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The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
ONLY A GIRL 
 
The Wrongs of Indian 
 Womanhood 
 
 MRS. MARCUS B. FULLER 
 
 Bombay, India 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 RAMABAI 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company- 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature 
 
Copyright, 1900 
 by 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
TO 
 
 The Christian women of India, England and 
 America who owe all they have and all they are 
 to our Lord Jesus Christ in whom “ there is 
 neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor 
 free, there is neither male nor female^' but in 
 whom all are one, is this volume lovingly ded- 
 icated. 
 
CHAP, 
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction by Ramabai 1 1 
 
 Author’s Preface 15 
 
 I. How Long? 17 
 
 II. A Snap-shot at Modern India 23 
 
 III. Child-Marriage 33 
 
 IV. Enforced Widowhood 48 
 
 V. The Zenana 76 
 
 VI. Muralis 100 
 
 VII. Devadasis 1 12 
 
 VIII. Nautch-Girl 126 
 
 IX. An Anti-Nautch Movement 137 
 
 X. Infanticide 148 
 
 XI. A Chapter of Indian Testimony •••... 161 
 
 XII. The Position of Government 175 
 
 XIII. What Government Has Done 189 
 
 XIV. What the Reformers Have Done 21 1 
 
 XV. Since 1891 229 
 
 XVI. What the Missionaries Have Done .... 247 
 
 XVII. The Real Difficulty 270 
 
 XVIII. The Real Remedy 284 
 
 7 
 
List of Illustrations 
 
 Only a Girl 
 
 Hindu Home Life — Grinding , . 
 
 Hindu Home Life — Spinning . . 
 Hindu Gentleman and Girl Wife 
 When are You Going to Get Marri 
 Suttee Rite (Burning the Dead) 
 Portrait of Ramabai 
 Group of Child Widows 
 Hindu Temples . , 
 
 Worshiping the Idol 
 Nautcii Girls . . . 
 
 An Elderly Widow . 
 
 Bombay College . . 
 
 Lucknow College . . 
 
 Reading of the Shastras 
 A High Caste Girl . 
 
 A Low Caste Woman 
 A Gospel Wagon . . 
 
 Frontispiece 
 j- Facing 26 
 
 
 39 
 
 51 
 
 68 
 
 113 
 
 128 
 
 206 
 
 263 
 
 273 
 
 285 
 
 291 
 
 9 
 
Introduction 
 
 It is a matter of deep thankfulness to me that 
 Mrs. Fuller is publishing her articles on “The 
 Wrongs of Indian Womanhood” in a book. 
 The world needs such books to enlighten it. 
 Very few people, even in India itself, know 
 what really goes on behind the purdah. Hun- 
 dreds of our Indian reformers are ignorant of the 
 real condition of women. The Indian women 
 themselves do not realize the depths of degrada- 
 tion they are in. Even those who have suffered 
 the greatest wrongs are reluctant to tell the truth 
 to the world, even if they have the opportunity, 
 for fear they may lower themselves and their 
 nation in the eyes of other nations. A young 
 widow was telling me some of the hardships she 
 and other widows had to fear. Another young 
 widow heard what she said to me and, when the 
 talk was over, the latter took the former aside 
 and gave her a severe scolding for betraying her 
 family and her nation at large ! 
 
 Great courage is required to tell the truth when 
 
 you know all the nation will rise against you as 
 11 
 
Introduction 
 
 one man and put you down. So no one need be 
 surprised at the reluctance of India’s women to 
 tell their own wrongs, even if they knew how. 
 It is for this reason 1 am more than glad that 
 God has put it into Mrs. Fuller’s mind to place 
 before the world the woes of India’s women in a 
 way that no one before has done. She has taken 
 the greatest pains to find out the truth on every 
 point she has written down. She has neither 
 exaggerated nor kept back what can be said on 
 the most important things connected with Indian 
 women’s conditions. All who are interested in 
 and want to do something for the salvation of 
 woman in India will do well to read her book. 
 
 1 entirely agree with Mrs. Fuller in what she 
 says on “The Real Remedy.” Let me ask you, 
 my dear Christian sisters, the same question that 
 she has put to you. “Is it possible for the one 
 hundred and fifty million women of India of this 
 generation to hear the gospel.?” Will you not 
 wake up to your Christian duty and say. Yes; 
 and then act upon your convictions ? I believe 
 there are at least half a million Christian women 
 of all castes and colors in India. If each one of 
 them made up her mind to tell the story of 
 Christ to one of her sister women every day, 
 
 taking the seventh day for rest, she would be 
 12 
 
Introduction 
 
 able to preach the gospel to over three hundred 
 women in one year. In this way it is possible 
 for half a million Christian women to give the 
 gospel to all of our sisters in India in one year. 
 1 am praying to God that He may send a flood of 
 the Holy Spirit on the Christian women of India 
 and convict them of their sin of not giving the 
 gospel to their heathen sisters whenever they 
 can. The Lord has given us the command, Go 
 and preach the gospel. Shall we not be a host 
 under His leadership to publish it far and wide ? 
 Dear Christian sisters of all lands, do consider 
 this most important question and rise to obey the 
 command of your great Captain, Jesus Christ, 
 who expects you to do His bidding and to enter 
 into His joy. 
 
 May this little book be like the voice in the 
 wilderness, and be the means of turning thou- 
 sands of minds to obey the Master’s call and take 
 the Real Remedy, the gospel of Christ, to millions 
 of India’s women to heal the deep wounds of 
 their hearts, is the prayer of your sister. 
 
 Mukti Mission, Kedgaon, 
 
 August 20th, i 8 gg. 
 
 13 
 
Author’s Preface 
 
 An apparently trivial event often proves the 
 pivot on which something greater and unthought 
 of may turn. Last year 1 paid to a friend out of 
 the city a hurried visit — an insignificant event in 
 itself, but, while there, an Indian lady gave me a 
 manuscript to look over and asked my opinion of 
 it. 1 was deeply stirred as I read it, and for days 
 I was haunted with the query: “Can I do any- 
 
 thing for the cause of Indian womanhood?” It 
 has been many years since the subject of Indian 
 women’s wrongs has been much before the pub- 
 lic, and then the public is so forgetful, that I 
 finally decided to write three or four articles for 
 the Bombay Guardian on the subject. Without 
 any definite planning one article led to another, 
 until I had written eighteen instead of three or 
 four! 
 
 They were written under the pressure of other 
 work and responsibilities. Kind friends ex- 
 pressed much interest in them, and urged me to 
 publish them in a more permanent form. I have 
 
 taken great pains to verify all my statements, 
 15 
 
Author’s Preface 
 
 and have often understated facts rather than lay 
 myself open to the charge of exaggeration. 
 European writers are accused of not understand- 
 ing Indian thought and custom. To avoid this 
 charge 1 procured my information largely from 
 Indian sources. This has laid me under a debt 
 of gratitude to a host of Indian friends, both 
 Hindu and Christian. But 1 am especially in- 
 debted to my friends, Professor N. G. Velinkar, 
 who has been most generous and unwearying in 
 his assistance, and Ramabai, whose counsel and 
 sympathy have been of great value. 
 
 It is true that my scenes, incidents and illustra- 
 tions may have given a slight Marathi coloring to 
 some of the chapters. This is due to the fact 
 that 1 have spent many years in the Marathi 
 country, but this does not hinder the book from 
 representing the whole of India, and calls for no 
 apology. 
 
 After careful revision of the articles, 1 send 
 them forth in their present form to, 1 trust, a 
 larger audience, with the hope that, in spite of 
 all defects, my readers may catch the message 
 they contain, and which my heart has burned to 
 give. Jenny Fuller. 
 
 Bombay, India, 
 
 Sept, i, tSpg. 
 
 16 
 
I 
 
 HOW LONG? 
 
 For four hundred years Cuba, Porto Rico and 
 the Philippines bore the iron yoke of Spanish 
 misrule and priestly oppression. For years the 
 inhabitants have revolted, and these fair islands 
 have known nothing but rebellion and suffering 
 in their vain attempts to throw off this galling 
 oppression. 
 
 Days went by, moons waxed and waned, but 
 the suffering remained as real and deliverance 
 seemed as far off as ever. Men saw their homes 
 destroyed, loved ones wronged, starved and 
 killed. Would freedom never come ? Was 
 Cuba Libre an idle dream and jest ? 
 
 It was February 15th, 1898. The day had 
 dawned like other days; and was filled with woe 
 and suffering as other days had been. There 
 seemed no end to such days. Hope had almost 
 died in many hearts. Out in the bay of Havana 
 an American war ship lay riding at anchor. The 
 waters of the bay lapped and curled against its 
 sides as idly as at other times. Suddenly there 
 
 was an awful explosion, and the Maine had gone 
 17 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 down a total wreck. Again the waters of the 
 bay lapped and curled, but this time above the 
 grave of over two hundred men. 
 
 This disaster, sudden and awful, was the cloud’ 
 “no bigger than a man’s hand ’’that rose that 
 day, the forerunner of the heavy war cloud that 
 soon hung over the islands; and when it broke 
 away, the brilliant “bow of promise” of free- 
 dom spanned its dark shadows. 
 
 It was an awful disaster, but it set in motion 
 forces that broke forever the yoke of oppression 
 that had so long rested upon the necks of the 
 people. The world, now that the strain of 
 sympathy is broken, says they are not ready for 
 freedom and are only children. Their right was 
 freedom, and it is our duty to let time work out 
 their problems for them. 
 
 What has this story to do with the wrongs of 
 Indian womanhood ? Nothing, save that it gave 
 us courage and hope. An Indian lady had given 
 us a manuscript book to read concerning the 
 wrongs of Indian women, saying, “1 do not 
 know that it can be published, but I feel these 
 things ought to be known.” We thought we 
 had known much before, but this book was like 
 a book of horrors to us. We almost wished we 
 
 had never read it, and hid our faces to shut out 
 18 
 
How Long? 
 
 the scenes it had depicted. What can be done to 
 help ? we repeated over and over. 
 
 Child marriage, enforced widowhood, the 
 Zenana, the Muralis and the Devadasis (temple 
 women) seem to flourish as deeply rooted as 
 ever. Women suffer on just as they have so 
 long done. Only now and then does the public 
 hear an agonized shriek of the sufferings of some 
 child-wife. Now and then, the public reads a 
 paragraph in some paper of the suicide of a girl- 
 widow, with no hint of the tragedy behind it 
 all. 
 
 It has not been many years since Rakhmabai 
 made her brave fight for her rights. She won in 
 away. The law still forbids her to marry; but 
 perhaps her struggles did more for women than 
 we know. The miracle was that she ever had 
 the courage to make it at all. 
 
 Then came the tragic suffering and death of 
 Phulmani Dasi, in Calcutta, which aroused the 
 public and government, until they raised the age 
 of consent to twelve. The story of Phulmani 
 Dasi* is repeated over and over still in the land. 
 The neighbors know it, educated men know it, 
 editors know it; yet there is little public protest. 
 
 • An adult husband in Calcutta committed rape upon his 
 child-wife, Phulmani Dasi, aged eleven, causing her death. 
 
 19 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 If it were in England or America, the whole 
 world would know it. Why are not these facts 
 brought forward until the world is stirred and 
 the evil reformed ? 
 
 It looks hopeless. It has gone on so many, 
 many years. It was here that the story of the 
 Maine came to our minds and spoke courage and 
 hope. It may be that some social Maine will 
 come to our help — some social tragedy deeper 
 and more terrible than Phulmani’s, or more un- 
 just than Rakhmabai’s, that will stir men’s hearts 
 and set such forces in action as will in a short 
 time bring to Indian womanhood a glorious de- 
 liverance. Men still say that women are not 
 ready or fit for a change; that they are only 
 children; and they never will be aught else in 
 their present position. Make the change and 
 then, better the mistakes of freedom, a thousand 
 times over, than the cruel wrongs of oppression 
 and degradation. 
 
 There are hundreds of men in India who feel 
 these questions deeply, who go as far in reform 
 as they dare, — who would nobly stand by any 
 measure that would be brought up, if they were 
 alone. But any action on their part involves a 
 large number of relatives and friends who have 
 
 not their convictions, but who must share the 
 20 
 
How Long? 
 
 reformer’s ostracism and ill-repute. We would 
 not be too hard on them. 
 
 Mr. Malabari who has said and written so 
 much on these subjects is a Parsee, and Ramabai 
 a Christian. Both of them can date the begin- 
 nings of their interest to sad scenes witnessed in 
 their childhood in their native place. In a sketch 
 of Mr. Malabari the writer tells how he heard the 
 shrieks of a little girl like Phulmani Dasi, and 
 those shrieks still ring in his soul. Ramabai 
 tells how in one part of her father’s house when 
 she was but nine years old, there lived a poor 
 family. The family consisted of a man of thirty 
 years of age, his girl-wife of sixteen and his old 
 mother. The mother-in-law was all that is im- 
 plied by that name in this country, a heartless old 
 hag, always beating, abusing and cruelly treating 
 her daughter-in-law. One day when the girl 
 was spinning, a monkey stole her cotton. For 
 this carelessness the girl was abused by the 
 mother-in-law who nagged the husband on to 
 beat her. Ramabai adds: “I was an eyewitness 
 to all this. Her piercing cries went right to my 
 heart, and I seem to hear them now after nearly 
 thirty years. My childish heart was filled with 
 indignation, and though I was powerless to aid, 
 
 I have never forgotten that poor girl’s cries for 
 21 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 help, and I suppose it was the first call 1 received 
 to enter upon the sacred duty of helping my 
 sisters according to the little strength I had. But 
 1 never realized the extent of the grief, suffering 
 and need of my sisters, so long as 1 remained in 
 darkness, and had no love of God in me.” 
 
 The public so soon forgets, and needs to be re- 
 minded so often, that we felt perhaps all we 
 could do was to review these evils one by one, 
 and stir men’s hearts afresh to remember the 
 wrongs of Indian womanhood, and perhaps in 
 this way give an added impetus to prayer and 
 effort. 
 
 22 
 
II 
 
 A SNAP SHOT AT MODERN INDIA 
 
 The mail steamer lay at the wharf at Brindisi. 
 As we leaned against the railing of the upper 
 deck, we saw a young Indian gentleman dressed 
 in a bicycle suit trundling his wheel up the plank 
 that reached from the shore to the ship. When 
 we went down to luncheon, we found the 
 steward had seated him at our table. He told us 
 he had been in England for several years pursuing 
 a course of studies, and before coming on ship- 
 board, had just completed a tour of the continent. 
 An indulgent father had supplied him with all 
 the money he had needed without murmuring or 
 question, which had enabled him to live while 
 abroad like a gentleman. Now he was returning 
 home. He had evidently had a royal time. 
 
 One afternoon on deck he said to us; "I have 
 written a pamphlet on the freedom of women; 
 when 1 have published it, 1 will send you a copy.” 
 And as he talked on of his hopes for his sisters, 
 we got a glimpse of how the beautiful English 
 homes he had been in had affected him, and saw 
 
 that he had felt the influence of refined and cultured 
 23 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 ladies. He had seen real homes with women 
 reverenced and chivalrously cared for. He had 
 found them educated and interested in all that 
 interested father, brother, or husband: and not 
 only that, but they were treated as companions 
 and were even allowed to advise and help. It 
 had been an enchanting vision to him. We did 
 not wonder that under its spell he had written 
 his pamphlet. It was delightful; but what a 
 wide gulf lay between the vision and the home 
 to which he was returning! 
 
 We tried to picture it all. We knew that 
 when our ship entered the harbor, and the tug 
 carried us to the pier, his mother would not be 
 found standing in the crowd on the shore, lean- 
 ing on his father’s arm and trying to catch the 
 first glimpse of her boy among the passengers. 
 Had there followed him all these years the tender 
 weekly letter from his mother? Had there been 
 constant chatty letters from his sisters giving 
 him all the home news, telling of their studies 
 and of the good times they were having, and 
 how interested they were in all he saw and wrote 
 about, and of the plans they had made of all they 
 would do when he got home ? Had he carried 
 their pictures, and, when homesick or weary, 
 
 looked at them with longing eyes ? Had 
 24 
 
A Snap Shot at Modern India 
 
 mother’s picture stood on his desk all these years 
 and been an inspiration to study and pure living?' 
 
 No! he is coming back to his father’s house, but 
 not to a home as that is regarded in the Western 
 sense of the word. The front part of the house 
 may be furnished comfortably, even in English 
 style, but it does not contain the apartments of 
 the family, but those of the men and their friends; 
 while the women’s apartments are in the rear. 
 There will be no happy family gathering at the 
 first meal. The traveller will not offer his arm to 
 his mother and escort her to the table; and 
 though the son has been gone so long, yet the 
 father will not help mother first to food, and then 
 the sisters before he helps his son. Oh no! but 
 the mother and sisters will stand and wait upon 
 the men until they have finished before they eat. 
 
 The mother in her great joy to see her son has 
 no doubt greeted and caressed him, but the sis- 
 ters, if they have not gone to the homes of their 
 husbands, will stand timidly in the background, 
 and if spoken to, cover their faces with their 
 sarees, or else laugh and run away. They ask no 
 questions, as he tells of Paris, Vienna and Dres- 
 den; of the pictures and the beautiful scenery he 
 has been privileged to behold. They may be in- 
 terested in what he has had to eat while away, 
 25 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 and his descriptions of English ladies and customs. 
 When he opens his boxes, what has he brought 
 them ? Dainty souvenirs of his travels and his 
 English home, that will be as treasures to them 
 for years ? No ; if anything, perhaps some silken 
 fabric for a garment, or a bit of jewelry. That 
 is all Indian women are supposed to care for; 
 nothing else. And the mother, who remembers 
 how he used to cling to her skirts, and how she 
 indulged him in dainty bits of food, and helped 
 to win his way with his father, what is her 
 meed after all these years ? Yes, he has appreci- 
 ated the food she had prepared for him with un- 
 usual care; he is well and alive; his reformed 
 ways startle her a little, and she hopes he will 
 not go too far; but there is such a difference be- 
 tween him now, and when he clung to her as a 
 little boy. He lives in another world from hers, 
 and there is little fellowship or aught in common 
 between them. In the evening, the thought of 
 the day comes outas she says to the father: “ He 
 
 must be married soon,” and suggests a little girl 
 of ten, the child of a wealthy casteman. It has 
 long been the dream of her heart to see the two 
 families united; and again and again has she sat 
 and, in a kind of day-dream, gone all through 
 the marriage festivities. 
 
 26 
 
HINDU HOME LIFE— GRINDING 
 
 HINDU HOME LIFE— SPINNING 
 
A Snap Shot at Modern India 
 
 And the young man himself ? What a rough 
 dispelling of all the bright dreams he has had. 
 Iron custom rises before him like a wall. He 
 faces again the joint family system, and the rev- 
 erence for elders enjoined even if it be at the ex- 
 pense of all personal convictions: then the host 
 of relatives of all degrees of nearness with their 
 families whom he must regard. He has no cour- 
 age to propose his plans to them. And what 
 will it avail to talk it over at the club, for his 
 sympathizers are all in the same box with him- 
 self ? Reform looks impossible. With a sigh 
 he lays his manuscript on the freedom of women 
 aside, and we hear the whispered sigh: " Kya 
 Karun ” (What can I do ?). 
 
 He knows instinctively what plans his mother 
 has for his marriage. He knows he can evade 
 her for a time, but not for long. He desperately 
 declares he will not marry a child. He knows 
 the heavy weight of public opinion. Are there 
 no girls of suitable age, who are fit to be com- 
 panions to a husband No, not one. He thinks 
 of the storm that would break over his head if 
 he thought of a young widow near his own 
 age. He remembers young Krishnarao, who 
 did brave all and marry a widow ; and he re- 
 members, all too well, how the lot he had to 
 
 27 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 bear finally broke his spirit and he committed 
 suicide. 
 
 Then he remembers with a sigh Bhimabai, 
 sister of one of his schoolmates, who was such a 
 beautiful girl, so bright and intelligent, just a 
 few years younger than himself. She was wid- 
 owed at eight. He could have loved her and 
 been happy: but what is this they tell him? 
 They say that there has just been a great public 
 scandal, that she has killed her child and been 
 sentenced to imprisonment for life. Poor girl, 
 what possibilities she had in her ! He feels des- 
 perate enough to defy all public opinion and 
 show that there is one man that has the courage 
 of his convictions; but there comes back upon 
 him with renewed power the thought of his 
 father and mother. He is their only son. They 
 have never denied him anything. They do not 
 mind his being reformed, if only he is not too re- 
 formed. If he breaks away from old customs, 
 it will break their hearts. And then his sister is 
 just to be married to a boy belonging to a very 
 wealthy, but orthodox family. And that would 
 be broken off if he were to follow his convic- 
 tions. Over and over he fights the battle, only 
 at last to succumb, to walk in what his parents 
 
 call ‘‘the good old way.” He despises himself, 
 28 
 
A Snap Shot at Modern India 
 
 and feels he is a hypocrite. His perorations 
 at the club on reform seem to himself a mockery. 
 If these customs which he hates are based on 
 Hindu Shastras, then he does not want anything 
 to do with the Shastras, and calls himself an 
 agnostic or an infidel. Is it any wonder ? Are the 
 old people blameless for the irreligiousness of the 
 young men of India ? If these young men hate 
 the customs, are they not going to despise the re- 
 ligion on which the customs are based and de- 
 fended ? 
 
 But we have digressed. Our friend on the 
 deck is still talking of the freedom of women. 
 We saw he longed that the women of India 
 should have the same opportunities as Western 
 women for unfettered growth to womanhood 
 and education; and for the possibilities of a real 
 home. But it can never come till men are re- 
 formed in their view of women. The mass of 
 men in India do not respect or reverence woman. 
 She makes no appeal to chivalry in them. Only 
 a few days ago a fine young woman, a widow, 
 was condemned to imprisonment for life for the 
 murder of her infant. We are told she was ex- 
 ceptionally intelligent, and educated to some ex- 
 tent. The men, her partners in the crime, es- 
 caped. Is this going to make no appeal to Indian 
 29 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 manhood ? If the men, who should be the pro- 
 tectors of helpless girlhood and womanhood, are 
 themselves not free to act, it seems better to call 
 in the aid of government rather than let woman 
 suffer on and on. If this must go on until all the 
 old orthodox element of this generation has 
 passed away, then the rising generation is going 
 to be so much weaker and unfitted to cope with 
 these social questions. Men who have not been 
 allowed to live after their convictions, who have 
 lived hypocritically, and, to be able to be con- 
 sistent, have been forced to be infidels and agnos- 
 tics, are not going, in the supreme moment of 
 opportunity, to rise into strength and aggressive- 
 ness. We feel it to be a critical time for India’s 
 manhood as well as for her womanhood; for the 
 downfall of womanhood is sure to bring with it 
 the downfall of manhood also. 
 
 :|c * * * ♦ 
 
 Our steamer at last lay anchored off Bombay. 
 We bade good-bye to our Indian friend and have 
 never heard of him since. He has added one 
 more to the hundreds of young men in India who 
 hope and long for a chance, but feel powerless to 
 make any movement toward its accomplishment. 
 
 He was no doubt met k the railway station on 
 30 
 
A Snap Shot at Modern India 
 
 his arrival home by his father and male friends, 
 but was not allowed to eat with them until he 
 had performed prayaschitt (atonement) for his 
 stay abroad; part of which consists in swallow- 
 ing a disgusting mixture composed of the five 
 products of the cow, viz: milk, curds, butter, 
 dung and urine. Cleansed by this and a few 
 other ceremonies from what he knows has been 
 no sin, our friend is reinstated into caste. Per- 
 haps he protested, or maybe he yielded to the 
 inevitable with another gasp of Kyd Karun. 
 
 The prayaschitt will be no bar to his conscience 
 in dining in a private way occasionally a I' An- 
 glaise : or in buying tea and cake at the railway 
 stations on a journey. Later on we may perhaps 
 find him a middle-aged man serving as a judge 
 in some country district, having buried two child- 
 wives, and married a third of ten years of age; 
 his aspirations and convictions sacrificed; an un- 
 happy, discontented, cynical man. We may find 
 him occasionally on Congress platforms, his elo- 
 quence reserved for political questions which re- 
 quire no self-denial, and which bring about no 
 ostracism; while as to social reform, his plea is 
 still, Kyd Karun, and his hope is deferred to the 
 next generation. 
 
