwar Rani is a remarkably well read woman, and quite as able to hold her own in intellectual society as the majority of English women, while the respect and esteem in which she is held by all who know her, testify to her high moral qualities and her charm of mind and manner. ”