 Government, too, joins in the refrain of Kyd 
 31 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Karun and says to zealous ones “wait”; but in 
 the meantime who is to be responsible for the 
 hundreds of girl-wives who will perish, as victims 
 of the system of child marriage, or be ruined 
 physically for life; for the suicides of girl-widows 
 and the moral ruin of many; for the moral and 
 physical ruin of hundreds of Muralis and temple 
 girls ? Again we ask, who is to be responsible, 
 while men wait, for all this moral wrong and 
 suffering ? And how long is it to be allowed to 
 go on ? 
 
 32 
 
Ill 
 
 CHILD MARRIAGE 
 
 The story of creation is simply told. Of 
 woman, it is said, God caused a deep sleep to 
 fall upon Adam, and took one of his ribs from 
 his side. “ And the rib which the Lord God had 
 taken from man, made He a woman and brought 
 her unto the man.” And Adam said: “This is 
 now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; 
 she shall be called woman.” “God did not take 
 woman from man’s head, that she should rule 
 over him. Neither did He take her from his feet, 
 that she should be his slave, or that he should 
 trample on her. But he took her from his side 
 that she should be his companion and help-meet.” 
 The word child marriage is a misnomer. Mar- 
 riage was never meant for children. When 
 Khanderao Gaikowar, the Maharaja of Baroda, 
 married his two favorite pigeons with all the 
 pomp, ceremony and expenditure bestowed upon 
 the marriages of his own children, all educated 
 India was scandalized; but to the outside world 
 it was no greater mockery than the marriage of a 
 
 girl of eight to a grey-headed old man of sixty; 
 
 33 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 or a baby girl of nine months to a boy of six; or 
 even a girl of nine to a youth of sixteen. 
 
 What conception of life and its duties can such 
 brides have.^ Marriage has been suggested to 
 them ever since they knew anything, and is asso- 
 ciated in their minds with plenty of sweets, fire- 
 works, gorgeous dresses, and for a few days to 
 be the centre of attention, with a possible ride on 
 a horse or in a palanquin in a gay evening pro- 
 cession. Marriage to the bride is a synonym of 
 a grand tamasha (show). The outside world 
 agrees with the child. It is a grand tamasha. It 
 is not marriage. 
 
 We remember how, on one occasion, a Hindu 
 friend called upon us, and took our little girl upon 
 his knee. He wanted to say something to her 
 suitable for a child, and he said the first thing he 
 would naturally have said to a little Hindu girl. 
 He looked her in the face, and said in a laughing 
 way, “Well, when are you going to get mar- 
 ried?” Our little maid looked at him with 
 great wondering eyes, and a confused silence fell 
 over the room, until the subject was changed. 
 The little lass soon forgot the query, but we 
 never did; and many a time as we tucked her in 
 her bed at night, or watched her eager enthusiasm 
 
 over her studies, or noticed her guardianship over 
 34 
 
Child Marriage 
 
 her brother, or felt her loving care that saved us 
 some burden, have we thanked God that no iron 
 custom had power to take her from our shelter- 
 ing love and care, until she was able to stand 
 alone, or choose for herself. She was our first- 
 born, and awakened in our hearts for the first time 
 that rich, parental love before which "there is 
 neither male nor female.” It is true she was 
 " only a girl,” but for years we called her " Com- 
 fort.” Her father did not announce to his friends 
 that "nothing” had been born, and motherhood 
 was not embittered by her birth. 
 
 Knowing the heart of the parent, we often 
 wonder how Hindu mothers feel when they send 
 a winning little girl of eight away from their care 
 and love to a strange home, to take the risk of 
 an unkind mother-in-law or a worse husband. 
 And as they tell her never to forsake her hus- 
 band's home and return to them save as a dead 
 body, we wonder that the very words do not 
 freeze on their lips. 
 
 What loneliness must fill a child-wife’s heart, 
 when sent away from play with happy brothers 
 and sisters, away from a loving mother’s care 
 and sympathy, as she takes up her life in her 
 new home with the companionship of a grave 
 husband of perhaps thirty-five or forty in a 
 
 35 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 household of elderly women, and perhaps with 
 stepchildren older than herself 1 We have tried 
 to picture our own child in such a position, and 
 instinctively we have covered our eyes with our 
 hands to shut out the awful scene; and have 
 said; “Impossible!” 
 
 We consider child marriage the greatest of 
 woman’s wrongs; and when accentuated by 
 caste and the joint family system, it confronts us 
 like a very Gibraltar. The custom is at least five 
 hundred years older than the Christian Era. It 
 is not the fruit of the Mohammedan invasion as 
 some contend. The Zenana system is, but child 
 marriage is woven in with the Hindu religion, 
 and was inaugurated and sanctioned by its law- 
 givers. 
 
 Child marriage leads to manifold evils. It may 
 lead to much unhappiness, to much physical suf- 
 fering of the child-wife, and possibly to her 
 death. We have been told of a tribe whose 
 wives are never able to walk upright. Through 
 the efforts that were made after the death of 
 Phulmani Dasi, the age of consent was raised to 
 twelve. This may defend girls from strangers, 
 but can be made most ineffectual in the case of 
 husbands. To prove that the case of Phulmani 
 
 was not an isolated one, we ask our readers to 
 36 
 
Child Marriage 
 
 turn to the awful facts that were brought for- 
 ward at that time; to the “ Indian Medical Juris- 
 prudence,” and to the “Life-work of Mr. Mala- 
 bari.” An Indian lady asked an Indian medical 
 student for a copy of the Medical jurisprudence. 
 He curtly replied that she did not want to read 
 that, and when she did get a copy and perused 
 it, she did not wonder that he did not want her 
 to read it. It may be well to remember that the 
 husband of Phulmani got only one year’s im- 
 prisonment as punishment! 
 
 Again, child marriage is naturally the direct 
 cause of much widowhood. Considering the 
 fact that of the whole number of children born 
 in any given year, only about one-half the num- 
 ber ever reach the age of twenty, it will not be 
 strange if we have hundreds of widows who 
 scarcely knew they were ever wives. It is also 
 a great bar to the education of women and their 
 full development. It leads to pauperism and to 
 national degeneracy, and it often leads to great 
 cruelty. 
 
 We personally know a fine Indian woman, in- 
 dustrious, careful, and with more than ordinary 
 executive ability. She was married at nine 
 months to a boy of six! They grew up together 
 
 as playmates and knew no discord. As she ap- 
 37 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 preached womanhood, her father-in-law made 
 improper proposals to her which she resented 
 and rejected. This so angered him that he be- 
 came her enemy and turned the heart of his son 
 against her. Then, what might have ripened 
 into a lifelong affection, was turned into hatred. 
 The young husband was most cruel, beating her 
 with fire-wood or anything he could lay his 
 hands upon. Once her mother, unable to bear 
 it, took her away, but soon repented and started 
 to take her back to her husband, saying, “ When 
 I gave her in marriage, she became as dead to 
 me; let what will happen now.” But fearing 
 she would be killed by her husband's violence, a 
 remoter relative took her away; kind friends 
 have shielded her, and she has never returned to 
 her “loving lord.” She is now leading a use- 
 ful, honorable, but lonely life. 
 
 Occasionally her husband tries to get her back. 
 If he appealed to the law, she would have to go. 
 Why not get a case against him for cruelty? 
 She could not get witnesses. No relative or 
 casteman or neighbor would testify against him. 
 She would have to go back, the victim of a con- 
 tract made when she was nine months old. 
 Marriage should be optional, but religion and 
 
 custom decree that Indian girls must be married. 
 38 
 

HINDU GENTLEMAN AND GIRL WIFE WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET MARRIED? 
 
Child Marriage 
 
 Twelve years is the maximum age for marriage. 
 If the girl is not married then, her friends are 
 disgraced as well as herself. But a boy can 
 marry at any age after five, or not at all if that 
 pleases him better. Though the latter course is 
 not approved, still if he does not marry, he is 
 never persecuted or ostracized. Cardinal Man- 
 ning justly says: 
 
 “ By the law of nature, marriage is a voluntary 
 and perpetual contract of which the contracting 
 parties are the true ministers. It is an abuse of 
 language as well as of moral and social life to 
 call these marriages. Moreover, infants have 
 natural rights of which no parent can deprive 
 them. The law of England protects the rights 
 not only of infants, but of minors. Liberty to 
 dispose of themselves is a right inherent in 
 all.” 
 
 Rakhmabai fought the matter out in the courts 
 of Bombay. In childhood she was betrothed to 
 a boy relative of her own caste. She, for vari- 
 ous reasons, was kept at home and well educated 
 till she was nineteen. The boy had grown up 
 illiterate and was in many ways repulsive to her. 
 When he came to claim his bride, she felt it was 
 a cruel custom that made an infant betrothal 
 
 binding, and refused to go. The nusoand insti- 
 39 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 tuted a suit against her. On the results hung 
 vast issues. Eager men all over the country con- 
 tended with the spirit of the seven princes of 
 Persia and Media in the days of Esther. They 
 too, felt that if she were victorious, “ Then this 
 deed of Rakhmabai’s shall come abroad unto all 
 women, so that they shall despise their husbands 
 in their eyes when it shall be reported.” 
 
 Rakhmabai, and her friends who stood by her, 
 felt it was not for herself alone that she con- 
 tended. If she had won her case, what a rift in 
 the wrongs of womanhood it would have made! 
 All India was roused. It showed that it could be 
 roused. There were eager men on both sides. 
 And what were the results ? 
 
 At the first trial Justice Pinhey dismissed it, 
 declaring that “ it would be barbarous and re- 
 volting to all sense of justice to compel a woman 
 to consummate a marriage that had been ar- 
 ranged without her consent and against her 
 will.” There was an appeal from this, and an- 
 other English judge decided that she was 
 Dadaji’s wife, and to his house she must go, 
 or else go to prison. Another appeal was made, 
 but a compromise was effected. Rakhmabai 
 paid two thousand rupees to her husband with 
 
 which he could marry another wife; she also 
 40 
 
Child Marriage 
 
 bore the cost of the trial which was several 
 thousands more, and in the sight of her country- 
 men remains a wife and can never marry. But 
 Dadaji is a man. He can have another wife and 
 a home. Fearful m.en went back to their homes 
 in security, while those who fought for Rakh- 
 mabai still wait, if “hope deferred” has not 
 made their hearts sick. 
 
 But the bitter irony of it all was that this case 
 was not won under Hindu law, but under an 
 English law, {Restitution of Conjugal Rights, Act 
 Vlll., 1895) imported into India and enforced 
 with imprisonment; and this same lawwas ob- 
 solete in England when this case was tried! 
 While Hindus deplore this imported law, and 
 declare it to be foreign to all Hindu ideas and 
 wishes, and leaders among them have earnestly 
 tried to have it set aside (See Chap, xiii.. Art. 8), 
 yet Dadaji and his friends saw no inconsistency 
 in prosecuting Rakhmabai under it, and were 
 glad to avail themselves of it. 
 
 We know of many women in Western lands 
 who have not married, not because they had no 
 offer, but because they felt that there were claims 
 upon them that forbade it. And the earth has 
 been the richer for their self-denying lives. We 
 
 recall one young woman who was engaged to 
 41 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 be married, when her mother died, and her aged 
 father was left alone. She gave up all thought 
 of a home for herself, and lived on with her 
 father, tenderly caring for him through years of 
 frail health till he passed into the beyond. One 
 of the most beautiful sights on earth is a noble, 
 unselfish woman, whether she be wife, mother 
 or sister. 
 
 Hindu law gives no divorce, though custom 
 allows it in some low castes. One of the 
 Swamis that visited America last year was asked 
 by a New York lady in our hearing, if marriage 
 was held sacred in India. “Very,” he added, 
 “ far more that in this country, madame.” And 
 he sneeringly referred to divorce as it exists in 
 America and added: “We have no divorce in 
 India.” Why did he not tell the whole truth ? 
 For woman marriage is irrevocable. She has no 
 choice in it, as she is usually married before she 
 knows what marriage is. Her husband may ill- 
 treat her, beat her, almost kill her, but she can 
 get no divorce from him, or from a contract that 
 she never was a party to. If she runs away to 
 escape his cruelty, she must, for the rest of her 
 life, be regarded as a widow and disgraced. But 
 he, noble man, can marry another, or he can 
 
 bring other wives into the home if she stays, or 
 42 
 
Child Marriage 
 
 if he choose, he can desert her entirely. But 
 there is no remedy for her. 
 
 We know another Indian woman who was 
 married to a young boy of sixteen. The boy’s 
 father was a Brahman priest. After a year the 
 little bride was taken with much pomp and cere- 
 mony to her husband’s home. The girl’s ap- 
 pearance did not suit the young husband. There 
 was an aunt in the family who spared nothing 
 to work against the child, finding fault with all 
 she did. If she went near the husband to serve 
 him with food, he would hit her hard on the 
 crown of her head with his knuckles. Though 
 she was but ten, yet they expected her to do 
 every kind of work. She did the household 
 work, brought water for all, cleaned the utensils, 
 cleaned the floor, did the washing, milked the 
 cow and kept the stable clean. If the cow did 
 not yield the proper quantity of milk, she was 
 punished. The relatives in the house said the 
 girl was possessed by an evil spirit, and would 
 bring misfortune to the family. 
 
 The course of treatment she received was 
 enough to turn her into a demon. Her father- 
 in-law would hang her up to the beam of the 
 roof and beat her pitilessly. He would some- 
 times suspend her to the same place by her ankles 
 43 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 — perhaps for variety. Under her head, thus 
 suspended, he would put a vessel with live coals 
 in it, on which he would throw red peppers and 
 almost suffocate her. Sometimes when he had 
 hung her to the roof, for fear she would be 
 tempted to break the rope and fall, he would 
 spread branches of prickly pear on the floor be- 
 neath her, and let her hang till he chose to relieve 
 her. Once or twice this man inflicted on her a 
 cruel punishment which decency forbids us to 
 relate. In both these stories, it has been the 
 father-in-law who has been the aggressive one, 
 and not the proverbial mother-in-law. She, our 
 friend said, was usually very kind to her, only 
 once in a while did she punish her by shutting 
 her up in a room where red peppers were kept 
 burning! When she was fourteen, her husband 
 died, and she was subjected to greater hardships. 
 Her head was shaven, her bright colored dresses 
 and few ornaments were taken away, while she 
 lived on one meal a day and toiled hard. 
 
 The neighbors knew of all this cruelty and 
 suggested to her to run away, but their motive 
 was evil. The old hag of an aunt tried to per- 
 suade her into evil connections, but the girl re- 
 mained firm. When her father heard of it, he 
 
 exhorted her not to do it, but to stay and die. 
 
 44 
 
Child Marriage 
 
 This had been her commission when she left her 
 father’s house as a bride. The father-in-law’s 
 priestly career was not disturbed by his cruelty. 
 The public did not feel that it disqualified him in 
 the least. Had he been in a Western land, public 
 opinion would have made it unbearable for him 
 and the old aunt. They would have been cast 
 out from decent society. 
 
 In time other misfortunes fell on this house- 
 hold. The kind-hearted mother-in-law died. The 
 father-in-law then seems to have repented in 
 a measure, and before his death, put the young 
 woman into safer and better hands. The old hag 
 of an aunt followed her, and tried to get posses- 
 sion of her through the law, but she was declared 
 not a minor, and escaped. Need we add that the 
 face of this young woman still bears the trace of 
 all this suffering and cruelty ? She says that she 
 never once planned to escape, but just nerved 
 herself to suffer, for had it not always been taught 
 and impressed upon her that she must die rather 
 than forsake her husband’s house? 
 
 We have not told this story of cruelty for the 
 purpose of being sensational, nor to convey the 
 idea that all Hindus treat their wives in this way. 
 We are glad it is not the general way: but still, 
 
 we are told, such cases are not rare. Nor have 
 45 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 we added stories of wife-murders of which often 
 the neighbors and relatives are silent witnesses. 
 Neither have we told it because there are no so- 
 cial abuses in other lands. There are, but they 
 are never vindicated as religion and custom. 
 Public sentiment makes it lively for the perpetra- 
 tors, and protects woman. But we have told 
 this story, because it reveals the helplessness and 
 unprotectedness of woman, in India. She is 
 neither protected by the chivalry of men nor by 
 public opinion. 
 
 What avenues were there through which this 
 woman could escape such cruelty ? The nearest 
 tank or well, or a life of shame. No one near 
 her would give her honest employment. The 
 girl would be disgraced in their eyes for leaving 
 her husband. No public disgrace would be at- 
 tached to the husband or the family for cruelty. 
 Did she go far enough away, she might get a 
 place somewhere as cook, but that is all that 
 would be open to her. There is so little employ- 
 ment open to women, while as a lone woman 
 she would be exposed to untold temptation, and 
 find but little respect. To many women, suffer- 
 ing on seems far preferable than to venture on an 
 unknown, uncertain life of disgrace, temptation 
 
 and loneliness. If parental love and pity can no 
 46 
 
Child Marriage 
 
 longer bear to witness her position and shelter 
 her, then the parents have also to suffer disgrace 
 and their daughter must be in their house as a 
 widow. 
 
 The story reveals the wrong of the joint family 
 system. The patriarchal system has many beauti- 
 ful features, but was better suited to primitive 
 times than to the nineteenth century. It leaves 
 but little room for personal conviction and indi- 
 viduality. A young bride does not go to her 
 new home as queen of her husband’s heart, and 
 mistress of his house; but she may live, rear 
 children and die, subject to her mother-in-law, 
 widowed aunts and elder sisters-in-law. She 
 may never talk with her husband openly and 
 frankly before them; and never understand the 
 first syllable of her rights or the freedom of 
 women; and even to resent the slightest sugges- 
 tion of them is regarded as the deepest heresy. 
 If the family and her husband are kind she is 
 contented and happy. May God pity the woman 
 that suffers and understands as well. 
 
 The story reveals the abominable condition of 
 public opinion, the need of modified legislation 
 for women, and the awful inequality between 
 man and woman. 
 
 47 
 
IV 
 
 ENFORCED WIDOWHOOD 
 
 Widowhood, as well as barrenness, was a 
 kind of shame and reproach in Israel, as may be 
 gathered from the words, “And shalt not re- 
 member the reproach of thy widowhood any 
 more.” Isa. liv. 4. This thought prevails in 
 eastern countries to-day, but it is left to the 
 Hindu to excel in wronging and oppressing the 
 widow. 
 
 In the Old Testament tender provision is made 
 for widows. They were permitted to remarry. 
 God charged the people; “Ye shall not afflict 
 any widow or fatherless child” (Ex. xxii. 22 ), 
 and then follows the solemn warning, coupled 
 with a promise; “If thou afflict them in anywise 
 and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their 
 cry; and My wrath will wax hot, and I will kill 
 you with the sword; and your wives shall be 
 widows, and your children fatherless.” Again, 
 “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve 
 them alive; and let thy widows trust in Me.” 
 What balm these words have been in times of 
 
 bereavement to many hearts in Christian lands. 
 
 48 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 We well remember the night that our own 
 family circle, sobbing and shaken with grief, 
 knelt in the room where a loved father had just 
 passed away, and a neighbor solemnly and ten- 
 derly addressed God in prayer as “The Father of 
 the fatherless and the widow’s God.” The 
 words stood out with new light because for the 
 first time they covered our need. How many 
 times that scene and those words have returned 
 to us as we have beheld the sad face and shaven 
 head of some widow, and made us long to lead 
 her to trust in the same God. 
 
 Then God makes many charges to the Israel- 
 ites, that they “should not take a widow’s rai- 
 ment to pledge,” — Deut. xxiv. 17; “the glean- 
 ings of the harvest field were to be for the stran- 
 ger, the fatherless and the widow,” — Deut. xxiv. 
 19; “they were not to pervert judgment of the 
 widow,” — Deut. xxvii. 19; and “not to take a 
 widow’s ox for pledge.” “ If ye oppress not the 
 widow . . . then will I cause you to dwell 
 
 in this place, in the land that I gave to your fa- 
 thers forever and ever,” — Jer. vii. 6. Job pleads 
 his own righteousness by saying, “ 1 caused the 
 widow’s heart to sing for joy,” — ^job xxix. 13. 
 Ezekiel’s complaint against the people was that 
 
 “they vexed the widow,” — Ezek. xvii. 7. God 
 49 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 through Malachi declares Himself a swift witness 
 against those “that oppress the widow,” — Mai. 
 iii. 5. In the New Testament are the touching 
 passages: “A certain poor widow,” — Mark xii. 
 42, and “ The only son of his mother, and she 
 was a widow,” — Luke vii. 12. What volumes 
 these few words tell! Paul gives a touching de- 
 scription in I Tim. v. 5: “ A widow indeed and 
 desolate.” James gives the closing word: “Pure 
 religion and undefiled before God and the Father, 
 is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in 
 their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted 
 from the world.” In the light of these tender 
 promises, this loving care, these solemn warn- 
 ings, how awful the treatment of Hindu widows 
 appears! 
 
 A Braham convert to Christ said to us very 
 earnestly a few years ago: “1 used to feel very 
 hot toward the English government over what I 
 feel are our wrongs. But when I came to know 
 God, and read the Bible, I understood. I saw 
 God was letting the English make return to us 
 for our long neglect and down-treading of the 
 low castes, and of our oppression of the widow.” 
 
 In 1829, Lord William Bentinck enacted the 
 now famous law that prohibited the Suttee-x\iQ 
 within British dominions whereby a wife could 
 50 
 
SUTTKI', KITIC (HURNINC; T1 IlC DKAI); 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 ascend the funeral-pyre of her husband and per- 
 ish in the flames with the dead body. For more 
 than two thousand years this custom had been 
 in vogue, in which countless lives had been de- 
 stroyed. It was not compulsory, but optional; 
 though no doubt great pressure was brought 
 upon the widow to do it, and it was considered 
 sublimely meritorious by all classes. But once 
 the vow was taken to do it, there was no retreat. 
 If her courage failed her at the last, or as the 
 flames folded about her; or if she managed to 
 escape; she could never be reinstated into her 
 family or caste. 
 
 As a precaution against a failure of courage, 
 women were often drugged, or the wood was 
 tied down upon the body so that escape would 
 be impossible. An eyewitness to a Suttee tells 
 how as the burning woman fled from the pyre, 
 the bystanders among whom were the dead 
 man’s brothers, shouted out: “Cut her down: 
 knock her down with a bamboo; tie her hand 
 and foot and throw her in again.” And this 
 would have been done, had not a humane mag- 
 istrate interfered. The woman fled into the 
 river, and he had her carried to the hospital, as- 
 suring her, that as she would now be cast off by 
 
 her people, she should be the ward of the state. 
 
 51 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Other widows approached the pyre with the 
 greatest heroism and with the lofty idea of all it 
 would mean. Had not their later law-books 
 promised that “ every woman who thus burns 
 herself shall remain in Paradise with her hus- 
 band 350,000,000 years by destiny, also that she 
 would secure salvation to herself, her husband 
 and to their families of the seventh generation ? ” 
 And there is no doubt that many preferred it to 
 the lot of a widow. One writer says, “The 
 momentary agony of suffocation in the flames 
 was nothing compared to her lot as a widow; ” 
 and others have affirmed that, were the hand of 
 law once removed, many would be glad to re- 
 turn to the custom. 
 
 The custom was not practiced in Vedic times. 
 There was not a single text authorizing it, but 
 by a willful mistranslation, of which a part was 
 forged, the priesthood introduced the custom, 
 and later writers sanctioned it. 
 
 The early missionaries to India petitioned gov- 
 ernment to abolish the crime; but they were 
 told “that the social and religious customs of the 
 people constituted no part of the business of 
 the government and that their rule in India might 
 be endangered by such interference.” 
 
 Matters went on till in the early part of this 
 52 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 century, when Lord William Bentinck, who was 
 Governor-General of India, had the courage to 
 enact the law referred to above, which rendered 
 the Suttee a case of culpable homicide and threat- 
 ened with severe penalties all who encouraged or 
 in any way assisted at the ceremony. A petition 
 was sent in to the Privy Council, signed by eight- 
 een thousand people, many of whom represented 
 the best families of Calcutta, asking that this 
 practice might be allowed to continue; and al- 
 though this law was enacted in 1829, it did not 
 take full effect till 1844. In some of the native 
 states it lingered on much longer. Wilkins in 
 his book on “Modern Hinduism,” records the 
 last case he had heard of, as occurring in 1880. 
 
 Says Ramabai: “Now that the Suttee-rite, 
 partly by the will of the people, and partly by 
 the law of the empire, is prohibited, many good 
 people feel easy in their minds, thinking that the 
 Hindu widow has been delivered from her ter- 
 rible fate; but little do they realize the true state 
 of affairs." 
 
 A leading reformer refers to the present suffer- 
 ings of Indian widows as ''cold suttee,” and 
 rightly, too, we think. The very word widow, 
 that should excite the tenderest compassion in 
 
 the hearts of men, is in this land a synonym of 
 63 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 sorrow, grief, shame, wrong, contempt, and 
 desolation. Even the word for widow, “rand,” 
 is the common word for harlot also. What does 
 it matter if the common people add to it the com- 
 pound, “mund,”and call a widow “rand-mund,” 
 for “mund” means shaven, and but intensifies 
 the shame. Among the Marathi people, she is 
 called “bordkee,” a contemptuous term meaning 
 bareheaded, or shaven. 
 
 She is also an inauspicious thing, especially be- 
 cause of the belief that if one sees her the first of 
 any object in the morning, “bad luck” is in- 
 augurated then for the entire day; or if she 
 crosses the path of one who is just starting on a 
 journey, he will postpone his journey, but will 
 not deny himself the luxury of uttering impreca- 
 tions on her defenceless head. 
 
 “Widowhood,” says Pandita Ramabai, “is re- 
 garded as a punishment for sins committed by 
 the woman in her former existence on earth; and 
 that sin is described as disobedience or disloyalty 
 to the husband, or murdering him in a former 
 existence. If the widow be a mother of sons, 
 she is not usually an object of pity. Although 
 she is a sinner, yet social abuse and hatred are 
 mitigated by the fact that she is a mother of the 
 superior beings.” 
 
 54 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 A widow whose children are only girls does 
 not fare so well. But it is on the child-widow, 
 or childless young widow, that the abuse and 
 hatred of the community falls, for “a husband 
 having died sonless has no right to enter heaven 
 or immortality. There is no place for a man 
 who is destitute of male offspring.” 
 
 Of the young widow what shall we say ? If 
 she is a mere child, the cloud passes over her 
 head and for several years leaves no shadow. 
 She is, in her happy, innocent glee, unconscious 
 of what has happened. She romps and plays, 
 and makes “mud-pies,” nestles by her mother’s 
 side, or clambers up on her father’s knees as con- 
 fidingly as any other child; though she may live 
 to know the bitter truth that, some day, custom 
 and religious faith will have a stronger hold on 
 them than parental love. Now and then, some 
 one says some bitter thing or pushes her away as 
 if her touch was defiling. It jars her child-heart, 
 but childhood is full of spring and it may soon be 
 forgotten in some absorbing game. Some day, 
 childlike, she runs to some neighborly scene of 
 festivity only to be sent away, as a widow is a 
 bad omen. She does not understand why she 
 should go, and hence, says Mr. Ragunathrao, 
 
 “she is removed by force. She cries and is re- 
 55 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 warded by her parents with a blow accompanied 
 by such words as these: ‘ You were a most sin- 
 ful being in your previous birth, and you have 
 therefore been widowed. Instead of hiding your 
 shame in a corner of the house, you go and injure 
 others.’ It begins to dawn on her that she is dif- 
 ferent from other girls. She cannot bathe as they 
 do: if a priest comes around, she may be shaven 
 and dressed in widow’s garb and stood before him. 
 She often asks why these things are done to her. 
 During the earlier part of her life she is appeased 
 with some story or other. Later, such devices 
 fail and the truth breaks fully upon her mind.” 
 
 At fifteen or sixteen her beautiful glossy wealth 
 of hair must be shorn; her bright clothes re- 
 moved; no ornaments allowed her; she must eat 
 but one meal a day; must fast twice a month; 
 and must never join in the family feasts or jubi- 
 lees. She is frequently the family drudge; must 
 never think of remarriage; must bear the taunts 
 and suspicions of others and be guarded lest she 
 bring upon the family disgrace by some improper 
 step ; she is never to wear the bright red paint on 
 her forehead that other women wear; she has no 
 right to be bright and happy; and if she weeps 
 much, she may be taunted that she is crying for 
 another husband. 
 
 66 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 Her life becomes hopeless and intolerable. It 
 sometimes ends in a neighboring tank or well, or 
 launches out desperately and defiantly into a life 
 of shame, or becomes entangled in some social 
 infamy that may or may not reach the public 
 gaze; but, at any risk, the family must be shielded 
 from disgrace, even if crime be resorted to. A 
 wide difference is made between the disgrace and 
 the crime. At the disgrace, all tongues wag; at 
 the crime, the neighbors may be mute and say: 
 “Who knows how soon such a trouble may 
 come to our own house.” 
 
 If the young wife is sixteen or seventeen when 
 her husband dies, and without children, the 
 trouble engulfs her without delay. When her 
 husband lies dying, if his parents are there, she 
 is not the one that tenderly ministers to him in 
 his last moments. It would not be proper. If 
 she is in the room at all, it is by sufferance. And 
 when he is gone, it is as if the sun were sud- 
 denly blotted out of the clear sky. The mother- 
 in-law’s grief may be blended with bitter curses, 
 and with the declaration that she is the one that 
 has brought all this misfortune on the house- 
 hold. 
 
 The village barber’s desecrating hands are laid 
 
 upon her hair, and womanhood’s glory and cov- 
 67 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 ering is removed ; for her husband’s body cannot 
 be borne away till this is done. The barber does 
 his work roughly and with no pitying hand, and 
 she endures his coarse taunts and insults in si- 
 lent agony. Her ornaments are stripped from 
 her, and a coarse widow’s garment, white or red, 
 is brought her. How the very iron enters her 
 soul as she touches its coarse texture; and she 
 remembers her lot and disfigurement with a fresh 
 shriek and wail. What a wide, wide chasm 
 this dear soul crosses that night between the past 
 and the future ; but those about her simply say 
 "It is our custom,” and that is what nerves 
 their hands and hearts. 
 
 And what is her future ? It all depends upon 
 herself, and her circumstances. If she remains 
 in her parents’ house, her lot may be much soft- 
 ened, but they do not always dare to defy all for 
 her sake. If she is independent, with some dar- 
 ing and a fund of animal spirits, or if she accepts 
 her fate stolidly, she may still extract a good 
 deal of comfort out of life. Cruel and unkind 
 relatives have it in their power to heat the fur- 
 nace seven times hotter for her. Men of her 
 own household, or strangers may desecrate her 
 womanhood, and complete her ruin. But in the 
 
 case of the high-spirited, sensitive girl who feels 
 68 
 
 ¥ 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 that it is God’s curse upon her, we can only say 
 God pity her! 
 
 We know one such case. She was married at 
 eight and widowed at nine. As she began to 
 comprehend her situation, she began to suffer. 
 She was in her own father’s house, and treated 
 kindly, but her father was an orthodox priest and 
 she was not allowed to deviate from a widow’s 
 lot. She felt she was cursed of God, and that 
 was to her sensitive spirit the hardest of all. 
 What had she done ? From the day her head 
 was shaven, she never put foot outside the front 
 door, and never appeared before a stranger. Her 
 heart and spirit were broken, and she is now fast 
 sinking in consumption. A few more months 
 will complete the sad story; and when she is laid 
 in the grave her coarse widow’s garb will be her 
 only burial robe. 
 
 We know another young girl who was wid- 
 owed at ten. She did not know her husband 
 was so ill, and he died while she, in her girlish 
 glee, was taking part in a neighbor’s wed- 
 ding. She tells how, when those about her 
 heard the news, they were in a procession, and 
 how her heart was cut with their contemptu- 
 ous looks and manner. She could not compre- 
 hend what it meant. She is only thirteen 
 59 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 now, but her spirit is breaking, and her life is 
 blighted. 
 
 The alternative to the Suttee was for the widow 
 to live, but to never mention the name of another 
 man, and by an austere life of piety, she might be 
 reunited to her husband after death. This austere 
 life of piety, of fasting and devotion, no doubt also 
 atoned for the sin in a previous birth that brought 
 the widowhood upon her, and she would also es- 
 cape by it the same awful fate in a birth to come. 
 
 Middle-aged widows are much better able to 
 hold their own and to meet and live out this alter*- 
 native to the Suttee. They are not left entirely 
 desolate, as they have their children left to them, 
 and are comforted in them, and are often loved, 
 and keep their old place of authority and respect 
 in the home. Even if she have no children, her 
 age, in addition to her piety, may win her a place 
 and respect. We know no more touching sight 
 on our streets than the sad face of some elderly 
 pious widow in a group of happy, well dressed 
 daughters-in-law, sisters and nieces. Her face, 
 often wan and pinched with repeated fasting, her 
 shaven head, and her bent form clad in coarse 
 garments, speak volumes as to her attempt to 
 make an atonement for a widowhood for which 
 
 she was never to blame. 
 
 60 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 The custom of enforced widowhood is con- 
 fined to the Hindus, and that chiefly to the higher 
 castes. Many of the lower castes allow widows 
 to remarry, though some of the low castes copy 
 the custom even to the head-shaving. Among 
 Mohammedans, child marriage is not common: 
 and widows remarry as they do in any land: but 
 they heap up wrong against woman in their cus- 
 toms of polygamy and divorce. The Koran al- 
 lows four wives, while a man may divorce his 
 wife at pleasure, on any pretext, by breaking her 
 marriage necklace and bidding her depart. 
 
 When we consult the Census Report of 1891, 
 we find that of the 287,000,000 inhabitants of 
 India, 207,000,000 are Hindus and 57,000,000 are 
 Mohammedans; while the remaining millions are 
 distributed among the other races living in the 
 land. These figures will help us to proportion 
 the wrongs of women. The number of widows 
 is 23,000,000, and of this number, many are mere 
 children and girls, and many of them never 
 knew what it meant to be a wife. 
 
 Hon. P. Chentsalrao says: “I confess it has 
 always been a puzzle to me how a system so in- 
 human and cruel has found existence in this 
 country among a class of men who have culti- 
 vated their feelings of kindness to such a nicety 
 61 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 that they dread to kill an ant, or cut open an 
 egg.” At what antipodes is the cruel treatment 
 of widows and the panjarpole ! (the hospital for 
 aged and disabled horses, dogs, bullocks, mon- 
 keys). 
 
 Rao Bahadur C. H. Deshmukh says: “It must 
 not be forgotten that the priests derive a very 
 large benefit from perpetual widowhood. A 
 widow thinks that her misfortunes arise from 
 her not having attended to religious duties in 
 former lives, and therefore she must devote her 
 time and wealth to pilgrimages, and so on. The 
 wealth of most widows is devoured by priests. 
 It is the widows, rich and poor, that maintain 
 the priests in luxury.” What is to be the remedy ? 
 
 I. We would have remarriage made optional. 
 Manu, the greatest authority next to the Vedas, 
 says that it is unlawful for a woman to mention 
 the name of another man after her husband’s 
 death; and that by remarriage, she brings dis- 
 grace on herself in this world, and shall be ex- 
 cluded from heaven. He also says: “Nor is a 
 second husband anywhere prescribed for a virtu- 
 ous woman.” There is no choice, the edict from 
 which there is no appeal says, “Once a widow, 
 always a widow.” 
 
 In July, 1836, Lord Canning legalized the re- 
 62 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 marriage of Hindu widows. It is called the 
 “Widow Remarriage Act of 1856.” But he did 
 not preserve to them their civil rights. By re- 
 marriage a widow forfeits her life-interest in all 
 property left her by her husband, both movable 
 and immovable. Provision is made in this law 
 that if a widow depart from a life of rectitude 
 she does not forfeit this right. But if she re- 
 marries it is forfeited, “as if,” says the Act, “she 
 had then died.” The law also declares that the 
 offspring of a widow by a second marriage shall 
 not be held to be illegitimate or incapable of in- 
 heriting property. 
 
 There is not sufficient explicitness in the act 
 about the widow’s stridhan (her own personal 
 property). To avoid giving occasion to her late 
 husband’s relatives to bring against her at the 
 time of, or after marriage, the charge of theft, 
 she either abandons this stridhan, or else has to 
 go before a magistrate and make a declaration in 
 respect to it. 
 
 The government was right in sanctioning such 
 marriages, but it did not go far enough. The 
 code says to the widow, “you may marry,” but 
 caste says, “you shall not;” and caste triumphs. 
 A widow may lead an immoral life, and if she 
 
 gets into trouble, caste winks while she gets out 
 63 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 of it, even by crime, and the widow is retained 
 in caste. Real sin has not unfitted her for society, 
 nor has the crime lowered the social standing of 
 those who committed it. But let a virtuous 
 widow remarry; a perfectly lawful step in the 
 eyes of the state; and caste hounds her out of 
 society. 
 
 The loss of property is not the only loss. Both 
 husband and wife are excommunicated, and per- 
 haps their nearest relatives with them; and these 
 relatives can only be reinstated at an enormous 
 cost. Europeans can hardly judge what this 
 social ostracism is that separates a man from all 
 that he holds dear. No one, on the pain of ex- 
 communication themselves, can eat with them; 
 no one is willing to marry their children; no one, 
 at the time of death, is willing to bury them; nor 
 are they allowed to worship in the public temples. 
 To the clannish Hindu this is an awful price to 
 pay. Caste, if it chooses, can keep up its petty 
 persecutions and make a man’s life unendurable. 
 Mr. Malabari in speaking of this says: “ In human 
 custom, caste is more potent in its secret perse- 
 cutions than was the inquisition of Spain.” 
 
 At the beginning of remarriages, the little per- 
 secutions were even sorer than now. No one 
 
 was allowed to trade with them, no barber would 
 64 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 shave the man, they were not allowed to use water 
 out of the public wells. Rao Bahadur was a gov- 
 ernment official, being a judge of the Bombay 
 Small-Cause Court. He was the first one to 
 marry a widow in the Purbhu caste. A short 
 time after his marriage, the corpses of both hus- 
 band and wife were found floating in a well. 
 None could tell whether they had committed 
 suicide, or whether it was the work of villainy. 
 So deep was the feeling of bitterness, and the 
 sense of shame and disgrace, against widow re- 
 marriage, and against the parties who broke the 
 old custom, that the latter was not improbable. 
 
 Ramabai tells of a high caste man in Cutch 
 who, feeling unable to endure the persecutions 
 that followed his marriage with a widow, com- 
 mitted suicide. At present the subject is more 
 familiar to all classes, and even in villages, one 
 can express his sympathy with the subject of re- 
 marriage without rebuke. But the lot of those 
 who do remarry is still sore enough, and the 
 penalties of excommunication can never be lightly 
 despised. 
 
 Madhowdas Ragnathdas, the first Guzerati 
 Hindu to marry a widow, says his experience 
 has taught him that “the Widow Remarriage 
 
 Act of 1856 is nothing more than a pronounce- 
 65 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 ment of pious intentions. For all practical pur- 
 poses it has proved a dead letter, and will remain 
 so unless the legislature will introduce into it 
 special clauses for the protection of the parties to 
 a widow remarriage from caste persecutions. 
 The unfortunate couple becomes, under existing 
 circumstances, not only the victim of a formal 
 excommunication by caste, but also of dark de- 
 signs and secret plottings, and it is impossible to 
 bring the authors of them to book.” In proof, 
 one has only to read his interesting book, “The 
 Story of a Widow Remarriage,” and see how, for 
 eighteen years, influential castemen never forgave 
 him but sought to injure him on every occasion. 
 
 Once, after the resignation of Sir Richard 
 Temple as Governor of Bombay, the Acting 
 Governor, Hon. Mr. Ashburner, held two even- 
 ing parties at government house to which he and 
 his wife were invited. This was too much for 
 some of his fellow-castemen who were deter- 
 mined to stop future invitations, and they even 
 to the length of having one gentleman wait on 
 Mr. Ashburner and tell him that many respecta- 
 ble gentlemen had been displeased with the 
 presence of excommunicated persons at govern- 
 ment house parties. The latter agreed that he 
 
 would make inquiries and then do what he 
 66 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 thought proper. Friends of Mr. Madhowdas 
 took up the matter, and when Mr. Ashburner 
 understood the case, he said he saw no reason 
 whatever to remove his name from the list of 
 guests of the government house. 
 
 Mr. Justice Rande estimates the number of 
 widow remarriages to be about five hundred; 
 and in his address before the Eleventh Indian 
 Social Congress which was held last year at 
 Amraoti, Berar states that in all India last year 
 there were twenty-five widow remarriages cele- 
 brated. In the Punjab there were ten; in Bom- 
 bay, six; in the Central Provinces, four; in Ma- 
 dras, three; and in the Northwest Provinces and 
 Bengal, one each. He said the paucity of the 
 total number was partly due to the calamities — 
 plague and famine — of the year, and partly to 
 the prohibition of all marriages on account of the 
 year being a Sinhast year. And may we add 
 that it may be in part due to the fact that at pres- 
 ent, there is a decided retrograde movement on 
 the subject of reform in India, and a disposition 
 to return to the old ways. But we are glad to 
 say that Bombay presidency is said to average 
 six remarriages a year. 
 
 The congress also passed a resolution which is 
 
 in itself a running commentary on the defective 
 67 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 working of the act of 1856. The resolution was 
 in substance that a widow on remarriage be al- 
 lowed civil rights in regard to her late husband’s 
 property that had been left her; that there be a 
 better understanding as to her rights in respect 
 to her stridhan or personal property; that the 
 pair be allowed religious liberty to Worship in 
 the public temples; and lastly, a protest against 
 the disfigurement of widows by head shaving. 
 
 We devoutly wish that the work of the Social 
 Congress did not end in resolutions. Perhaps no 
 one says harder things of the inconsistencies of 
 the congressu'ala, than some of their own num- 
 ber. Says an editor in a recent issue; “ Educated 
 India at any rate was expected to come to the 
 rescue, and give a new direction to the trend of 
 public opinion; but the hope has never been 
 realized. Speaking from congress platforms and 
 loudly demanding political rights and privileges 
 from government, might certainly direct their at- 
 tention with great effect to social matters.” 
 
 But what of the reformers whose practice does 
 not tally with their preaching? Ramabai says: 
 “I have known men of great learning and high 
 reputation who took oaths to the effect that if 
 they were to become widowers and wished to 
 remarry again, that they would not marry a child 
 68 
 
PORTRAIT OF RAMAHAI GROUP OF CHILD WIDOWS 
 
4 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 but would marry a widow. But no sooner had 
 their first wives died, than they forgot all about 
 the oaths and married little girls. Society threat- 
 ens them with excommunication, their friends 
 and relatives entreat them with tears, others offer 
 money and maids if they will only give up the 
 idea of marrying a widow. Few have been able 
 to resist all this.” 
 
 A better authority than Mr. Madhowdas Rag- 
 nathdas could not be found on this side of Indian 
 life, for he not only married a widow himself, 
 but openly identified himself with the cause. 
 His home became an asylum for those who 
 wished to remarry; and he assisted them not 
 only with his sympathy but with his substance. 
 He says there have been widow remarriages in 
 this province both among Gujerati and Marathi 
 Hindus, hut in almost all cases the bridegrooms 
 came from the uneducated classes. The edu- 
 cated have not led the way." 
 
 We would not be unfair. The verbal agitation 
 of the subject has no doubt done much to clear 
 the atmosphere, but how much greater a power 
 would the agitation have been had it been backed 
 by the personal action of the reformers. The 
 back of the difficulty might have been broken by 
 this time. 
 
 69 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 In the world money is power. This thought 
 is borne out by the names of the coins in other 
 lands. We have the British “sovereign,” the 
 French “ napoleon,” and the American “almighty 
 dollar; ” and so in India the silver rupee can atone 
 for much. Widow remarriage is not an inviting 
 prospect for a poor man. But the wealthy and 
 influential have been better able to bear the diffi- 
 culties and live them down. Money can get 
 husbands and little wives for the children of out- 
 casted parents; and money can alleviate the com- 
 mon lot; though we have heard of men who 
 have gone back to their villages and, after four 
 or five years, when their anger had cooled off, 
 they were reinstated in caste without a word. 
 
 What we ask is, that government, having 
 made it lawful for a widow to remarry, should 
 still feel she is a government ward and protect 
 her from the persecutions of caste. Caste should 
 not be allowed to defy law with such a high 
 hand as to deter one of its members from acting 
 according to law. A man may refuse to eat 
 with another if he likes, or to marry his children, 
 or refuse to associate with him; but he should 
 have no power to prevent others doing so if they 
 so choose, nor power to persecute or hinder or 
 
 injure the man or such of his friends as may 
 70 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 choose to support his cause. We feel that it is 
 the duty of government to protect the rights of 
 individual members of society, as is done in other 
 lands. 
 
 To men whose only crime is that they followed 
 their own convictions of right, convictions which 
 the law has sanctioned, there should be some 
 means of redress. This is not a matter of reli- 
 gion. It is downright iniquity to allow any class 
 of people in these enlightened days to deprive 
 their fellow-men of all social and religious liberty. 
 Had America handed back the Philippine Islands 
 to Spain, it would have been on the condition 
 that, throughout the islands, there should be re- 
 ligious liberty. This would have been one of the 
 very first conditions. If the facts were known, 
 as they really are, of the religious and social tyr- 
 anny existing among the Hindus under English 
 rule, there would be much greater indignation 
 than there is. Reform will never come from 
 within. Among the Hindus and Mohammedans 
 the A B C of religious and social liberty is un- 
 known. 
 
 2. Head shaving is a cruel wrong. Men have 
 no right to disfigure a woman without her wish 
 and consent, simply because she has borne a 
 
 great sorrow and lost her natural protector. It 
 71 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 must be done if the wife is fifteen years or more 
 of age, before the body of the husband can be 
 carried to the burning-ground. A priest is un- 
 willing to burn the body without its having been 
 done. The hair is burned with the dead body. 
 It is popularly believed that if the woman keeps 
 her hair on her head, that it binds her husband’s 
 soul in hell. Others say that it is done to make 
 her less attractive to other men. An increasing 
 number of widows refuse to submit to it, but it 
 is considered a shameless and disgraceful thing 
 to do. Perhaps none are harder upon young 
 widows than old shaven widows, although they 
 have suffered themselves. 
 
 After the first shaving it is periodically done. 
 Among the Deccan Brahmans it is done every 
 two weeks. If the widow be a mere child she 
 escapes till she is fifteen or sixteen, and then the 
 hour can no longer be evaded. As an illustration 
 of how deep-rooted this custom is, we knew of 
 an old couple, of sixty and seventy years of age, 
 who were both smitten with the plague last year. 
 The wife survived the husband but four hours, 
 yet when he died, iron custom laid its hand upon 
 the aged wife, though she was uncpnscious and 
 dying, and shaved her head! 
 
 A woman’s hair is her covering and crown of 
 
 72 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 glory, and it is a cruel indignity to deprive her of 
 it. Government must see that the custom is not 
 enforced if the widow is unwilling: that it should 
 at least be optional. 
 
 3. We protest against the social position given 
 to widows — the ban that is put upon them for 
 widowhood. If a plain dress is considered be- 
 coming to a woman as a widow, why should it 
 be of a coarser texture than that of her sisters ? 
 Why must she fast and other women not ? Why 
 should she not share freely in the comforts and 
 pleasures of the family ? Why should she not 
 be allowed a part in the religious portion of any 
 family festivity ? Why should widows be made 
 to eat by themselves at weddings and other 
 feasts ? Why must they shrink guiltily back as 
 they cross some one’s path, for fear of being a 
 bad omen to him ? Why should the widow be 
 so often an object of suspicion and solicitude for 
 fear she bring disgrace upon the family ? Why 
 should men treat her as they dare treat no mar- 
 ried woman ? Would a man be willing to live 
 under such a ban ? Never! Is it strange then if 
 many widows lose heart and ambition; or that 
 this very ban increases temptation for them ? 
 They lose self-respect, and men more oft respect 
 
 them less than other women. 
 
 73 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Says Mr. Madhowdas: “It is contended that 
 ‘it tends to the spiritual exaltation of the widow. 
 Deprived of her lord, she renounces the fleeting 
 joys of the world, and consecrates her life to 
 works of piety and benevolence. She is a sister 
 of charity and of mercy in her house and on the 
 street. She is by the bedside of the sick; she 
 comforts the weary and miserable; she has a 
 word of advice for all; she is the centre from 
 which radiates a divine light. Her heart is full 
 of happiness and she looks forward with eager- 
 ness to the day when her life of devotion and 
 unselfishness will be ended and she may rejoin 
 her husband.’ . . . There may be a widow 
 
 here and there, one in ten thousand, whose beau- 
 tiful life approaches this ideal. The unnatural 
 restraint put upon them cannot make angels of 
 them. There is nothing to exalt and uplift them: 
 there is much to debase them. There are un- 
 doubtedly many who are leading exemplary 
 lives; but they are good and pious, not because 
 of the custom, but in spite of it. I do not sug- 
 gest for a moment that all young widows go 
 wrong, but 1 do say that the prohibition is calcu- 
 lated to lead them wrong, and not to their spirit- 
 ual exaltation, as has been vainly supposed.” 
 
 If it is true that this treatment of the widow is 
 74 
 
Enforced Widowhood 
 
 for her spiritual exaltation, then why must the 
 ban follow her even after death; for if a widow 
 dies without children, she is not allowed a reli- 
 gious ceremony at her funeral! 
 
 When we remember the words quoted at the 
 beginning of this subject, we do not hesitate to 
 say that we believe that India is suffering to-day 
 in part for her treatment of the widow. 
 
 75 
 
V 
 
 THE ZENANA 
 
 As we alighted from the Bombay mail one 
 morning to the platform of the station of one of 
 our northern cities, we saw a Mohammedan gen- 
 tleman hurrying about the platform. Then there 
 appeared four men bearing a palanquin, who, 
 under his direction, placed it opposite the door 
 of a second-class carriage that had its windows 
 all closed. There was a good deal of bustle, and 
 finally servants held up a cloth on each side of 
 the carriage door, thus making a covered pass- 
 ageway from the carriage to the palanquin. 
 What was it, that had arrived in the train for 
 this man that he so zealously shielded from the 
 gaze of the people crowded on the platform ? 
 Had some one sent him a Mysore tiger, and was 
 he afraid it would get away ? We carefully 
 watched the proceedings, and lo! beneath the 
 cloth, stepping out of the carriage, we beheld 
 the feet — not of a tiger, but of a woman. In a 
 moment the servants dropped the cloth, and the 
 bearers picked up the palanquin on their shoul- 
 ders and walked off. Its doors were closed, and 
 76 
 
The Zenana 
 
 we saw no one but the gentleman and the serv- 
 ants that followed it. He had probably come to 
 meet his wife, and their greeting could remain 
 until their home was reached. She, in her seclu- 
 sion, is what is popularly called in India a Zenana 
 or Purdah lady. 
 
 “The veil, as instituted by Mohammed and 
 prescribed in the Koran is,” says Sir William 
 Muir, “obligatory on all who acknowledge the 
 authority of the book. Taken in conjunction 
 with the other restrictions there imposed on 
 domestic life, it has led to the institution of the 
 Harem and Zenana — that is, the private portion 
 of the home in which women are, with more or 
 less stringency in various lands, secluded from 
 the outer world.” 
 
 The harem is an Arabic term meaning any- 
 thing forbidden or not to be touched. And as 
 we become more fully acquainted with the sys- 
 tem, we find how fitting the name is. The se- 
 clusion of women has existed among other peo- 
 ples, “ but it is among the modern Mohammedan 
 peoples that it has attained its most perfect de- 
 velopment; and the harems of the Sultan of Tur- 
 key and the Shah of Persia, may be taken as the 
 most elaborate and best known specimens of the 
 
 type; ” and to these we might add the Zenanas 
 77 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 of the native rulers of Mohammedan states in 
 India. 
 
 The word Zenana, confined in its use to India, 
 is of Persian origin. Zan is the word for women 
 and Zenana means pertaining to women. The 
 word Zenana, as popularly used, means the 
 apartments devoted exclusively for the women 
 of the household of an Indian gentleman. When 
 we use the term “ Zenana woman,” we mean 
 one who lives in seclusion. The word purdah 
 means a veil, and a “purdah lady” is a term 
 used in the same sense. 
 
 The veil or purdah as instituted by Moham- 
 med, has the following history. Mohammed 
 was married at the age of twenty-five to a 
 widow of forty by the name of Khadija. But in 
 spite of the disparity of years, it was a happy 
 union. She believed in him, in his visions and 
 in his call; and was a great source of strength 
 and encouragement to him. Two months after 
 her death he married Sauda, another widow, and 
 was betrothed to Ayesha a little girl of six or 
 seven who, till his death, remained his favorite 
 and most beloved wife. 
 
 It was after his flight to Medina, that his do- 
 mestic life, as well as his general character, 
 
 underwent so great a change. He had married 
 78 
 
The Zenana 
 
 five wives since the death of Khadija. Muir 
 says: “He was now going on to threescore 
 years: but the weakness for the sex only seemed 
 to grow with his years, and the attractions of his 
 increasing harem were insufficient to prevent his 
 passion from wandering beyond its ample limits. 
 Happening one day to visit the dwelling of his 
 adopted son, Zeid, he found him absent. As he 
 knocked, Zeinab, wife of Zeid, started up to 
 array herself decently for the prophet’s reception. 
 But her good looks had already, through the 
 half-open door, unveiled themselves too freely 
 before his admiring gaze, and Mohammed, smitten 
 by the sight, exclaimed: ‘Gracious Lord! Good 
 heavens! How thou dost turn the hearts of 
 men! ’ 
 
 “Zeinab overheard the prophet’s words, and 
 proud of her conquest, told her husband. He 
 went at once to Mohammed, and offered to di- 
 vorce his wife for him. ‘ Keep thy wife to thy- 
 self,’ he answered, ‘and fear God.’ But the 
 words fell from unwilling lips. Zeid was ten 
 years younger than Mohammed, and he was 
 short and ill-favored; and now that his wife 
 seemed to court so distinguished an alliance, he 
 probably did not care to keep her any longer as 
 his wife, so he formally divorced her. The 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 prophet hesitated. Zeid was his adopted son, 
 and to marry the divorced wife of an adopted son 
 was unheard of in Arabia and would create a 
 scandal. But the flame would not be stifled. 
 And so, casting his scruples to the winds, he re- 
 solved to have her. The prophetic ecstasy 
 seemed to come upon him. As he recovered he 
 said, ‘Who will run and tell Zeinab that the 
 Lord hath joined her to me in marriage?’ and 
 this was done without delay.” 
 
 The marriage caused no small obloquy; and, 
 to save his reputation, Mohammed had recourse 
 to revelation. The Almighty sanctioned it, and 
 the scandal was removed by the revelation, and 
 Zeid was no longer called the “son of Moham- 
 med,” as the revelation had included the admoni- 
 tion that adopted sons were to go by the names 
 of their natural fathers. 
 
 “About this time,” says M-utf, “the veil was 
 established for the female sex.” “The reason 
 for its imposition was said to be that Moslem 
 women were exposed to rude remarks from men 
 of the baser sort as they walked about. But the 
 prophet's own recent experience in the unwilling 
 sight of Zeinab's charms was perhaps a stronger 
 reason." He then promulgated the following 
 command; 
 
 80 
 
The Zenana 
 
 “ Speak unto women that they restrain their eyes and pre- 
 serve their modesty, and display not their ornaments, excepting 
 that which cannot be hid. And let them cast their veils over 
 their bosoms and not show their ornaments saving to their hus- 
 bands, their fathers, their sons, nephews, slaves and children.” 
 
 Muir adds: “Out of this command of the 
 Koran have grown the stringent usages of the 
 Harem and Zenana, which, with more or less se- 
 clusion, prevail throughout the Moslem world. 
 However degrading and barbarous these usages 
 appear, yet, with its loose code of polygamy and 
 divorce, some restraints of the kind seem almost 
 indispensable in Islam, if only for the maintenance 
 of decency and social order.”) 
 
 Mohammed was even severer with his own 
 wives. “No one, unless bidden, was to enter 
 their apartments; they were not to be spoken to 
 but from behind a curtain; and, to slake the last 
 embers of jealousy, a divine interdict was de- 
 clared against their ever marrying again.” 
 According to Muir, Mohammed had eleven 
 wives, including two slave girls. The number 
 seems uncertain. Abulfeda limits it to fifteen, 
 while other Arabian historians make it as many 
 as twenty-five. He limited his followers, how- 
 ever, to four wives each; but on account of the 
 facility of divorce among them, though a man 
 
 may never have more than four wives at one 
 81 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 time, yet he may be married many times. A 
 traveller once met an Arab, not an old man 
 either, who had been married fifty times. We 
 knew of a family where the first and second 
 wives were permanent, but the changes kept 
 taking place in Nos. 3 and 4. 
 
 When the Mohammedans invaded India, they 
 brought the custom of the Zenana with them. 
 They often forcibly added a beautiful Hindu 
 woman to their households, even though she had 
 a husband. Hence, to protect themselves from 
 their unscrupulous Mohammedan neighbors, the 
 Hindus began to keep their women indoors, and 
 to veil them carefully. Miss Thoburn says: 
 “ Oriental women have always lived more or 
 less in the background, but Mohammed shut 
 them within four walls and turned the key.” 
 The custom prevails among Mohammedans 
 wherever they are found in India, except the 
 very poor whose wives are forced to labor as 
 well as the husbands; and they often have only 
 one room for all the family to live in. But, here 
 and there, you find a poor man who even in his 
 poverty clings with great pride to the system as 
 tenaciously as his wealthier neighbors. 
 
 Among the Hindus the system prevails largely 
 
 in Bengal, the North, and the Northwest; es- 
 82 
 
The Zenana 
 
 pecially where Mohammedanism is the strongest, 
 and in the old Mohammedan capitals, and in the 
 Mohammedan native states. In the Western 
 and Southern portions of India, it only prevails 
 to a certain extent among the better classes. 
 With the exceptions of the royal families in the 
 Marathi native states, the Zenana does not exist 
 among the Marathi people. That no doubt ac- 
 counts for the freedom of the women in the city 
 of Bombay. A lady who lived in North India 
 for several years, told us that she had seen more 
 women on the streets in Bombay in one day than 
 she had seen during all her stay in the North. 1 
 The thing that struck us most on our first visit to 
 the North was the small number of women we 
 met on the streets. 
 
 While the Zenana system has not been adopted 
 by the lower castes in the North, and not gener- 
 ally adopted by the Hindus of the West and 
 South, yet it has affected public opinion and 
 thereby restricted the liberty of women to a great 
 extent throughout the country; and when you 
 speak of the women of these sections being free, 
 it must be remembered there are many limitations 
 to their freedom. 
 
 We have no idea of the number of women 
 
 who thus live in seclusion, but it is, we are glad 
 83 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 to say, a small proportion of the whole number 
 of more than 140,000,000 of women in India. 
 But this fact does not lessen the wrong of the 
 institution. 
 
 1. It deprives them of outdoor liberty and rec- 
 reation, and must affect not only their own 
 health, but that of their children. It is asserted 
 that a large percentage of Zenana women die of 
 consumption. Where the Zenana is very strictly 
 kept, as at Hyderabad, the women and their 
 young slave-attendants are practically prisoners, 
 servants guard the front entrances to their apart- 
 ments, and if the ladies make a call, or take a 
 journey, the greatest precaution is taken to secure 
 their seclusion. In Lucknow we have seen 
 ladies borne past in closed palanquins over which 
 was spread a covering of cloth. How stifling it 
 must have been! 
 
 A Mohammedan gentleman in Bombay, ac- 
 customed to some laxity in his own household, 
 told us that when he was in Northern India, he 
 saw, on one occasion, a lady put in a closed rail- 
 way carriage and then over the whole carriage 
 was thrown a tent. “That,” he added, “was 
 a little too much Zenana for me.” A Hindu 
 gentleman who has lived in Hyderabad for many 
 
 years, told us that when a wealthy Zenana lady 
 84 
 
The Zenana 
 
 wished to make a call, the street was cleared for 
 her, and she was conveyed to her destination in a 
 palanquin shielded by a cloth on both sides. He 
 also said that once he had some workmen repair- 
 ing a house, and as they worked on one high 
 corner, they were discovered by the occupants 
 of the Zenana below in the next house. The 
 husband rushed out with a gun and would have 
 fired, had not our friend interfered. They were 
 suspected of climbing to that point so as to look 
 into the Zenana. 
 
 2. It makes a woman constantly conscious of 
 her sex. All this is done to shield her from the 
 gaze of man. In ordinary Zenanas, if a water- 
 carrier or other workman has to come into the 
 Zenana court, warning is given so that the lady 
 can flee to her room, or two servants hold up a 
 cloth before her and screen her till the man passes 
 out. The Koran, as quoted above, allows her to 
 see her father, brothers and nephews in addition 
 to her husband, and, as one lady added to us, 
 “and an uncle if he is older than our father.” 
 But in very strict Zenanas this liberty, even, is 
 much limited. 
 
 We know of a Mohammedan lady whose hus- 
 band was absent. Through a lattice or window, 
 
 she saw her little boy, an only child we think, in 
 85 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 physical danger. Mother-love forgot every ban 
 and she rushed into the street to rescue him. On 
 her husband’s return that evening, he was told 
 of it and expressed no displeasure but spoke to 
 her "words of honey.” But she was never seen 
 after that night. Another husband, of whom 
 we know, killed his wife because a man by the 
 merest accident saw her back through an open 
 door, though she was unconscious of it. A lady 
 described to us a pilgrimage to Mecca. She was 
 confined to her cabin all through the voyage, 
 while her husband enjoyed the ocean breezes 
 from the deck and had the monotony of the voyage 
 broken by whatever there was to see. 
 
 3. The confinement limits their experience of 
 life to a very small horizon and keeps them chil- 
 dren. If they cannot read, their knowledge of the 
 outside world depends on hearsay. If a husband 
 is so minded, he can greatly misrepresent events 
 and the world to her. We recently heard of the 
 statement made in a paper conducted in the in- 
 terests of the Zenana, that the Western world 
 was beginning to adopt the system. 
 
 4. The segregation of the sexes is a great evil. 
 It was never the Creator’s plan, but, guaging 
 human nature, it was man’s plan to save the purity 
 
 of his wives and the sanctity of his home. But 
 86 
 
The Zenana 
 
 like all man’s remedies for man, it is a failure. 
 An author quoted in Dr. Murdoch’s book says: 
 “Instead of promoting virtue, it has tended to 
 render the iihagination prurient.” Dr. Fallon 
 scandalized the Anglo-Indian press with the quo- 
 tations and proverbs used in his Hindustani-Eng- 
 lish Dictionary, but in defence he said: “There 
 
 is much to be learned from many an otherwise 
 objectionable quotation, if one is willing to learn. 
 It is of the greatest importance, for instance, to 
 know to what depths human nature can sink in 
 the vitiated atmosphere of enforced female se- 
 clusion, as contrasted with the purity to which 
 men and women rise as social restraints are with- 
 drawn, and they are permitted to breathe the 
 pure air of liberty and indulge in free social in- 
 tercourse.” 
 
 Miss Hewlett says: “The idea that because a 
 woman is kept in seclusion she is more modest 
 or womanly, is a sentiment without foundation 
 in fact, as frequently where purdah is more 
 strictly observed, the greatest impropriety pre- 
 vails behind the scenes.” “God meant the 
 home,” says Murdoch, “to be a place of inter- 
 course, where husbands and wives, brothers and 
 sisters, male and female relatives and friends, 
 
 gather together round the same hearth in loving 
 87 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 confidence and mutual dependence.” It is the 
 only safeguard of domestic happiness, and even 
 of national blessing. Says Muir: “It is impos- 
 sible for a people who, contrary to nature, ex- 
 clude from their outer life the whole female sex, 
 materially to rise in the scale of civilization. 
 Men suffer from the loss of the refining influence 
 of woman’s society. In such society they cease 
 to talk of what they do not want their wives and 
 daughters to know and hear. We have known 
 the basest man to check his oath or coarse jest, 
 and drop into a reverential, confused silence in 
 the presence of a refined woman. Let the sexes 
 intermingle, and many men will become what 
 they want their women to be.” 
 
 A “ Kashmiri Pandit,” after residing some time 
 in England, thus gives his experience in the 
 Indian Magazine: 
 
 “To live for three or four years in a society in 
 which men and women meet, not as masters and 
 slaves, but as friends and companions — in which 
 feminine culture adds grace and beauty to the 
 lives of men; to live in a society in which the 
 prosaic hours of hard work are relieved by the 
 companionship of a sweet and educated wife, 
 sister, or mother, is the most necessary discipline 
 
 required by our Indian youths, in order that they 
 88 
 
The Zenana 
 
 may be able to shake off their old notions and to 
 look upon an accomplished womanhood as the 
 salt of human society which preserves it from 
 moral decay. There is a very pernicious notion 
 prevalent in India, that a free intercourse between 
 the sexes leads to immorality. 1 confess that, 
 before I came to England, I believed there was 
 some truth in this notion. But now 1 believe no 
 such thing. My own impression is, that the 
 chief safety-valve of public and private morality 
 is the free intercourse between the sexes.” This 
 is the sore need of India, and we hope the pur- 
 dah will soon be rent in twain, and woman be 
 emancipated. 
 
 It is often suggested to us that the different 
 denominations among Christians must be a great 
 hinderance and stumbling-block in India. Some 
 of our Indian contemporaries have learned this 
 objection, and occasionally assail the missionaries 
 and the cause of Christ with it, as if sects were 
 unknown in India and unity of mind was a char- 
 acteristic of the country. The difficulty should 
 not be an incomprehensible one to an Indian mind. 
 India is full of sects, so that in writing an article 
 for the press, it is difficult to make a statement 
 that covers all India, or even one of its divisions. 
 
 The Hindus are divided into innumerable sects 
 89 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 that vary from one another in customs and even 
 in dress. The Braham community consists of 
 divisions and subdivisions that will not inter- 
 marry or eat together. This is also true of the 
 Indian Reformers. We have the Brahmo-Samaj, 
 the Arya-Samaj, the Prarthna-Samaj, and the 
 Adi-Samaj. The Arya-Messenger has complained 
 most bitterly of late of divisions in the camp and 
 of the danger of greater splits; but when it was 
 hinted that the Arya and Brahmo-Samaj unite, 
 the thought was most indignantly resented. 
 “Never!” said the Messenger, “why, the 
 Brahmo-Samaj is only a kind of Christianity! ” 
 
 When we turn to the Mohammedan commu- 
 nity we find the same conditions there. True, 
 the pious Moslem cries, “There is but one God, 
 Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet,” but with 
 this general creed and the Koran we find them 
 divided into Shias and Sunnias, and these are di- 
 vided and subdivided until it has passed into a 
 proverb that there are seventy-two sects of Mo- 
 hammedans. Hence it is easy to see that in 
 speaking of the Zenana, it is difficult to make 
 general statements that would cover the whole 
 Mohammedan community. 
 
 The customs and practices in North India are 
 
 often very different from those of Bombay; 
 
 90 
 
The Zenana 
 
 while a different state of affairs from all other 
 sections of India exists in the Hyderabad State, 
 where perhaps the Zenana in its strictness, sever- 
 ity and style corresponds more with that of other 
 Mohammedan countries. In Bombay the Zenana 
 can be hardly said to have taken root at all. 
 Strictly speaking, it does not exist among the 
 Khojas. The women of other sects move about 
 more or less freely. A glance at the house in 
 Bombay is proof of this. In Lucknow houses 
 are built with reference to the Zenana. The 
 front of a house may look most unpretentious, 
 but if you pass through into the rear, you will 
 find an open court surrounded on its four sides 
 with the women’s apartments. In our rows of 
 tall four and five story houses in Bombay, where 
 do we find the court, and the Zenana? The 
 land that makes the square court up north, would 
 represent too much money to a shrewd Parsee, 
 or a speculating Hindu investor; and he would 
 run up a four or five-storied chawl on it. It is 
 only in the bungalows with more or less of a 
 compound, that the wealthy Mohammedan, the 
 Arab, and the Persian finds a proper home for 
 his Zenana among us. Perhaps our free Marathi 
 atmosphere of Western India is unfavorable to 
 the Zenana’s growth. 
 
 ' 91 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 In speaking of the Zenana, Sir William Muir 
 suggests that in addition to its being a command 
 of Mohammed, that it may be a necessity to the 
 system. He says: “With polygamy, concu- 
 binage, and arbitrary divorce, some such restraint 
 may be necessary to check the loose matrimonial 
 standard which might otherwise undermine the 
 decencies of social life. But the institution of 
 the veil has nevertheless chilled and checked all 
 civilizing influences, and rendered rude and bar- 
 barous the Moslem world. The veil, and the 
 other relations that make it necessary, are bound 
 up together with the Koran, and from the Koran 
 it is impossible for the loyal and consistent Mos- 
 lem to turn aside.” 
 
 It would be much easier for the Hindus to give 
 up the custom, as it is not commanded by their 
 sacred books and is only custom with them. In 
 speaking to an Indian gentleman of Muir’s sug- 
 gestion that the Zenana holds the social fabric of 
 the Mohammedans together, he said it was not 
 true; that thousands of poor Mohammedans did 
 not keep purdah, and that some communities 
 were very lax in its observance, and yet there 
 was no difficulty. “But,” he added, “Moham- 
 medans are considered the most immoral of na- 
 tions, and it is the Zenana that has made them so.” 
 92 
 
The Zenana 
 
 The seclusion of women is bad enough, but 
 when intensified by polygamy, it is much worse. 
 A man is allowed by the Koran, if he wishes and 
 can support them, to have four wives and as 
 many concubines as he likes. Perhaps the larger 
 number of Mohammedans have only one wife, 
 and an increasing number oppose polygamy; but 
 many still avail themselves of the privilege. It is 
 an expensive luxury. Most of the native princes 
 have been polygamists. It is said that when the 
 last King of Oude was deposed, that there were 
 seven hundred women found in his harem. The 
 majority of this number were no doubt servants 
 and attendants of his wives, for even in some 
 homes of one wife there are from ten to twenty 
 attendants and servants. 
 
 If the polygamist has the means, he usually sets 
 up a separate establishment for each wife: i. e., a 
 suite of rooms, a set of attendants, and a separate 
 courtyard, though one large wall may enclose the 
 whole. But where there can be no such arrange- 
 ment, and the wives live together, it does not re- 
 quire a very great stretch of the imagination to 
 know that there must often be unhappiness, and 
 strife among them: as jealousy must play a part 
 if the husband is more attentive to any one wife 
 than to the others. 
 
 93 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Mohammed himself, had his favorite wife in 
 Ayesha. There is an inherent desire in a woman’s 
 heart that, next to God, she shall be first in her 
 husband’s affections, and she naturally resents 
 the thought of a rival. The system of polygamy 
 has never been able to eradicate this desire. The 
 fact that some polygamous families may live 
 happily and peaceably under the rule of the head 
 wife, is no proof to the contrary. A Moham- 
 medan government official told us once that he 
 had three wives; that his parents had chosen the 
 first one; that she had no children, and they 
 chose a second, and that he was so dissatisfied 
 that he chose a third himself. “ But,” he added, 
 “between the three, 1 live a life of it.” The 
 parents of young girls before they are married 
 often take a written promise from the intended 
 husbands that they will not take another wife. 
 One young girl added in telling of this promise 
 they had obtained: “And my intended husband 
 is a good man and he will never do it.” Said her 
 friend in reply: “Yes, but a pious Mussalman is 
 allowed four by the Koran.” We knew of a 
 wife whom the husband deceived for a long time. 
 She thought she was the only wife, but was almost 
 heart-broken when she discovered that he had 
 
 another wife living in a little house not far away. 
 
 94 
 
The Zenana 
 
 Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, the celebrated traveller 
 in all lands, speaks even yet more strongly : “I 
 have lived in Zenanas and can speak from ex- 
 perience, of what the lives of secluded women 
 can be — the intellect so dwarfed that a woman 
 of twenty or thirty is more like a child, while all 
 the worst passions of human nature are developed 
 and stimulated; jealousy, envy, murderous hate, 
 intrigue running to such an extent that in some 
 countries 1 have hardly ever been in a woman’s 
 house, without being asked for drugs to disfigure 
 the favorite wife, or take away her son’s life. 
 This request has been made of me nearly one 
 hundred times. This is a natural product of a 
 system that we ought to have subverted long 
 ago.” 
 
 Among one sect there is a shameless custom of 
 temporary marriage, which may be contracted 
 for six, nine or twelve months, or for any period 
 that may suit, even for a day. In our astonish- 
 ment, we asked : “ And are these marriages legal, 
 and does the Ka[i unite such couples ? ” The 
 reply came in the affirmative. It was instituted 
 by Mohammed jaafel, sixth Iman from Ali. 
 Some writer in referring to it speaks of it as a 
 great blot upon the morals of Mohammedan so- 
 cial life. 
 
 95 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 In addition to polygamy there is the custom of 
 arbitrary divorce. A man may divorce his wife 
 on any pretext and he need give her no reason if 
 it so please him. In reading through the divorce 
 law of Mohammedans, we were baffled and be- 
 wildered by what seemed to us the petty dis- 
 criminations in the terms used in divorcing a 
 wife. The first chapter opens up with the sen- 
 tence; “There are thirteen different kinds of sep- 
 aration of married parties, of which seven require 
 a judicial decree and six do not.” We at last 
 understand this, that when a man had repeated 
 the words of divorce, “ talaq," three times it was 
 irrevocable. And not until the wife had been 
 married to another man and divorced again, 
 could the first husband remarry her. A wife 
 cannot usually divorce her husband, but she can 
 ask him to divorce her; and unless he choose to 
 do it, she cannot be released. 
 
 There are many checks to divorce, and one is 
 that the husband is required before marriage to 
 make a settlement upon the bride called “mahr,” 
 and that he cannot divorce her without paying 
 this. In well-to-do communities, it is fixed at 
 from one thousand to fifteen hundred rupees; 
 but to make it impossible to divorce her we have 
 
 heard of the sum being put at a very fanciful 
 96 
 
The Zenana 
 
 figure. We read of one case where it was set at 
 twenty-six thousand rupees; and the other day 
 we heard of a young clerk on a salary of ten 
 rupees per month signing an agreement to a 
 “mahr” of three lacs of rupees. Though Mo- 
 hammedanism sanctions a loose system of di- 
 vorce, yet in India it is greatly limited in practice 
 as compared with other Mohammedan countries. 
 There are whole sections of its society in which 
 it is rarely found; and in certain portions of the 
 country this is true even among the better classes. 
 If it did not affect the lot of woman so sorely in 
 making domestic happiness insecure, we would 
 have been glad to have overlooked the subject 
 altogether. 
 
 In conclusion we must say that the Zenana, 
 aside from its being a Mohammedan institution, 
 is at present in India largely a custom, a fashion, 
 and a standard of respectability. The majority 
 of women in the Zenanas do not look upon 
 themselves as martyrs to an evil custom; but, 
 says a writer, “It has now become to Indian la- 
 dies part and parcel of their creed. Modesty, in a 
 word, is to them as the very breath of their nos- 
 trils. To do away with it is a violation of one 
 of the virtues of a woman.” 
 
 They even take a great pride in their seclusion. 
 
 97 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 The custom has become a token of great respect- 
 ability. Dr. Murdoch quotes Miss Bielby, as say- 
 ing: “A man’s social standing in his own class 
 depends, in a great measure, upon whether he 
 can afford to keep his wife and daughters in 
 Zenana or not.” We have known of families 
 who have lost wealth and become very poor; 
 and the women have been forced from behind 
 the purdah by great suffering to seek to earn a 
 livelihood. It has been to them like parting with 
 their respectability to do it. We knew of a 
 Hindu lady who had never left the house but 
 once, and that was to go to her husband’s house 
 as a bride. With what pride she must have 
 viewed such intense respectability. 
 
 Hindu women have a little more laxity than 
 Mohammedans in going on pilgrimages and to 
 bathing ghauts. The chadar well drawn down 
 over the face preserves the purdah for them. It 
 is amusing to know that in Benares the purdah 
 is most strictly kept. A prime-minister of some 
 native state came to Benares and drove about 
 with his wife in a carriage, when he was asked 
 by the Hindus to desist from it. Marathi and 
 Guzerati ladies on going to Benares to live, go 
 into seclusion. We know of one such Guzerati 
 
 lady who came to Bombay on a visit and went 
 98 
 
The Zenana 
 
 about the city freely. On her return to Benares 
 in the seclusion of her purdah she laughingly 
 told a lady: “Oh, when 1 was in Bombay, 1 
 went about the streets with a bag in my hands 
 just as you do.” A friend writing from Guzerat, 
 in speaking of the seclusion of Hindu ladies there 
 says: “Amongst Hindus other than Rajputs and 
 the better class Kunbis (cultivators), the Zenana 
 custom is very little in vogue. However there is 
 a tendency among the wealthier families of all 
 classes to affect the Zenana seclusion. It is com- 
 ing to be considered fashionable and good form 
 for the ladies in the houses of the rich.” 
 
 But it is said that women are contented in 
 their seclusion. This is true. So is the canary, 
 that was born in the cage and never tasted the 
 sweets of the free air. It is also asserted that 
 the women are not clamoring for emancipation. 
 But these statements, though true, do not in any 
 way lessen the evil of the system to woman and 
 to society; and we earnestly hope that it will 
 soon be done away. 
 
 99 
 
VI 
 
 MURALIS 
 
 We have in our possession a small band of 
 black cloth on which are sewn seven cowries, 
 the necklace of the Miirali. Our first knowledge 
 of this class of persons was given us years ago 
 in a very practical way. A servant in whom we 
 were much interested had a little niece of about 
 nine years of age who had been married to a 
 sword. We had heard all about the wedding, 
 and how the wee child had, at last, fainted 
 through sheer fatigue during the long festivities. 
 
 But why was she married to a sword, and 
 whose sword was it } Slowly the truth dawned 
 upon us. We found that the sword or dagger 
 belonged to the god Khandoba, and that inevi- 
 table moral ruin awaited the child. She was a 
 Mur alt. We were greatly shocked, but to our 
 remonstrances, the servant had but one reply; 
 “ It is our custom.” We became possessed with 
 a desire to save the child from the life that surely 
 awaited her. The servant finally brought her to 
 us, and she was put in a school. A few years 
 
 later, in spite of our efforts to prevent it, the girl 
 too 
 
Mural is 
 
 was removed by her relatives, and is now a 
 young woman living a life of shame, supporting 
 her mother with her earnings. We never see 
 her, but we think of what she might have been, 
 and the words come unbidden: 
 
 “ Of all sad words of tongue or pen. 
 
 The saddest are these, ‘ it might have been.’ ” 
 
 Now what are Miiralis and who is Khandoba, 
 this Indian Blue-beard } There has been consid- 
 erable agitation on the subject of late, and we 
 will try to answer these two questions for our 
 readers. 
 
 Khandoba is a deity of the Marathi country, 
 and is popularly believed to be an avatar, or in- 
 carnation of Shiva. Muralis are girls devoted to 
 him by their parents in infancy or early child- 
 hood. The custom is confined to the Marathi 
 country, with the exception of the Konkon, but 
 it has its counterparts under different names in 
 other parts of the country, as in the Devadasis of 
 South India, and in the Jogtins, Bhaoins and 
 others. 
 
 I. The headquarters of the worship of Khan- 
 doba is at Jejuri in the Poona district. There is 
 also another place of worship called Pali in the 
 
 Satara district; and we have been told of a third 
 101 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 at Agalgaon, sacred to one of Khandoba’s 
 wives; but of the latter we could get but little 
 information. 
 
 A friend who is an authority on this subject 
 has given us the following account; “Jejuri is a 
 small village situated at the foot of a little hill. 
 The temple on its top, and the general surround- 
 ings, remind one of Parvati at Poona. The tem- 
 ple of Khandoba closely resembles the temple of 
 Parvati with the exception of its glittering, gold- 
 plated crown. 
 
 “The shepherds of the Marathi country are 
 special favorites of Khandoba, because one of 
 his wives was a shepherd girl. She was proba- 
 bly a young widow whom he secured and kept 
 shut up for some time, calling her his brother’s 
 wife. But after a while he wooed and won her, 
 and carried her to his home at JeJuri on horse- 
 back. 
 
 “ A little temple on the stairway is sacred to 
 Banai, the shepherd girl who was his favorite 
 wife. In the courtyard facing the inner temple 
 stands a big image of a demon who is named 
 Bali Malla. It was to kill this Bali Malla that the 
 god Shiva took a Khanda or dagger in his hand, 
 and in this way received the title Khandoba. A 
 
 little book called Malhari Mahatmya tells the 
 102 
 
Muralis 
 
 same story in a more elaborate manner. Malla 
 was a terrible demon who used to vex the Rishis 
 living on the top of this hill now crowned with 
 Khandoba's temple. They complained to the 
 king of the gods, but he was powerless. Then 
 all the gods went to Shiva, and besought pro- 
 tection from Malla. Shiva plucked a lock of hair 
 from his head, struck the ground with it in great 
 fury, and created a female demon to fight with 
 the Malla and this army of powerful demons. 
 But this fury required some one else to help her. 
 So Martand Bhairav, one of Shiva’s chiefs, of- 
 fered to fight Malla. He took his seventy mil- 
 lions of evil spirits to help him in the battle. 
 This is the origin of the phrase, ‘Khandoba’s 
 yelkoV which means seventy millions. The fa- 
 vorite title of Khandoba, the head of the seventy 
 million evil spirits, is very appropriate, consider- 
 ing the deeds ascribed to him, and what is still 
 done through his devotees. 
 
 “There is a stone in the courtyard that has 
 seven cuts in it which are supposed to be the 
 marks left by the blows of •his sword when he 
 struck at his elder wife, Mhalsai, who was angry 
 with him for marrying and bringing home Banai, 
 the shepherd girl. Khandoba punished her in 
 
 his anger by striking at her seven times with his 
 103 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 sword; but she hid herself under the rock and 
 was saved. So we see that Khandoba is a model 
 husband whose example is so often imitated by 
 our Marathi people who offend their wives in 
 many ways, and then punish the poor woman 
 for being angry with them. 
 
 “The present temple is not the original resi- 
 dence of Khandoba. It was built by Ahalyabai, 
 the Queen of Indore, (who also has become a 
 goddess, because she was so very good, and is 
 now worshipped all over the country, though 
 more especially in the Marathi country). She be- 
 sought him to come down from the top of the 
 Kade Pathar (the old Jejuri hill) to reside in this 
 temple built by her, so that he could be easily 
 reached by the weak, blind, and lame pilgrims 
 who visit his shrine. The old temple is still vis- 
 ited by some, but this modern shrine receives the 
 general pilgrimages which take place four times 
 in the year — when great bodies of pilgrims visit 
 the temple and pay homage to Khandoba.” 
 
 2. Who are the Muralis ? 
 
 “Outside the main entrance of the temple 
 court, a stone column stands against the wall on 
 the left side. It is about three feet high, and on 
 the head of it is cut a filthy design. The column 
 
 is called by the name of Yeshwantrao, who is 
 104 
 
Muralis 
 
 supposed to be a great god that gives the pil- 
 grims all they want. He it is who gives children 
 to barren women. 
 
 “ It is to this image that poor deluded women 
 promise to sacrifice their firstborn daughters if 
 Khandoba will make them mothers of many chil- 
 dren. Then after the vow, the firstborn girl is 
 offered to Khandoba and set apart for him by 
 tying a necklace of seven cowries around the 
 little girl’s neck. When she becomes of mar- 
 riageable age, she is formally married to the 
 khanda or dagger of Khandoba and becomes his 
 nominal wife. Henceforth she is forbidden to 
 become the wedded wife of man, and the result 
 is that she usually leads an infamous life, earning 
 a livelihood by sin. Some of these girls become 
 wandering muralis. Others become ordinary 
 public women in any town or city; while a few 
 are said to live for years with some one man. 
 
 “The parents of such girls do not feel ashamed 
 to take her earnings, because they belong to 
 Khandoba, and what they do is not sin in the 
 eyes of his devotees. Kunbis, Mahars, Mangs 
 and other low castes make muralis of their 
 daughters in this fashion. Not a few high-caste 
 people visit Jejuri to pay their vows; but they 
 
 never give their own girls to Khandoba, but buy 
 105 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 children from low-caste parents for a small sum 
 of money, which is not a difficult thing to do, 
 and offer them instead of their own children.” 
 
 The vow is frequently made in their own 
 homes in their native villages, and is often made 
 in the case of sickness, that if the god restores 
 the sick one, their child shall be offered to Khan- 
 doba. When the vow is made, yellow powder 
 is rubbed on the child and the cowrie necklace 
 put on. When a suitable time arrives, there is a 
 pilgrimage made to Jejuri and the marriage takes 
 place there with the dagger of the idol which is 
 kept in the temple. But if the family are unable 
 to make the journey, the ceremony is performed 
 at home. 
 
 “ The business of the murali is to sing impure 
 songs in praise of Khandoba; to perform night 
 worship and song-services in honor of their gods 
 at different places; and they earn their living in 
 this way. A manuscript book purchased from a 
 murali was full of these filthy songs, which are 
 sung in the night services and are called Jagrane, 
 or night watches. 
 
 “From earliest childhood their minds are cor- 
 rupted by singing these songs in Khandoba’s 
 praise. To these they add other similar songs 
 
 for the entertainment of their patrons at whose 
 106 
 
Muralis 
 
 houses they are invited to hold night services. 
 So long as they are young and attractive there 
 are many calls for them, and their parents receive 
 large sums of money and other presents. But 
 the life soon stamps its awful mark upon them, 
 and their sad, pale faces can but excite the pity 
 of the compassionate.” 
 
 Boys are also devoted to Khandoba and are 
 called waghyas. They wear a little tiger-skin 
 wallet suspended from their necks. They are 
 popularly spoken of as Khandoba’s dogs. They 
 are allowed to marry, and do not necessarily lead 
 a wandering life unless they choose. The wan- 
 dering ones are usually disreputable. 
 
 We have been unable to get any statistics as to 
 the number of muralis. At Jejuri alone we are 
 told that about one hundred girls are offered 
 every year, and in some years more. In one 
 town where we lived for years, in the midst of a 
 population of ten thousand people, there were 
 two hundred and eighty muralis registered by 
 the police. These two facts give us a little clue 
 to the many hundreds of girls, all over the 
 Marathi country, who have been devoted to this 
 shameful life. 
 
 You may search far and wide, and the only 
 
 reason for this awful crime against young girls 
 107 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 that you will receive is: “It is our custom.” 
 Just how old the custom is, no one knows. It is 
 said not to be mentioned in the sacred books, 
 but the principle, under different names, has 
 existed in India from time immemorial. The 
 Puranas mention nautch-girls, and also speak 
 of public women at certain places who seem to 
 be identical with the present devadasis, or temple 
 girls. Custom and religion cannot be separated 
 in this land. Custom is religion. Present cus- 
 toms, however ancient or modern they may be, 
 make up popular Hinduism. 
 
 At the last yearly meeting of the Christian 
 Woman Workers’ Union, held in Bombay, the 
 matter was taken up, with the view of calling the 
 attention of government to the facts. Carefully 
 collected information as to the custom has been 
 laid before a firm of solicitors in this city by a 
 committee from the Bombay Missionary Confer- 
 ence, to whom the ladies of the Union referred 
 the matter; and the questions asked if any mem- 
 ber of the public could rescue a “murali” who 
 was under age from the life to which she had 
 been devoted, through a court of law; and also, 
 if a member of the public should succeed in get- 
 ting possession of the person of a “murali” 
 
 under age, could her parents or any one else take 
 108 
 
Muralis 
 
 the child away again, if it had been proven that 
 the sole object of the one who rescued her, was 
 to save her from a life of sin. 
 
 The solicitors replied that they thought the ob- 
 ject could be attained under Section 372 and 373 
 of the Indian Penal Code in cases of minors 
 under sixteen years of age. These sections pro- 
 vide that persons disposing of minors for evil 
 purposes, “or knowing that any minor will be 
 so used,” shall be punished with imprisonment 
 of either description for a term which may ex- 
 tend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. 
 The committee add to this the hope that this 
 reply “will be made use of, on the one hand, to 
 deter those purposing to marry their daughters to 
 Khandoba; and, on the other hand, by leading to 
 the rescue of girls from the sad life before them. 
 It is an exceedingly important point to be kept in 
 mind that, in the act of marrying their daughters 
 to Khandoba, parents lose the right of guardian- 
 ship, and a third party can step in to assume the 
 place, provided it is for the girl’s rescue.” 
 
 The difficulty in the above is, that it will re- 
 quire time, a great deal of disinterested effort, 
 and the expense attendant upon it. Who will 
 make the prosecutions ? Will it be left to a few 
 
 missionaries? Or will the educated classes co- 
 109 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 operate ? Perhaps a half dozen prosecutions 
 will break the back of the custom in larger towns 
 and cities, but what of the hundreds of villages 
 away from such influences ? 
 
 But the matter should not be allowed to rest 
 here. The custom is a blot on society and a 
 wrong to women, and should be abolished. 
 Laws in other lands protect the rights of infants 
 and minors. The crime of the Murali question 
 is that thousands of girls, before they are born, 
 or while still infants and mere children, are 
 placed in a position that compels them to become 
 moral and physical wrecks; and the heinousness 
 of it is enhanced by its being done in the name 
 of religion. 
 
 In one district where missionary work has ex- 
 isted for fifty years, and where there is a large 
 number of Christians from the Mahar community, 
 the custom has almost disappeared. Over and 
 over again, as we have penned this chapter, have 
 we thought of the promise in Ezekiel: “From 
 all your filthiness and from all your idols will I 
 cleanse you.” 
 
 An Indian lady, who has recently written on 
 this subject, says: “ I have felt sick at heart, as 1 
 have thought of the thousands of muralis whose 
 
 blood has been shed on the altar of the leader of 
 no 
 
Muralis 
 
 seventy million devils. Khandoba is truly the 
 Beelzebub of the Marathi country. Let us pray 
 to Him who has promised to cleanse us from all 
 our uncleanness, to cleanse the land from all its 
 cruel and filthy customs.” To this prayer we 
 are sure our readers will say, Amen! 
 
 Ill 
 
VII 
 
 DEVADASIS 
 
 Many people outside of India, when they hear 
 of Hindu temples, imagine them to be houses of 
 worship, where the people of the town, men, 
 women and children, regularly assemble for wor- 
 ship. They suppose that here the idol is wor- 
 shipped; that offerings are made to it; that 
 prayers are made and praises sung to the image; 
 and that the priests instruct the people from the 
 Hindu shastras or scriptures. They form this 
 idea from their knowledge of Christian churches 
 and worship. It is true that in the different re- 
 form movements we find them gathering in a 
 church or hall, with a service modelled after the 
 Christian form of worship; assembling on stated 
 days and at stated hours. We have often passed 
 Prarthana Samaj Mandir in Bombay on a Sabbath 
 afternoon, and through the open window wit- 
 nessed a gentleman preaching to the audience 
 from a pulpit or stand. 
 
 But of Hinduism, pure and simple, this ideal of 
 worship, held by many of our Western friends, is 
 
 as far from the truth as the North from the South 
 112 
 
HINDU TEMl'LES WORSHIPING THE IDOL 
 
Devadasis 
 
 pole. The vast majority of Hindu temples are 
 small, usually not more than eight by ten feet in 
 size, with just room enough for the idol and the 
 priest who cares for it. In many a village the 
 god is a shapeless stone, daubed with red paint, 
 set up under a green tree, or in some niche in a 
 wall, and the withered flowers and broken cocoa- 
 nut shells scattered about may be the only indi- 
 cation of worship to the casual passer-by; but, 
 says Wilkins, “it is as carefully treated by its 
 priest as the elaborately carved idol in a beautiful 
 temple, and is as devoutly worshipped by the 
 villagers.” 
 
 To more pretentious temples there may be at- 
 tached a large mandap, or hall, where the people 
 assemble to listen to the Kirtans or Kathas re- 
 cited by the haridas. These Kirtans and Kathas 
 are dramatical and historical recitations of the ex- 
 ploits and doings of different gods. If there is 
 not this mandap, the people gather under a tree 
 in the temple yard on a raised earthen platform 
 and listen to the puranik read the shastras. If 
 the temple is a large one, the idol is always in a 
 smaller inner room, or shrine, with an open door 
 in front of it. The point to be observed is that 
 the worship in the temple is never that of a com- 
 munity or body, but of the individual. Each per- 
 ns 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 son comes, brings his offering, makes his vow 
 or whatever is in his mind in coming, and then 
 makes the circuit of the shrine any number of 
 times from five to a hundred or more as suits his 
 zeal. Low-castes are not admitted to the tem- 
 ples. The priest must always be a Brahman, but 
 is often illiterate, only knowing by heart a few 
 Sanskrit texts and mantras. He never instructs 
 the people in the shastras, and is often avaricious 
 and unscrupulous. Rev. Dr. Bradford, in a re- 
 cent issue of the New York Independent, quotes 
 one of the Sveamis from India, who was in 
 America last year, as acknowledging to him 
 that there are immoralities and vices connected 
 with the temple worship in India, but he added: 
 “ The temple worship is one thing, and religious 
 teaching is another thing." 
 
 In addition to the local temples in the cities, 
 towns and villages, there are temples at the sa- 
 cred places all over the country visited by thou- 
 sands of pilgrims from all parts of the land, and 
 in the visiting of which special merit or salvation 
 is supposed to be attained. With the names of 
 many of the most noted, Benares, Kali Ghat at 
 Calcutta, Gya, Puree, Rameshwar and others, 
 our readers are familiar. In Dr. Murdoch’s de- 
 scription of Puree, we find that the temple of 
 114 
 
Devadasis 
 
 Jagannath, the “lord of the world,” is composed 
 of four distinct buildings opening one into the 
 other. The first is about eighty feet square and 
 one hundred and twenty feet in height. This is 
 the cook-room, where food is cooked before the 
 god and sold to the pilgrims as holy. This 
 building opens into another called the dancing 
 hall, where the musicians and dancing-girls 
 amuse the god. This opens in turn into the 
 next building that is called the audience chamber, 
 from which the pilgrims look into the last build- 
 ing which is the shrine, where sits the idol him- 
 self. 
 
 Many of the large temples we have seen are 
 covered with sculptures of different figures, some 
 of them very finely executed, some of them fan- 
 tastic, and some quite rude. On some of the 
 temples the figures are extremely indecent. 
 There are a great number of statues of men and 
 women in the niches and recesses of the audi- 
 ence chamber at Puree, a few of which are said 
 to be disgustingly obscene. Similar sculptures 
 are said to be found in many of the temples in 
 South India. In proof of this we have only to 
 quote Section 292 of the Penal Code: — “292. 
 Whosoever sells or distributes, imports or prints 
 
 for sale or hire, or willfully exhibits to public 
 115 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 view, any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, draw- 
 ing, painting, representation, or figure, or at- 
 tempts or offers so to do, shall be punished with 
 imprisonment of either description for a term 
 which may extend to three months, or with fine, 
 or with both.” 
 
 But the following exception is made: 
 
 “ This section does not extend to any repre- 
 sentation sculptured, engraved, painted or other- 
 wise represented on or in any temple, or on any 
 car used for the conveyance of idols, or kept or 
 used for any religious purpose.” 
 
 The Indian Social Reformer, according to Dr. 
 Murdoch, makes the following excellent com- 
 mentary on the above: 
 
 “ With Edmund Burke we have no notion of a 
 geographical morality. What is immoral in Eng- 
 land is immoral in India. The Calcutta Legisla- 
 tive Council, however, seems to be of a different 
 opinion. It believes in a local morality. It has 
 solemnly decided that what is immoral in the 
 shop is not immoral in the temple; that what is 
 immoral in a carriage is not immoral in a car. 
 One would almost suppose that our legislators 
 were orthodox Hindus of the first water. 
 
 "There is a saying in the Hindu shastras that 
 
 ‘the mighty are not to be blamed.’ It is on this 
 116 
 
Devadasis 
 
 ethical formula that Hindus exculpate their gods 
 from the charge of immorality. Our legislators 
 have, it seems, adopted this principle. What is 
 a punishable crime in us poor mortals, is no pun- 
 ishable crime in the gods. If an obscene print 
 were stuck on our carriage we should be impris- 
 oned or fined or both; if the ugly stump of a di- 
 vinity, dignified with the appellation of ‘the lord 
 of the world,’ were to exhibit a thousand libidi- 
 nous pictures on its car, it would not be recogniz- 
 able as a punishable crime in the proprietors of 
 that divinity. They could still go on corrupting 
 the public morals, offending the public taste, 
 under the sanction of the Legislative Council.” 
 
 In connection with this temple there is quite an 
 establishment. Dr. Murdoch says: “About 
 
 six hundred and forty persons are required to fill 
 up all the appointments, of which a few may be 
 mentioned. There is the officer who takes Ja- 
 gannath to his bed; another who wakes him; 
 one who gives him water and a toothpick to 
 wash his face and cleanse his mouth; an officer 
 to give him rice; another to give him betel; a 
 washerman to wash his clothes; an officer to 
 count his robes; another to carry his umbrella; 
 another to tell him the hours of worship. Be- 
 sides all these there are about four hundred fami- 
 117 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 lies of cooks and one hundred and tu'enty danc- 
 ing-girls.” 
 
 It is to these women that we wish to direct 
 attention. Dubois says of them that, “next to 
 the sacrificers, they are the most important per- 
 sons about the temple.” They are known by the 
 name of Temple-girls or devadasis. Notwith- 
 standing these at Puree, and a few in other parts 
 of India, the real home of the devadasi is in 
 South India. The word means the servants or 
 slaves of the gods. They receive a certain allow- 
 ance, usually small and nominal, from the rev- 
 enue of the temple. Their duty is to sing and 
 dance before the temple gods, and in the idol 
 processions. Madura, Trichinopoly, Srirangam, 
 Shrirangapatan, Tripati, Kumbakonam, Udapi, 
 and many other towns in Southern India, have 
 large and ancient temples dedicated to various 
 gods, and have devadasis connected with them. 
 According to the Madras census report of 1881, 
 there were 1 1,573 women “ dancers ” in the Pres- 
 idency. 
 
 A friend writes to us as follows: “The gods 
 in the Hindu heavens are not satisfied with hav- 
 ing one or more wives of their own, they also 
 have a number of public women, c^Wed Apsaras, 
 
 who dance and sing and add to the comfort of 
 118 
 
Devadasis 
 
 the gods. According to Hindu belief, men who 
 have performed meritorious deeds go to heaven, 
 and their chief happiness consists in the enjoy- 
 ment of the society of the Apsaras. The devada- 
 sis are the counterpart of the Apsaras on earth ! ” 
 
 Whatever may, in the very beginning, have 
 been the conception of thus devoting girls to 
 gods and temple service, it is now, and has been 
 for centuries, a most debasing custom. They are 
 invariably courtesans sanctioned by religion and 
 society. Dr, Murdoch quotes the dancing-girls 
 of Orissa as saying, in a memorial to the Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor of Bengal, that they “ are greatly 
 needed in pujas and the auspicious performances, 
 and the entertainment of them is closely connected 
 with the management of temples and shrines; 
 from which it is evident that their existence is so 
 related to the Hindu religion that its ceremonies 
 cannot be fully performed without them.” He 
 also quotes The Hindu as affirming “that the 
 demoralization it causes is immense. So long as 
 we allow it to be associated with our temples and 
 places of worship, we offend and degrade our re- 
 ligion and nationality. The loss and misery it 
 has entailed on many a home is merely inde- 
 scribable.” 
 
 These girls are the common property of the 
 119 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 priests. Wicked men visit the temple, ostensibly 
 to worship, but in reality to see these women. 
 And what shall we say of the simple-minded, 
 but well-to-do pilgrim, should he fall under their 
 power ? He will probably return to his home a 
 ruined man. That a temple, intended as a place 
 of worship, and attended by hundreds of simple- 
 hearted men and women, should be so polluted, 
 and that in the name of religion, is almost be- 
 yond belief; and that Indian boys should grow 
 up to manhood, accustomed to see immorality 
 shielded in these temples with a divine cloak, 
 makes our hearts grow sick and faint. 
 
 Along with this sad story of wrong to Indian 
 womanhood from South India, we have an 
 equally dark one, though in different dress, of 
 the Vaishnavis from Brindaban in the North. 
 This city is one of those places held sacred to the 
 god, Krishna. When the reader recalls the aw- 
 ful character of Krishna, our story will easily be 
 accredited. From childhood to old age he was 
 morally bad; he was disobedient, dishonest and 
 untruthful; as a man he was the incarnation of 
 impurity. He is said to have had eight queens 
 and sixty one hundred wives. In Benares there 
 is a temple dedicated to Radha-Krishna, and 
 
 “ Radha-Krishna ” is the formula you will hear 
 120 
 
Devadasis 
 
 men repeating in their religious exercises. But 
 this Radha was not his wife, but his mistress. 
 Is it strange, then, that his followers are amongst 
 the most immoral of all the Hindus? Bishop 
 Caldwell says that “the stories related of 
 Krishna’s life, do more than anything to destroy 
 the morals and corrupt the imaginations of Hindu 
 youth.” At the door of this god, too, can be 
 laid the corruption and ruin of thousands of 
 women. 
 
 One of the sects of his followers is called the 
 Chaitanya sect. Chaitanya lived four hundred 
 years ago. He was famous for his learning and 
 poetical abilities; and above all for his devotion 
 to Krishna. His followers believed that he was 
 an incarnation of Krishna. He chiefly dwelt at 
 Nuddea. Reformers sometimes try to interpret 
 his writings in the most sublime and spiritual 
 manner; but the practical working out of his 
 teachings in the lives of his followers at Nuddea 
 and Brindaban, is the best interpretation. His 
 followers worship Krishna, and try to be like 
 him in every respect. Men forsake home and 
 relatives to come and live in these sacred places. 
 They live chiefly in the temples, and many lead 
 most immoral lives. From these places, like all 
 
 sacred places, agents are sent throughout the 
 121 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 country by the priests to induce the people to 
 make pilgrimages to the several shrines. Said a 
 widow to us: “ These emissaries of the priests 
 hunt for poor destitute widows at the same time." 
 And she added: “When we arrived at Brinda- 
 ban, the priests of the place met us at the railway 
 station, and got us a house which was so filthy 
 we could not endure it. We then sought for 
 another, and found a good one belonging to a 
 Mahant. When he saw us women, he was very 
 anxious for us to stay, but we knew what it 
 meant and left immediately. We finally stayed 
 in a dirty house where many respectable pilgrims 
 had taken their abode. These agents tell the 
 widows whom they seek in the villages and the 
 towns, that they will go right to heaven if they 
 will only go to these sacred places and live there 
 and serve the sadhus or saints, and worship 
 Krishna. The poor ignorant women are easily 
 persuaded to leave their homes, as many of them 
 are very unhappy in them, and they think it is 
 far better to go and live and die there serving and 
 pleasing Krishna. Thus hundreds of widows, 
 young and old, go to Mathura and Brindaban, 
 and fall into the snares of the priests. They 
 soon spend the little they have in giving alms 
 
 and presents to the priests. And when all is 
 122 
 
Devadasis 
 
 spent, they cannot return to their native places 
 even if they wish to do so. Their last resort is 
 to go about begging for food, and if they are 
 young and tolerably good-looking, the priests, 
 the mahants, the sadhus and mendicants are all 
 after them, and get them to live in their houses, 
 first as servants, and then as mistresses; or they 
 hire them out to other men in towns and villages 
 near. If the women are unwilling to lead im- 
 moral lives, they are told that it is no sin to live 
 thus in these sacred places, for these places are 
 the chosen abode of Krishna, and he is always 
 pleased with those followers who imitate him, 
 who live happily as he and Radha lived. When 
 these women get old, or displeasing to the men, 
 they are turned out and have to shift for them-* 
 selves; ragged, helpless, physical wrecks, seem- 
 ing forsaken of all. They are often left to die 
 like dogs. We went around the town at almost 
 all hours with open eyes and saw the condition 
 of these women. There were hundreds of wid- 
 ows who had come mostly from Bengal. The 
 sin and misery, and the heartless cruelty of man 
 to woman which we saw there on every side, is 
 beyond description!” 
 
 We marvel at the long-suffering of God as He 
 
 daily beholds this modern Sodom. And we 
 123 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 wonder at man, even, who knows these wrongs 
 and can keep silent. It is true, Brindaban is a 
 long way from many of us. But what if your 
 sisters and daughters were among these widows ? 
 What then ? 
 
 In Western India there is another class called 
 Bhavins, who are peculiar to the Konkon and 
 Goa; and the name, says a Hindu writer, is “ap- 
 plied to women in the service of the idols in 
 temples in Goa and places round about, and in 
 parts of the Konkon. Some of these women are 
 presented to the gods in infancy by their parents, 
 as the muralis are. Their business is to attend 
 the temple lamps, and keep them trimmed; to 
 sweep and smear the floor; to turn the chauri 
 over the idol; serve the huriha to the congrega- 
 tion; and to serve the visitors of the temple. 
 They always trim the lamps with their fingers, 
 and not with small sticks as other Hindus do. 
 The trimming of the lamp with the fingers by 
 any other than a Bhavin is supposed to bring 
 poverty; and this is particularly observed in all 
 Hindu houses.” 
 
 These women are descendants of pure Mara- 
 thans, but of all these different classes of women 
 they seem to be the lowest, and to be held in 
 
 such contempt, that it has passed into a proverb; 
 
 124 
 
Devadasis 
 
 and because “they have degraded themselves to 
 the post of ‘temple cats,’ they have seats allotted 
 to them behind the temples, while the Naikin or 
 nautch-girl dances before the gods, in the gather- 
 ings of the great, and has a seat allotted to her 
 before the gods.” Some of them are in posses- 
 sion of landed property which has been given to 
 them for their maintenance. These Bhavins, 
 Muralis, Jogtins and others, seem to be consid- 
 ered a lower order of being than the devadasi or 
 the nautch-girl; but, under whatever name these 
 women pass, and however much the details of 
 the customs among them may differ, the prin- 
 ciple is the same in all, immorality under the 
 shelter of religion and custom. 
 
 125 
 
VIII 
 
 THE NAUTCH-GIRL 
 
 The institution of the nautch-girl is a very an- 
 cient one, coming down to Hindu society from 
 very early times. In confirmation of the antiq- 
 uity and religious sanction of this custom an In- 
 dian friend who is a competent authority writes 
 us: “The description of Krishna performing 
 pilgrimages, going to bathe in sacred rivers or 
 seas, taking with him thousands of harlots to 
 dance and sing in his presence, establishes the 
 fact that nautches and nautch-girls were favored 
 by him. In the Mahabharata and Puranas there 
 are many instances where reference is made to 
 this practice having been countenanced by incar- 
 nate gods and holy men.” 
 
 We also find, in an old issue of the Indian So- 
 cial Reformer, the following paragraph: “Even 
 in the days of Krishna, the nautch-girl had her 
 place. For we read in Bhagavatam (in the de- 
 scriptions given by the poet regarding the wel- 
 come given to Krishna on his return to his na- 
 tive town after the wars of the Mahabharata) : 
 
 . . . ‘ And there also advanced in chariots, 
 
 126 
 
The Nautch-Girl 
 
 hundreds of courtesans, fairest of their class, 
 with their cheeks glowing with the reflected 
 brightness of their earrings, all eager to behold 
 him; and also actors, dancers, singers, scholars 
 in antique lore, eulogists and bards chanting the 
 wonderful achievements of him whose praise 
 dispels darkness.’ ” 
 
 In South India the devadasi and the nautch- 
 girl are identical; but not so in Western and 
 Central India, where these girls seem to form a 
 separate class or caste called Kalavoantin, and are 
 identified with the temple service, but visit the 
 temples only by invitation of the temple authori- 
 ties for a performance. They are professional 
 singers and dancers, and their performances may 
 consist of singing and dancing, or singing alone. 
 They are said to be invariably courtesans, and 
 differ from the common public women, and even 
 from the Murali, Fogtin, and Bhavins, who are 
 also devoted to the gods, in that from time im- 
 memorial they have had a religious and social 
 status given them, and are considered a necessity 
 in the temple and in the home on marriage and 
 other festive occasions. 
 
 The nautch-girl often begins her career of 
 training under teachers as early as five years of 
 age. She is taught to read, dance and sing, and 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 instructed in every seductive art. Her songs are 
 usually amorous; and while she is yet a mere 
 girl, before she can realize fully the moral bear- 
 ings of her choice of life, she makes her debut as 
 a nautch-girl in the community by the observa- 
 tion of a shocking custom which is in itself 
 enough to condemn the whole system. 
 
 As a large proportion of these women are 
 childless, their ranks are reinforced by adoption 
 of little girls who are bought or obtained in other 
 ways. Illegitimate children are often passed on 
 to them, and in the periodical famines that occur 
 in this country, large numbers of girls find a 
 home with this class of persons. Besides we are 
 told that occasionally young widows go over to 
 them. The young widow sees these dancing 
 girls honored, gaily and richly dressed, with 
 plenty of jewels, their presence propitious at 
 weddings, while they, poor things, know that 
 their own presence is often unpropitious and not 
 desired, that they are not honored, that jewels 
 and bright clothes are denied them, and it is not 
 strange that they should be tempted to make this 
 exchange of life. 
 
 For centuries dancing-girls had the monopoly 
 of all the education among women. They were 
 
 the only women that were taught to read and 
 128 
 
NAUTCH GIRLS AN ELDERLY WIDOW 
 
The Nautch-Girl 
 
 sing in public in the country; and hence these 
 two accomplishments were so associated with 
 the nautch-girl as to be considered disreputable 
 for respectable women. In the early days of 
 female education in this century, one of the stock 
 objections of the opposers was: “It is not re- 
 spectable for girls to be educated.” Now and 
 then, you may still find an old person that clings 
 to that feeling and associates learning in his mind 
 with the nautch-girl. Over twenty years ago, 
 we called on the wife of a prosperous Brahman 
 government official. She was a thorough woman 
 of the old type, but she had a beautiful little girl 
 of about seven, who gathered her skirts tight 
 about her as we passed her, for fear they might 
 touch ours. In the course of conversation, we 
 asked the mother if the child might learn to read: 
 and we shall never forget the look and tone of 
 scorn of the woman’s reply at the suggestion. 
 It embodied all that the words would have con- 
 veyed: “Do you think I am going to train my 
 girl for a nautch-girl ? ” And yet, strange to say, 
 had this very mother been arranging to marry 
 her little girl, she would have readily assented 
 perhaps, that a nautch-girl should be invited to 
 give touch and finish to the wedding festivities. 
 
 That particular form of prejudice is now becom- 
 129 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 ing a thing of the past as regards learning, but 
 no Hindu girls are receiving a musical education, 
 and thus redeeming and rescuing this art from 
 the hands of courtesans. 
 
 A friend of ours who has a large school of 
 Indian girls, and who has them taught singing, 
 has often been asked if she is going to teach 
 them to dance also; showing how the association 
 of singing in public is still connected in many 
 minds with the nautch-girl. At a recent Zenana 
 ' party which we attended, a young Christian girl 
 whose father had been a Brahman, stepped for- 
 ward in the bright company and sang a Marathi 
 solo. It was a beautiful hymn, and her sweet 
 clear voice, carried without break through each 
 verse, accompanied by an exquisitely modest 
 manner, gave us a hint of what Indian women 
 may accomplish when once trained singing is 
 divorced from immorality. 
 
 It frequently happens that these dancing-girls 
 are rich, beautiful and very attractive, besides 
 being witty and pleasant in conversation; and 
 they are the only women that move freely in 
 men’s society in India. Dr. Murdoch quotes the 
 Indian Messenger (a Calcutta paper), as saying: 
 “We have seen with our own eyes these women 
 
 introduced into respectable circles in open day- 
 130 
 
The Nautch-Girl 
 
 light, and men freely associating with them, 
 while the ladies of the house were watching the 
 scene from a distance as spectators and not tak- 
 ing part in the social pleasures going on before 
 them, in which the dancing-girls were the only 
 female participators. Could anything more detri- 
 mental to the cause of morality be conceived ? 
 In the Punjab, the dancing-girls enjoy public 
 favor; they move more freely in native society 
 than public women in civilized countries are ever 
 allowed to do. In fact, greater attention and 
 respect is shown to them than to married ladies. 
 In the Northwest Provinces we have seen a 
 dancing-girl treated with as much courtesy as if 
 she were a princess descended from a distin- 
 guished royal line.” 
 
 ’a few years ago, a writer in The Times said: 
 “The ample earnings obtained by the dancing- 
 girl, and the comparative luxury in which she 
 lives, unfortunately renders the profession an at- 
 tractive one. It is said in reference to this class 
 in Lucknow, that a first-class nautch-woman 
 may have jewels and lace of value from one 
 thousand to ten thousand rupees; that her fee for 
 singing for one night is fifteen rupees; and that 
 on the occasion of a birth or marriage, it may be 
 
 as mucl^as two hundred.” In Bombay a nautch- 
 131 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 girl commands from twenty-five to sixty rupees a 
 night for singing. Dr. Murdoch tells of a man 
 who squandered 10,000 rupees on a wedding of 
 which 2,000 went for nautch-girls. We have 
 heard of them receiving as high as 500 rupees for 
 one entertainment, but it must have been by 
 some “star” in her profession. A girl may also, 
 by her beauty or special accomplishments, be- 
 come famous. A few years ago, such a girl 
 came to Bombay from Central India and set the 
 native community all agog to hear and see her. 
 They are as a rule avaricious, and Dr. Murdoch 
 says: 
 
 “ Very large sums are often wasted on these 
 women by men who will not give a pice for 
 female education. Some time ago a jewel, set 
 with precious stones valued at about 2,000 ru- 
 pees, was presented to a dancing-girl in the 
 neighborhood of Madras. Such payments, how- 
 ever, form only a part of the expenses connected 
 with such women. The sight of one of them at 
 a public performance creates a desire for private 
 intercourse. Such visits are never welcome un- 
 less accompanied by gifts. A well-informed 
 correspondent of the Indian Social Reformer 
 writes: ‘ It is saddening to see royal and aristo- 
 
 cratic families irretrievably ruined by these 
 132 
 
The Nautch-Girl 
 
 women. Many a wealthy man has had to court 
 poverty and disgrace on this account. Even in 
 middle class society, many fritter away their 
 youth and money to quench the insatiable thirst 
 of sanctified immorality. . . . Not long ago, 
 
 in this district, a Brahman lad made a present of 
 4,000 rupees worth of landed property to a danc- 
 ing-woman, while another spent his extensive 
 property, and stands to-day on the awful verge 
 of bankruptcy and ruin. Be it remembered that 
 such occurrences take place in every important 
 town in* India. When the poor victim has lost 
 everything, he is rejected, as the skin of a fruit 
 which has been sucked is thrown away.” 
 
 Many a family’s happiness has been ruined, and 
 estrangement made complete between husband 
 and wife, by the husband coming under the 
 power and infiuence of the nautch-girl. But our 
 readers may say that this may occur in any land. 
 That is true; but the nautch-girl has a recognized 
 place in society and religion that gives her a pe- 
 culiar vantage ground. In South India she has 
 her right and place in the temple. In Western 
 India she is there by invitation; and in society, all 
 over India, she is everywhere. Never having 
 married, she can never be a widow. Hence her 
 presence at weddings is considered most aus- 
 
 133 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 picious. And in Western India, in certain circles, 
 if her presence can be afforded, she is the one 
 that ties the wedding necklace; (equivalent to 
 putting on the wedding ring with us), thus her de- 
 filed hands become a bright omen that the girl- 
 bride may never be a widow. Aside from wed- 
 dings, she graces many another festive occasion, 
 such as the tread ceremony, house warmings, 
 and evening parties and entertainments. 
 
 It is in his own father’s house, where her pres- 
 ence sanctioned by his own father and mother, 
 and by the presence of the company and applause 
 of the leading men of the community, that many 
 a young man has become fascinated with a bright 
 dancing-girl; a fascination which has become the 
 stepping-stone to his moral and financial ruin as 
 he seeks her further acquaintance. What mat- 
 ters it if his young wife’s heart breaks ? What 
 is the harm in it } Father and mother and the 
 best society, and the temple authorities sanction 
 this course. It is not sin and wrong, but simply 
 custom. 
 
 In view of the character of these women, it 
 seems like the keenest irony to say that they are 
 often in requisition to complete the programme 
 to bid farewell to some government official, or 
 
 to entertain the viceroy, governors and other of- 
 134 
 
The Nautch-Girl 
 
 ficials, or to honor some European traveller. In 
 extenuation we will say that many European 
 ladies and gentlemen do not understand the real 
 character of the nautch-girl who performs before 
 them, or they feel it is a Hindu’s idea of giving 
 them pleasure; and after he, their host, has gone 
 to so much expense, they shrink from offending 
 him by expressing displeasure. Besides they do 
 not understand the songs the girl sings, and 
 hence are not shocked. 
 
 Quite a breeze was created last August at the 
 entertainment of a high English official in Tan- 
 jore, when two nautch-girls began to sing a low 
 song in English which called for a strong protest. 
 If Europeans, both ladies and gentlemen, from 
 the viceroy down, would refuse to attend any 
 festivities in which the nautch was part of the 
 programme, great courage and strength would 
 be given to the cause of moral reform. We 
 know of two friends in a lonely station who 
 were invited to a dinner given by some Indian 
 gentlemen to the officers of the district on tour. 
 At the close of the dinner, as they returned to 
 their seats in the tent, they found two nautch- 
 girls seated on the carpet while the players were 
 thrumming and tuning their instruments. Imme- 
 diately our friends arose to depart, and when 
 135 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 pressed to stay, they clearly stated their reason 
 for going. An English government official sit- 
 ting near, whispered to the husband, “ You are 
 doing quite right in going. If my wife were 
 here, 1 would do the same.” These friends 
 would not have gone to the dinner, had they 
 known the nautch was on the programme. If a 
 few high officials were to make inquiries before 
 accepting invitations, and refuse to go unless the 
 programme omitted the nautch, it would not 
 only be a check to that kind of entertainment, 
 but would relegate it to the place where it mor- 
 ally belongs — outside of decent society. 
 
 136 
 
IX 
 
 AN ANTI-NAUTCH MOVEMENT 
 
 In 1892 there was organized, in Madras, an 
 Anti-Nautch Movement by educated Hindus. 
 The Indian Social Reformer supported the 
 movement in its columns. The Lahore Purity 
 Servant advocated the cause; and, occasion- 
 ally, articles appeared in other papers. The 
 movement has done a great deal of good in 
 educating public opinion, and in enlisting men to 
 refuse to attend nautch parties, or to have them 
 at the festivities in their own homes. Also, 
 later, Anti-Nautch and Purity Associations have 
 been organized in different parts of the country, a 
 recognition of which is always found now in the 
 resolutions passed at the annual Social Confer- 
 ence. The action taken in 1899 was as follows: 
 
 “ In the opinion of the Conference, the Reports of all the 
 Associations show that a healthy change is taking place, in all 
 parts of the country, in favor of the Anti-Nautch and Purity 
 Movements, including in the last, the condemnation of the 
 practice of devoting girls, nominally to temple service, but prac- 
 tically to a life of prostitution ; and it entertains no doubt that 
 public sentiment favors both these movements, as tending to 
 purify our personal, family, and public life ; and the Conference 
 137 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 trusts that these efforts will be continued, and that a vigilant 
 watch will be kept by the organs of Public Opinion upon all 
 attempts to violate this healthy sentiment.” 
 
 To this there has been added, for the first time, 
 the clause expressing disapproval of the dedica- 
 tion of girls to temple service, and defines it to 
 be practically a life of immorality. In spite of 
 the optimistic tone of the resolution, we consider 
 that the Anti-Nautch Movement is less aggressive 
 now than formerly. 
 
 In its beginning, in the latter part of 1893, an 
 appeal was made to the Viceroy and Governor- 
 General of India, and to the Governor of Madras, 
 in the shape of a memorial which bore a large 
 number of signatures of the educated class, 
 with the hope of gaining their practical help and 
 influence in so great a moral question. As the 
 memorial also defines the position of the Anti- 
 Nautch Movement, we give it in full: 
 
 " The humble memorial of the undersigned 
 members of the ‘ Hindu Social Reform Associa- 
 tion ' of Madras, and others, 
 
 Most Respectfully Sheweth : 
 
 I. That there exists in the Indian community 
 a class of women commonly known as nautch- 
 girls. 
 
 138 
 
An Anti-Nautch Movement 
 
 2. That these women are invariably prosti- 
 tutes. 
 
 That countenance and encouragement are 
 given to them, and even a recognized status in 
 society secured to them, by the practice which 
 prevails among Hindus, to a very undesirable ex- 
 tent, of inviting them to take part in marriage 
 and other festivities, and even to entertainments 
 given in honor of guests who are not Hindus. 
 
 4. That this practice not only necessarily 
 lowers the moral tone of society, but also tends 
 to destroy that family life on which national sound- 
 ness depends, and to bring upon individuals ruin 
 in property and character alike. 
 
 5. That this practice rests only upon fashion, 
 and receives no authority from antiquity or re- 
 ligion, and accordingly has no claim to be con- 
 sidered a National Institution, and is entitled to 
 no respect as such. 
 
 6. That a strong feeling is springing up 
 among the educated classes of this country against 
 the prevalence of this practice, as is evinced, 
 among other things, by the proceedings at a pub- 
 lic meeting in Madras, on the 5th of May, 1893. 
 
 7. That so keenly do your Memorialists realize 
 the harmful and degrading character of this prac- 
 tice, that they have resolved neither to invite 
 
 139 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 nautch-girls to any entertainments given by 
 themselves, nor to accept any invitation to an 
 entertainment at which it is known that nautch- 
 girls are to be present. 
 
 8. That your Memorialists feel assured that 
 Your Excellency desires to aid, by every proper 
 means, those who labor to remove any form of 
 social evil. 
 
 9. That your Memorialists accordingly appeal 
 to Your Excellency, as the official and recognized 
 head of society in the Presidency of Madras, and as 
 the representative of Her Most Gracious Majesty, 
 the Queen-Empress, in whose influence and ex- 
 ample the cause of purity has ever found support, 
 to discourage this pernicious practice by declining 
 to attend any entertainment at which nautch-girls 
 are invited to perform, and thus to strengthen 
 the hands of those who are trying to purify the 
 social life of their community.” 
 
 To this memorial came the following replies: 
 “Viceregal Lodge, 
 Simla, Sept. 23d, 1893. 
 
 Sir , — 1 am desired by His Excellency, the 
 Viceroy, to acknowledge the receipt of a memo- 
 rial signed by yourself and numerous other per- 
 sons, in which you appeal to His Excellency to 
 
 decline, for the future, to attend any entertain- 
 140 
 
An Anti-Nautch Movement 
 
 merit at which nautch-girls are invited to perform. 
 You base your request upon the statement that 
 these women are invariably prostitutes, and that 
 it is, therefore, undesirable to countenance, or 
 encourage them, in any way. 
 
 The Viceroy desires me to say in reply that, 
 although he recognizes the excellence of the ob- 
 jects upon which you have addressed him, he 
 does not think that he could usefully make any 
 such announcement as that which you have sug- 
 gested. He has, on one or two occasions, when 
 travelling in different parts of India, been present 
 at entertainments of which a nautch formed a 
 part, but the proceedings were, as far as His Ex- 
 cellency observed them, not characterized by any 
 impropriety, and the performers were present 
 in the exercise of their profession as dancers, in 
 accordance with the custom of the country. 
 
 Under the circumstances. His Excellency does 
 not, on the eve of his departure from India, feel 
 called upon to take any action such as that which 
 you have recommended.” 
 
 “Government House, 
 Madras, 4th October. 
 
 Sir, — In reply to the memorial recently received 
 from the ‘Hindu Social Reform Association,’ 
 
 I am desired to inform you that although His Ex- 
 141 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 cellency fully appreciates the good intentions 
 which have actuated those who have joined with 
 you in issuing the memorial, yet, he doubts if 
 any advantage would be gained by his accepting 
 the obligation which the memorial wishes 
 to impose upon him. H. E, has been present on 
 several occasions on which nautches have been 
 performed, at none of which has he ever seen 
 anything which might, in the remotest degree, be 
 considered improper; and it has never occurred to 
 him to take into consideration the moral charac- 
 ter of the performers at these entertainments, 
 any more than when he has been present at per- 
 formances which have been carried out by pro- 
 fessional dancers or athletes either in Europe or 
 India. H. E., the Governor, therefore, regrets 
 his inability to conform to the wishes expressed 
 in the memorial.” 
 
 On these replies the Indian Social Reformer 
 (October 14th, 1893), makes the following ex- 
 cellent comment: “Both state that at the enter- 
 tainments given to them they have witnessed 
 nautches, but so far as their Excellencies could 
 observe there was nothing improper in the per- 
 formance. Both lay stress on the nautch-girls 
 being professional dancers, and it has never oc- 
 curred to them to look too closely into the moral 
 142 
 
An Anti-Nautch Movement 
 
 character of these women. . . . Now it was 
 
 never suggested by the Memorialists that in the 
 performance of the nautch there is any open im- 
 propriety visible to the casual eye. Even if it 
 was there, it is hardly to be expected that it 
 should be displayed before their Excellencies. 
 . . . Their Excellencies should not forget that 
 
 they represent in this country a sovereign whose 
 respect for purity and piety is as great as she is 
 great. The people of India cannot but look with 
 wonder on the representatives of Her Majesty 
 being present at the performances of women 
 who, as everybody knows, are prostitutes; and 
 their Excellencies, hereafter, at least, must know 
 to be such. ‘ Do they get prostitute dancers to 
 perform at entertainments given specially in 
 honor of the royalty in Europe ? The nautch- 
 woman is invited to perform, it must be remem- 
 bered: which is a very different thing from peo- 
 ple going to theatres or other places where peo- 
 ple of bad character may he engaged to entertain 
 the public. The nautch-woman, thus, gets a 
 status in the company.” 
 
 Most Englishmen look upon it as a Hindu cus- 
 tom that has existed from time immemorial, 
 without a thought of its moral bearing on Hindu 
 
 society. The fact is that English and native so- 
 143 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 ciety are so widely separated, their customs, 
 moral standards, and the position of women so 
 different, that the average European fails to un- 
 derstand the struggle that has begun to right 
 matters in India, since its contact with Western 
 education and the Bible standard of morals. 
 Many of them would watch a nautch perform- 
 ance, as they would a snake charmer’s feats, a 
 travelling juggler’s tricks, as something novel 
 and curious, or perhaps tiresome, and to be en- 
 dured with the best grace possible. Out of sight 
 it would be out of mind. But should an Eng- 
 lish host bring for their entertainment into the 
 drawing-room a similar class of Englishwomen, 
 they would leave the house scandalized and in- 
 sulted. They would regard it as a recognition 
 of immorality and vice that could never be en- 
 dured. Is not what is immoral in England, im- 
 moral in India as well; and can any custom of 
 the people make it otherwise? We are con- 
 vinced that if the highest officials in India were 
 to refuse to attend nautches on moral grounds, 
 their action would be an object lesson in moral 
 education to the whole country. Hindu hosts 
 would soon be ashamed and drop the nautch 
 from the programmes of their public entertain- 
 ments. The fact that no protest is made, only 
 
 144 
 
An Anti-Nautch Movement 
 
 encourages the idea that there is nothing wrong 
 or disgraceful in the custom. 
 
 Again the nautch-girl is continually said by 
 many to be only the counterpart of the European 
 ballet-dancer. The ballet-dancer is not necessar- 
 ily immoral, though it is true that by her profes- 
 sion she is thrown into great temptation before 
 which character often breaks down. But the 
 dancing-girl is a recognized immoral character, 
 and launched into her career as such. Even if it 
 were true that the ballet-dancer is invariably im- 
 moral, she has no religious or social standing; 
 she never conducts any part of religious service; 
 or graces any wedding or other festivity. 
 
 Again, in her public capacity, the ballet-dancer 
 can choose her profession, or if she wishes can 
 leave it and enter into any other walk in life for 
 which she is fitted; and lead a useful career. 
 But the nautch-girl is born into her profession, 
 and must follow it just as a carpenter, gold- 
 smith, or farmer is born into his caste and fol- 
 lows the trade of his father. If she is adopted 
 into it, it is usually done while she is a mere 
 child, and unconscious of what the life in its 
 moral bearings is. The nautch-girl is a recog- 
 nized caste. This is the iniquity of it. We 
 
 would not be hard on the nautch-girl herself, al- 
 145 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 though she is a pest and bane to Hindu society, 
 for she has been made such; and “on Hindu so- 
 ciety must rest the awful responsibility of these 
 abandoned lives.” 
 
 If a nautch-woman’s children were boys, they 
 used to be brought up as drummers and fiddlers; 
 but now a change is coming over this class, and 
 they are educating their boys and getting them 
 into higher walks of life. But the girls must in- 
 variably follow in their mother’s footsteps. With 
 the dancing-girls, a daughter takes the prece- 
 dence of a son, and an adopted daughter takes the 
 same place, and has the same rights as an adopted 
 son in other castes. 
 
 The custom of adopting a daughter in this 
 caste has always prevailed in India, and has been 
 recognized and sustained by Hindu law. The 
 reason usually given for adoption is, that the 
 nautch-girl being childless, wishes to have some 
 one to inherit her property. We do not question 
 the statement; but we know that many of these 
 women do adopt girls when they already have 
 natural children, and this claim cannot be made 
 for them. In addition to this desire for an heir, 
 there must be added the desire to have some 
 one, in case of adversity in old age, to support 
 
 them by their earnings; and that, too, adoption 
 146 
 
An Anti-Nautch Movement 
 
 by such women is only a cloak to secure children 
 for immoral purposes whose earnings will in- 
 crease the family revenue; for most of them 
 have to pass all they earn over to the “ mother,” 
 or mistress as she might in some cases more 
 properly be called. 
 
 We cannot agree with the Memorialists when 
 they say, “that this practice rests only upon 
 fashion, and receives no authority from antiquity 
 or religion;” for some of the sacred books give 
 accounts of this class as existing then, and it is 
 this very ancient usage with religious sanction, 
 that makes evil so hard to deal with now. Let 
 the Memorialists keep knocking at the doors of 
 Viceregal Lodge, and at the minds and con- 
 sciences of the people, till government knows 
 that the better classes desire the law to be put in 
 execution, and that there is a change in popular 
 opinion to warrant the demand. 
 
 147 
 
X 
 
 INFANTICIDE 
 
 “ Murder is the first specific crime brought to 
 our notice after the fall of man, and in its form 
 of infanticide, it has been more or less practiced 
 and approved from motives of corrupted religion, 
 and mistaken social economy, by almost all the 
 tribes and nations of the world. 
 
 “When the grand objects of sacrifice, the ear- 
 liest prescribed rule of religion, the acknowledg- 
 ment by the worshipper of a guilt deserving suf- 
 fering and death, and the foreshadowing of the 
 offering of the promised substitute and Saviour, 
 were forgotten or obscurely remembered, the 
 maxim that the “fruit of the body should be 
 given for the sin of the soul,” obtained a wide 
 currency in the human family. Speedily the 
 character of the Divinity was mistaken for that 
 of a demon; and in the conception formed by 
 man of God, a malevolent thirsting for blood 
 was substituted for a love of holiness seeking to 
 impress on the intelligent creation the dread of 
 sin by pointing to the great redemption needed 
 
 for its absolution. Children of tender age be- 
 148 
 
Infanticide 
 
 came the most manageable, as well as the most 
 precious of victims. They were not only de- 
 stroyed to deprecate and avert apprehended evil, 
 but were offered up as the price and purchase of 
 desired good. 
 
 “The Phoenicians and Canaanites made their 
 children pass through the fire to Moloch. The 
 Jews who entered the land of Canaan were fre- 
 quently tempted to become imitators of this hor- 
 rid iniquity. Manasseh actually sacrificed his 
 son to Moloch (2 Kings xxi. 6). Even after the 
 good King Josiah had defiled Tophet in order to 
 put a stop to the infantile sacrifices there prac- 
 ticed (2 Kings xviii. 10), the crime was revived 
 and called forth the solemn denunciations of the 
 prophet. God solemnly warns the Jews not to 
 give their seed to this false god on the penalty 
 of death (Lev. xx. 1-5; Deut. xviii. 10-12). The 
 Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the 
 Persians, in some form or other, practiced this 
 sin. Among the Israelites alone sacrificial in- 
 fanticide seems to have been absolutely forbid- 
 den. 
 
 “Infanticide, in one form or another, has pre- 
 vailed not among barbarous nations alone, but, 
 generally speaking, all over the heathen world; 
 and so far was it from being prevented by the 
 149 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 boasted wisdom, civilization and refinement of 
 Greece and Rome, that these very qualities were 
 employed in cherishing, regulating and perpetu- 
 ating the crime. The conclusion which seems to 
 be warranted by these facts, is that we have 
 little security against infanticide, or any other 
 crime against nature, where Christianity is un- 
 known. It is only before the direct or indirect 
 influence of the Bible that infanticide has given 
 way. It was Christianity, and not philosophy, 
 that first lifted up its voice against the crime of 
 infanticide as practiced by the Romans, through 
 Constantine.” | 
 
 With this review of the subject, by Dr. Wil- 
 son, it will be seen that this crime is not a spe- 
 cial crime of the Hindus. When considered 
 from certain points of view, India is a country 
 where you would least expect to find this great 
 wrong. It is irreconcilable with their tenets 
 about the sacredness of life and the doctrines of 
 the transmigration of the soul. In a country 
 where the life of a beast is supposed to be held 
 sacred; where a high-caste Hindu used to shud- 
 der at the thought of an egg being broken in his 
 presence; and who used to go out of his way 
 
 > Suppression of Infanticide in Western India, by Dr. Jno. 
 Wilson. 
 
 150 
 
Infanticide 
 
 rather than pass a butcher’s stall in the bazaar; 
 how did so inhuman and wicked a custom gain 
 a footing ? 
 
 Some have tried to trace the origin of infanti- 
 cide to the Mohammedan invasion — that scape- 
 goat for more than one Indian evil. But it can 
 be clearly proved that it existed centuries before 
 that time. The custom is not found among the 
 Mohammedans. A recent writer has said: “A 
 Mohammedan treats whatever is given him by 
 Providence, son or daughter, with equal feelings 
 of affection and regard; and, however poor, he 
 will never think of depriving them of life, but 
 would rather beg alms to support them.” 
 
 Infanticide has existed under two forms in 
 India: 
 
 I. The dedication of children to the Ganges 
 to be devoured by crocodiles and sharks. Soon 
 after William Carey came to India, in 1794, he 
 discovered this crime, and the discovery weighed 
 upon the heart of himself and fellow-workers so 
 constantly, that in addition to continual protests 
 to the people, steps were taken to call the atten- 
 tion of the English authorities to the matter. 
 Says Smith: “Since 1794, when Thomas and he 
 found, in a basket hanging on a tree, the bones of 
 
 an infant that had been exposed to be devoured 
 151 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 by the white ants, by some mother too poor to 
 go on a pilgrimage to a sacred river-spot, Carey 
 had known this unnatural horror.” 
 
 There was a great annual festival at Ganga 
 Sagar (near his home). The supposed virtues of 
 this place were thought to arise from its geo- 
 graphical situation. Ganga is the word for 
 Ganges, and Sagar for sea; and as at this par- 
 ticular place the river flowed into the sea, the 
 confluence was held to be a place of special 
 sanctity. Here mothers not only threw their 
 children into the sea, but widows and even men 
 walked into the sea and drowned themselves, 
 esteeming it a special act of holiness, and secur- 
 ing immediate heaven. 
 
 Carey represented the matter to government 
 and, continues Smith, “the result of Carey’s 
 memorial was the publication of the Regulation 
 for preventing the sacrifice of children at Sagar 
 and other places on the Ganges, saying: “ It has 
 
 been represented to the Governor-General in 
 Council, that a criminal and inhuman practice of 
 sacrificing children by exposing them to be 
 drowned or devoured by sharks, prevails. . . . 
 
 Children thrown into the sea at Sagar have not 
 been generally rescued . . . but the sacri- 
 
 fice has been effected with circumstances of pe- 
 152 
 
Infanticide 
 
 culiar atrocity in some instances. This practice 
 is not sanctioned by the Hindu law, nor counte- 
 nanced by the religious orders.” It was accord- 
 ingly declared to be murder and punishable by 
 death. This was in the rule of Lord Wellesley. 
 Sepoys were stationed at each gathering to see 
 the law observed. Strange to say the people 
 quietly assented, the practice soon fell into disuse, 
 and this special form of infanticide has so com- 
 pletely disappeared from sight that it is often de- 
 nied that it ever existed. 
 
 One of the Swamis who visited America pro- 
 tested that he had never heard of such a thing. 
 It is no doubt thought by some to be an instance 
 of missionary exaggeration. The French lady 
 Swami, Abhayananda, recently said in this 
 country that “ in India children are thrown into 
 the Ganges and under the wheel of the car of 
 Jagannath; and that she has been constantly 
 asked how such things are possible in the land 
 of the beautiful Vedanta philosophy.” It is per- 
 haps true that uninformed people at home think 
 that because it once was a custom, that it still ex- 
 ists. But missionaries do not circulate the 
 “calumny”; and whenever they do refer to it, it 
 is to give thanks that the gospel’s influence has 
 
 caused so inhuman a custom to cease. 
 
 153 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 2. Rajput infanticide as it has, and does to 
 some extent still exist in India. The custom of 
 throwing children into the Ganges had in it the 
 sacrificial idea, the appeasing of Deity; and was, 
 in this respect, like the infanticide of the Ca- 
 naanites and other peoples from a mistaken idea 
 of God, and the belief that they were doing Him 
 a pleasure and service; and also to purchase bless- 
 ings or avert evil from themselves and families. 
 But Rajput infanticide is selfishness pure and 
 simple. It is a preference for murder, rather 
 than to run the risk of having to make in- 
 ferior alliances for their daughters; or the dis- 
 grace of their remaining single should they not be 
 able to find suitable husbands for them; or to es- 
 cape providing the large dowry which foolish 
 and extravagant customs have fixed and de- 
 manded. “And,” says a writer, “the practice 
 of infanticide was often based on the recommen- 
 dation of the Suttee; for surely, reasoned the 
 Rajputs, we may destroy a daughter by starva- 
 tion, suffocation, poison or neglect, of whose 
 marriage in the line of caste and dignity of 
 family there is little prospect, if a widow may be 
 burned to save her chastity.” 
 
 This crime has been the besetting sin of the 
 
 Rajputs, though some other tribes have copied it; 
 
 154 
 
Infanticide 
 
 and, as Dr. Wilson says: “Had it not been for 
 the merciful intervention of the British Govern- 
 ment, there is no saying to what extent it might 
 have spread through all the provinces of India.” 
 
 The word Rajput literally means the sons of 
 Rajas and princes. They trace their genealogy 
 to the ancient Solar and Lunar dynasties which 
 ruled in India. “A poor Rajput holds himself as 
 good a gentleman as the most powerful land- 
 holder. Each one is a free citizen, and all are 
 peers." There is a certain dignity and pride of 
 manner about a Rajput; no matter what his con- 
 dition in life may be. But, with all their martial 
 spirit, their notions of honor, and the great re- 
 spect they give their women, who are said to be 
 often of singular beauty, infanticide and the 
 Suttee rose to the highest pitch among them. 
 Major Murdo writing in 1818 mentions that 
 among the offspring of 8,000 Rajputs probably 
 not more than thirty females were alive. 
 
 For this barbarity there is no religious sanction 
 to plead, as in the case of the Suttee ; nor are the 
 Rajputs inferior to the other races in India in 
 feelings of humanity; but it is the laws that 
 regulate marriage among them that have so 
 powerfully promoted infanticide. No clan can 
 
 marry except within its own line; and the fear of 
 155 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 dishonor by having to marry a daughter into an 
 inferior clan, or that she should remain un- 
 married, induces her parents to take her life rather 
 than run the risk. Besides, the foolish extrava- 
 gant marriage customs are feared and dreaded, 
 and help to settle the fate of the newborn baby 
 girl. Her death is affected by strangling her im- 
 mediately; by an opium pill forced into the 
 mouth and left to do its silent work; by cover- 
 ing the mother’s breast with a poison which is 
 taken in by the child in its first draught of milk; 
 or by neglect and starvation. 
 
 The Jarejas of Guzerat — a clan of Rajputs — 
 give as the origin of infanticide the following 
 story: “A powerful Raja of their caste had a 
 
 daughter of singular beauty and accomplish- 
 ments. He sent his family priest to search for a 
 prince of equal rank and wealth as a husband for 
 her. Failing to find such an one, and seeing the 
 Raja’s sorrow, he advised him to avoid the dis- 
 grace of having her remain unmarried by putting 
 her to death. This the Raja could not bring him- 
 self to do; but the priest volunteered to assume 
 all the consequences of the sin, and he put her to 
 death." 
 
 The custom first came to the knowledge of the 
 
 British Government in 1789. Jonathan Duncan, 
 156 
 
Infanticide 
 
 of the Bengal Civil Service, and afterward Gov- 
 ernor of Bombay, while residing at Benares, dis- 
 covered the practice of infanticide among the 
 Raj kumars, originally denominated Rajputs, 
 who were the most influential inhabitants of his 
 district and supposed to be about forty thousand 
 in number. In a few months he succeeded in 
 putting down the practice, and on being made 
 Governor of Bombay he discovered the same 
 practice among the Rajputs of Kathiawar and 
 Kutch. Here, likewise, he spared no effort for 
 its abolition. The Cathedral of St. Thomas, in 
 Bombay, the first Protestant church built in India, 
 is a very fitting place for a monument covering 
 the grave of Jonathan Duncan. It is surmounted 
 by two children holding a scroll on which is in- 
 scribed, “Infanticide abolished in Benares and 
 Kathiawar.” But this suppression was only 
 temporary, especially at Benares, where it broke 
 out with fresh power. This destruction of fe- 
 males may be better realized if we state the fact 
 that among the Jarejas of Kutch there was, in 
 1846, only one female to eight males. 
 
 Ever since the days of Duncan the English 
 Government has dealt firmly with this evil. It 
 has met with tremendous and persistent diffi- 
 culties. Ten years after government began its 
 157 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 efforts in Guzerat, only sixty-three girls were 
 known to have been saved. The names of some 
 English officials, that might have otherwise been 
 soon forgotten, will always be remembered for 
 their noble and persistent efforts to suppress this 
 crime. From some districts the custom has dis- 
 appeared; in others the proportion of girls and 
 boys is more nearly equal; while in a few the 
 custom is apparently as rife as ever. “The only 
 difference lies in this,” says a recent writer, “ that, 
 while before the British rule, or before the intro- 
 duction of the Indian Penal Code, the offence was 
 perpetrated either openly, or without recourse to 
 much skill and ingenuity to conceal it; it is now, 
 through fear of the law and punishment, com- 
 mitted with the utmost secrecy, and with such 
 cleverness as to avoid all possible chance of 
 detection.” 
 
 It would require a separate volume to give an 
 adequate idea of the efforts and expedients gov- 
 ernment has adopted to suppress the crime, and 
 of the obstacles that have frustrated their efforts; 
 of their entreaties with the chiefs of the clans and 
 the rulers of the native states to abolish the crime 
 among them, and through them to create a public 
 opinion against it; of the attempts to get the 
 
 leaders of the people to fix the maximum of mar- 
 158 
 
Infanticide 
 
 riage expenses, (which is one of the greatest in- 
 centives to the crime), or to excommunicate 
 those who practice it. Much has been accom- 
 plished, but it has taken hundreds of years to 
 bring it about; and much yet remains to be done. 
 
 In 1890, an Infanticide Act (Act Vlll.) was 
 passed that required for its workings special 
 police surveillance of the suspected villages; that 
 is, villages where the census returns showed a 
 vast disproportion between boys and girls of the 
 same age. For instance, in one tribe, eighty 
 boys under twelve years of age were found and 
 only eight girls; and in one district one hundred 
 boys to eighty-seven girls. One great cause of 
 failure in bringing the offence home to the perpe- 
 trators is the combination or union of all the vil- 
 lagers to conceal the crime. It baffles detection 
 because of their sympathy with the perpetrators 
 of the crime who, most presumably, are fully 
 known to them. 
 
 The writer quoted above tells the story of a 
 native Deputy Inspector of Police who was asked 
 if he had any children, and replied: “Yes, I had 
 the misfortune to have two daughters, but I have 
 dispatched both of them. May God now bless 
 me with a son!” In one district, a few years 
 
 ago, several hundred children were returned as 
 159 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 having been carried off by the wolves — all of 
 u'hom were girls! We know of a Rajput woman 
 who told a friend of ours that eight girls had 
 been put out of the way in her family. 
 
 We trust that not many years will elapse before 
 infanticide, like the Suttee, will be a thing of the 
 past. 
 
 160 
 
XI 
 
 A CHAPTER OF INDIAN TESTIMONY 
 
 Europeans, and especially missionaries, are 
 often accused of making erroneous and exag- 
 gerated statements about India and India’s peo- 
 ple, particularly about the condition of women. 
 We do not resent the charge. Perhaps some do, 
 for as the Indian Witness says, “Missionaries 
 may sometimes err in describing particular cases 
 as typical of the whole, and, being human, may 
 even exaggerate. But it is hardly possible to 
 portray the sad condition of Indian women, gen- 
 erally, in too sombre colors. Indians themselves 
 are our most reliable authority as to the woes 
 they suffer, and the disadvantages under which 
 they labor.” For this reason we have taken 
 special pains, with few exceptions, to quote In- 
 dian authorities in these pages. 
 
 We believe some of our Indian friends deny 
 statements out of ignorance of facts. They have 
 been happily circumstanced themselves, and have 
 not come into close personal contact with much 
 of the suffering of which we write, and hence 
 
 are unwilling to believe it exists. Ram.abai has 
 161 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 told us that up to the time she was sixteen or 
 seventeen years of age, although she had visited 
 almost every sacred shrine in India, in company 
 with her parents, and afterward with her brother, 
 she was so shielded that she knew nothing of the 
 evils that existed in these places till long after- 
 ward. 
 
 Miss Thoburn says: “The late Mrs. Anandibai 
 Joshi, who studied medicine in America, was un- 
 willing to admit that child marriage was an evil. 
 Her own marriage at nine had been to a relative, 
 her teacher and best friend; and with this ex- 
 perience, and the traditions of her people, she 
 had been unconscious of the suffering of others. 
 She would have changed her mind, had she lived 
 to practice her profession in India.” 
 
 Then people may live so exclusive a life in 
 their own caste, as to be ignorant of the customs 
 and practices of other castes. We believe that 
 this to some degree, accounts for the different 
 statements made to travellers. The traveller ar- 
 gues thus: “Nowhere is a sensible Hindu. If 
 he does not know about his own people, who 
 should know In our investigations about the 
 muralis, we asked questions of many Hindu 
 friends, only to find some knew nothing about 
 
 it, and though others knew there was such a 
 162 
 
A Chapter of Indian Testimony 
 
 custom, yet they had never paid attention to it 
 and could give no information. 
 
 On the other hand, there is sometimes an un- 
 willingness on the part of some to admit the real 
 facts. Mr. Malabari in speaking about India re- 
 forming herself says: “And what is the present 
 phase of Indian patriotism in this connection ? 
 Whenever a defect is pointed out, the first im- 
 pulse of our average patriot is to justify and con- 
 ceal. How can he be a witness to a cause, when 
 he is anxious to hide the truth of it from the 
 world’s gaze ? The only way to reach perfection 
 is by getting rid of imperfections at any cost.” 
 
 In view of what is often said against European 
 writers and speakers, it has seemed best to have 
 a chapter of Indian testimony concerning these 
 wrongs, and thus set forth the opinions our 
 friends themselves hold concerning the evils in 
 question. 
 
 Take first the matter of custom : Dr. R. G. 
 Bhandarkar, C. 1. E., Vice Chancellor of the 
 Bombay University, in an address delivered in 
 1894, said “Custom is a god whom our race de- 
 voutly worships, and religious sanction was ac- 
 corded to these practices'by the insertion of later 
 texts in the later books. . . . The question 
 
 now is, whether with our minds liberalized by 
 163 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 English education and contact with European 
 civilization, we shall continue to worship custom 
 and be its slaves, and allow our moral sentiments 
 to remain dead, and our unjust and cruel prac- 
 tices to flourish. If an education does not lead 
 us to protest against them, that education must 
 be considered to be merely superficial. . . . 
 
 Custom has been and is an authority; custom is 
 our religion.” 
 
 The Indian Social Reformer declared, about 
 the same time, that “It is futile to suppose that 
 India can herself heal her ills, if only more light 
 is given her. The history of Social Reform for 
 the last twenty-five years attests to this. Re- 
 formers have published the injunctions of the 
 sJiastras on the subject of the disfigurement of 
 the widow. They have shown that the custom 
 has not the sanction of the shastras. But all the 
 same, the Hindu community is heedless of their 
 words. Is it not foolish to expect that a com- 
 munity like ours can be reasoned into wisdom 
 and common sense? The community has lost 
 the motive power to initiate, or welcome any 
 wholesome reform.” 
 
 Mr. B. N. Das, an Indian lawyer of high re- 
 pute, writing to the Lucknow Advocate says: 
 
 “ We are living in a stormy epoch. We want a 
 164 
 
A Chapter of Indian Testimony 
 
 stormy patriotism, a patriotism independent and 
 uncompromising, reckless of consequences, and 
 ready to do battle with every social ill. The cup 
 of political evils is full, the burden of social in- 
 iquities has become so intolerable, and the tyranny 
 of custom stands out so red and foul, that a mil- 
 itant uprising of the better spirit in men against 
 them has become one of the essential conditions 
 of national salvation.” 
 
 The editor of the Bengalee, commenting on a 
 letter of Max Muller’s, says: 
 
 “ Prof. Max Muller writes a letter to the Times, 
 in which he eloquently pleads for the child-wid- 
 ows of India. Theirs indeed is a pitiable lot, and 
 should move the hearts of all good men and true. 
 He very properly points out, that it is a part of 
 the existing Hindu law, that child-widows should 
 be consigned to this life of misery; and that the 
 law should be changed. The manners of men 
 changed with the times, and laws should change 
 with manners and modes of thought. This is so 
 obvious and elementary a principle, that we won- 
 der our countrymen do not see it, or seeing it, do 
 not act upon it. Laws which are antiquated and 
 behind the manners of the age must impede the 
 march of society. Laws should not be modified, 
 
 or changed too soon; but it is a fatal mistake to 
 165 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 refuse to change them, when the necessity for 
 such change has become apparent. We have 
 been committing this mistake for centuries to- 
 gether. We have allowed ourselves to be guided 
 by ironclad rules, some of which are wholly un- 
 suited to the circumstances of the times, and to 
 our present environments, and we have become 
 slaves of customs which have tyrannized over us 
 with a rigor surpassing the rigor of the most 
 despotic Governments in the world, /the worst 
 form of slavery is that in which the slave hugs 
 his chains and does not realize his true conditior^ 
 We are afraid we have become the bondsmen of 
 our own creation, victims in many cases of in- 
 stitutions, which the great legislators of the past, 
 the illustrious founders of the Hindu system, 
 would, if they were now living, declare to be 
 wholly unsuited to the circumstances of the pres- 
 ent day. The institution of enforced widow- 
 hood, and the prohibition to sea voyage are cases 
 in point.” 
 
 At a meeting of the Madras Social Reform As- 
 sociation in 1894, one of the speakers, Mr. B. 
 Varada Charlu, said, “Custom in Hindu Society 
 is the autocrat of all autocrats, and will tolerate 
 not the least sign of a spirit of inquiry. Surely 
 
 a religion which has been allowed to so far de- 
 les 
 
A Chapter of Indian Testimony 
 
 generate as to give every prominence to mere 
 externalities without any reference to the inner 
 life of its votaries, must either mend or end very 
 soon. It is poor consolation to be told that our 
 present social customs had a religious significance 
 in the past, and should, for that reason, if for no 
 other, be preserved intact for future generations 
 to unravel the forgotten mysteries and infuse 
 fresh life into them. "^By all means, if one is so 
 inclined, let him preserve old customs where they 
 are of an inocuous or indifferent character, but 
 certainly let him not, at this fag end of the nine- 
 teenth century, deny the right of the individual, 
 even though he be a Hindu, to act according to 
 the dictates of his conscience and of his reason; 
 especially when those customs are unsuited to 
 present circumstances and pernicious in their ef- 
 fects on society.”/ 
 
 We present, also, a few testimonies on the 
 matter of Enforced Widowhood. 
 
 A recent correspondent of the Indian Social Re- 
 former, writes on the subject of enforced wid- 
 owhood, as follows: “ In the days of my early 
 
 childhood,” writes a friend from the mofussil, 
 " in those days when the mind can hardly pene- 
 trate through the thick folds of mystery which 
 
 shroud half the things of the world, my simple 
 167 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 mind was drawn to the subject of the Hindu 
 widow. Her melancholy attire, her disfigured 
 head, her careworn appearance, the rude way 
 in which she is handled by our society, all these 
 created in me the impression that the widow 
 somehow belonged not to the ranks of the two 
 recognized sexes, that possibly she might be a 
 being of a third sex, or else a member of a 
 totally different species of the animal world! 
 Nearly twenty-five years have elapsed since that 
 crude notion entered my brain, and yet not all 
 the education and experience 1 have gained has 
 totally erased that belief of mine, though they 
 have considerably modified it, as they do so 
 many of our childish vagaries and crudities. 
 Verily the Hindu widow belongs to a separate 
 sex, a different order of living beings! Widow- 
 hood anywhere is tormenting enough; and in this 
 glorious land of Arvavarth, custom adds insult to 
 injury.” 
 
 Another Indian writer testifies thus: “At the 
 recent Akola Sessions, the judge passed a sentence 
 of transportation for life on one, Tani, for having 
 killed her infant child. ... It was the usual 
 tale of a Hindu child-widow. . . . Says the 
 
 Judge: “The accused was a Brahman widow 
 
 whose husband died when she was still a child. 
 
 168 
 
A Chapter of Indian Testimony 
 
 The crime she committed was that of a desperate 
 woman bent on hiding her shame, and with the 
 loss of caste staring her in the face. Such crimes, 
 although they must be severely punished, are to 
 some extent venial, and I shall move the Local 
 Government to commute the sentence to one of 
 six years’ rigorous imprisonment.”^ Many have 
 bewailed the fate of the Hindu widow and have 
 noted case after case in which the unfortunate 
 creatures are, for mere shame, compelled to com- 
 mit serious crimes. The Hindu widow has by 
 mere perversity, blindfoldedness of those most 
 concerned, been long a suffering, though unwilling 
 victim at the sacrifice of inexorable and inhuman 
 customs. Now and then comes to light a serious 
 case like the present; but how many more may 
 be occurring which are never brought to public 
 notice! These occasional cases, however, hardly 
 excite public opinion, and the stolid, indifferent 
 communities again relapse into their usual drowsi- 
 ness. Educated India, at any rate, was expected 
 to come to the rescue, and give a new direction 
 to the trend of public opinion; but the hope has 
 never been realized. The educated man of the 
 present day is a person entirely without a back- 
 bone, not only in this, but in all other depart- 
 ments of public activities. Persons speaking 
 169 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 from Congress platforms, and loudly demanding 
 rights and privileges from government, might 
 certainly direct their attention with greater effect 
 to matters social. To rectify social evils one’s 
 own moral courage is a necessary ingredient and 
 no extraneous help is necessary as in political 
 matters; but politics means very little sacrifice 
 to very many, while social problems involve real 
 self-sacrifice and personal suffering by loss of 
 caste and excommunication." 
 
 Mr. K. Subba Rao, in a lecture on the remar- 
 riage of child-widows, made this statement: 
 
 “The widow’s presence is, on certain occa- 
 sions, regarded as inauspicious. There are even 
 yet, in the year of grace, 1895, educated and un- 
 educated men by hundreds and thousands who, 
 while starting from their homes bent upon 
 achieving some cherished end, pass a few steps 
 and suddenly retrace their steps, as if stung by 
 some venomous reptile, because they see a widow 
 coming in front of them. Some of them even 
 contend that, in their everyday experience, the 
 ominous presentment which the presence of the 
 widow suggested to them, was verified by sub- 
 sequent occurrences in the course of the day. 
 While it is not within my province to offer ex- 
 planations for all the chapter of inexplicable ac- 
 170 
 
A Chapter of Indian Testimony 
 
 cidents, what I wish to impress upon your 
 minds is the existence of this deep-seated preju- 
 dice, the widely prevalent belief that the presence 
 of a widow forebodes evil or failure. This belief 
 is transmitted from generation to generation, and 
 1 am not sure that even the most polished and 
 cultured among us have been always free from 
 it. This is a living evidence of the centuries that 
 have elapsed since the degradation of women be- 
 gan in this country. Sometimes the most affec- 
 tionate of sons and brothers have had the sor- 
 rowful duty of imploring their widowed mothers 
 and sisters to be careful of their movements on 
 festive occasions like marriage, when bad and 
 good omens play an important part.” 
 
 The Poonah Sudharak, speaking of the famine 
 says: “Nature would be herself again, and the 
 unfortunate people who have suffered severe losses 
 would soon be reconciled to their lot. There 
 would still be a very considerable number of 
 miserable beings who will not forget their mis- 
 fortunes because the society to which they be- 
 long will not allow them to do so. The helpless 
 Hindu child-widow, whose lot is dark misery, 
 pure and simple, unmixed with the slightest ray 
 of hope or escape, will continue to mope and shed 
 
 tears of bitter sorrow. The number of these 
 171 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 poor victims to the bigotry of their community 
 is always large, but this year it will be three or 
 four times as large at the smallest. Let the 
 Hindu community move, if it can move at all, 
 and do something for the amelioration of their 
 own sisters and daughters. Let them show at 
 least that they are alive to the fact that the poor 
 sufferers are their own flesh and blood. . . . 
 
 We wrote a series of articles in our Vernacular 
 columns, on the desirability of approaching gov- 
 ernment with a view to amend the existing penal 
 law, so as to make the disfigurement of Hindu 
 widows under the age of twenty-one punisha- 
 ble.” 
 
 We turn now to the nautch-girl, and on this 
 point a couple of testimonies must suffice. Dr. 
 Bhandarkar said, a few years ago, in a public ad- 
 dress: “I have always been of the opinion that 
 he who patronizes dancing-girls does not suffi- 
 ciently hate the immoral life which they professr 
 edly lead, or value as highly as he ought to do, 
 female purity, which is the soil on which the no- 
 ble qualities of women grow. The institution 
 of Nautch cannot but have a debasing effect on 
 the morality of men and women. 1 shall not, 
 without strong proof believe in a man’s being a 
 
 faithful husband if he takes delight in giving 
 172 
 
A Chapter of Indian Testimony 
 
 Nautch parties and attending them. To have a 
 nautch at one’s own house is to give an object 
 lesson in immorality to the boys and girls in the 
 family; and especially to the former. As long 
 as the Naiitch is fashionable among us, and is 
 freely indulged in, it is impossible that the mo- 
 rality of our men should greatly improve, or that 
 our respect for women should increase; and in a 
 country in which women are trampled upon, 
 there can be no great advantage in social and 
 moral matters.” 
 
 The Indian Social Reformer of June 9th, 1894, 
 asks very pertinently: “What has a prostitute 
 to do in a marriage ceremony ? How does her 
 presence add grace or sanctity to such occasion ? 
 A virgin-widow, pure as snow and innocent as 
 the dove, is an unwelcome guest to a marriage 
 pandal. But a shameless prostitute who has 
 sold her all, must tie the mangala sutra round 
 the neck of the bride. What monstrous incon- 
 sistency! What degraded notions of immorality! 
 Has Annie Besant or Vivekananda naught to say 
 to this.^ We say that the dancing-girl and the 
 child-widow are the two great blots on our so- 
 cial system and our Hinduism.” 
 
 On the question of Child Marriage Mr. Mun- 
 
 mohan Ghose says: “I look upon the system of 
 173 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 child marriage as the greatest curse of our coun- 
 try.” And Mr. S. N. Tagore adds: “It is a 
 canker that eats into the vitals of our national 
 existence, and which, if not removed in time, 
 may lead to the degeneracy and decay of the 
 whole race.” 
 
 Sir T. Madhaw Rao says: “ And I also am of 
 the opinion that such limit should be fixed. 
 Even if it is fixed at ten, it will do considerable 
 good. It may be fixed at fourteen or fifteen for 
 non-Brahmans.” 
 
 Mr. B. M. Malabari writes as follows: “A 
 Madras native paper reports a marriage in which 
 the bride is as old as from seven to eight years, 
 and the bridegroom only sixty years old! Well 
 may the reporter ask if such a marriage is not 
 worse than slavery for the child-wife. A Madras 
 friend told me last year of a marriage in which 
 the bride was eighteen months, and the bride- 
 groom about twenty-two years. Are such mar- 
 riages heard or dreamed of in any other part of 
 the world.? So much for our progress.” 
 
 Surely these brief but clear and pointed testimo- 
 nies from members of the Hindu race, will show 
 that we have not in any way overstated the 
 matters with which we are dealing, but have 
 
 rather understated the facts than otherwise. 
 
 174 
 
XII 
 
 THE POSITION OF GOVERNMENT 
 
 A NATIVE once said “that the British rule was 
 good in every way, only that we cannot treat our 
 wives as we used to.” We wish to consider just 
 how far this is true, and just what the govern- 
 ment has done for the amelioration of the con- 
 dition of women. 
 
 The old East India Company was incorporated 
 by Queen Elizabeth, December 31st, 1600, just as 
 the sixteenth century passed away. Up to 1773, 
 the government of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay 
 had been that of Independent Presidencies. In 
 1773 the Regulating Act was adopted, the three 
 presidencies were united under one government, 
 and a Governor-General was appointed for all 
 India, with a Supreme Council and a Court of 
 Judicature. Warren Hastings was the first Gov- 
 ernor-General. 
 
 In 1781 another Act of Parliament was passed 
 which authorized the Governor-General and the 
 Council of Bengal to make regulations which 
 should have the force of law. The policy of the 
 
 East India Company was to leave the people un- 
 175 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 disturbed in the exercise of their religious, do- 
 mestic and social customs. Hindus were judged 
 by Hindu law framed from their sacred books, 
 and Mohammedans by Mohammedan law derived 
 from the Koran. But in all other matters, such 
 as contracts, civil wrongs, crimes or “ wherever 
 any question arose which affected the followers 
 of all religions alike, it was necessary to have a 
 common code to which there could be an equal 
 appeal from all parties.” In 1781 government 
 began to give attention to this, and in 1834 Lord 
 Macaulay was sent out to India, in the days of 
 Lord Bentinck, as a legal member of the Gov- 
 ernor-General’s Council, to prepare a penal code 
 for the use of the government of India. 
 
 During the rule of Lord Canning, came the 
 Indian mutiny in 1857. This was the deathblow 
 of the-old East India Company and the birth of 
 the new empire. The story of the mutiny roused 
 the whole British nation, and in July, 1858, the 
 government of India was transferred from the 
 East India Company to the Crown. In November, 
 1858, a proclamation in all the different Indian 
 languages was issued, declaring that Her Majesty 
 had assumed the direct government of her Eastern 
 Empire. The Governor-General ceased to rule in 
 
 the name of the East India Company, and became 
 176 
 
The Position of Government 
 
 the Viceroy of India. This proclamation was 
 read publicly in every station, civil and military, 
 with every accompaniment of ceremonial 
 splendor, and was received by all classes through- 
 out India with the greatest enthusiasm. Among 
 other things promised, were the following: 
 
 “ We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian ter- 
 ritories by the same obligations of duty which bind us to all 
 other subjects ; and those obligations, by the blessing of Almighty 
 God, we shall faithfully and conscientiously fulfill. 
 
 “ Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and 
 acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim 
 alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any 
 of our subjects. We declare it to be our Royal will and pleasure 
 that none be in anywise favored, none molested or disquieted, 
 by reason of their religious faith or observances ; but that all 
 shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law ; 
 and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in 
 authority under us, that they abstain from all interference with 
 the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects, on pain of 
 our highest displeasure. 
 
 “When, by the blessing of Providence, internal tranquillity 
 shall be restored, it is our earnest desire to stimulate the peace- 
 ful industry of India, to promote works of public utility and im- 
 provement, and to administer its government for the benefit of 
 all our subjects resident therein. In their prosperity will be our 
 strength, in their contentment our security, and in their gratitude 
 our best reward. And may the God of all power grant unto us 
 strength to carry out these our wishes for the good of our 
 people.” 
 
 This proclamation has been called the Magna 
 
 Charta of the Indian people. Nineteen years 
 
 177 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 later, January ist, 1877, Queen Victoria, with 
 great pomp, and certainly it can be said in these 
 modern days, with unparalleled splendor, was 
 proclaimed Empress of India. The brilliant Im- 
 perial Assemblage at Delhi was repeated with 
 greater or less ceremony in every civil and mili- 
 tary station in India. Sixteen thousand prisoners 
 were set free, and public works were inaugurated 
 by the benevolent in memory of the day. And 
 this celebration was understood to be a renewal 
 of the proclamation and promise of non-interfer- 
 ence with the religious and social customs of the 
 people that was made in 1858, when the Crown 
 for the first time took over India from the East 
 India Company. 
 
 “Since i860, the Legislative Council of India 
 has from time to time enacted many wise laws, 
 as necessity has seemed to call for them; and re- 
 cently, it has been said by Sir Henry Maine, that 
 ‘ British India is in possession of a set of codes 
 which approach the highest standard of excel- 
 lence which this species of legislation has reached. 
 In form, intelligibility, and comprehensiveness, 
 the Indian code stands against all competition.’”* 
 The proclamation of 1858 was but the reitera- 
 tion of the pledges made to the people by the 
 
 • India and Malaysia, by Bishop Thoburn. 
 
 178 
 
The Position of Government 
 
 East India Company, vv^hose “firmest article of 
 faith was that all the customs of the natives 
 should be scrupulously respected, and that noth- 
 ing should be done to give umbrage to their reli- 
 gious prejudices.” This policy has been consis- 
 tently adhered to throughout the rule of the 
 English in India. The only departures made from 
 it, says a writer, “have been taken under some 
 paramount sense that an outrage not sanctioned 
 by God, and disapproved of by the higher con- 
 science of the Indians themselves, was being per- 
 petrated, shocking to the human mind and 
 amounting to a scandal on our legislation. . . . 
 
 But respect and protection for the special reli- 
 gion of the Hindus cannot and must not allow 
 us to be blind to acts which are in contravention 
 of all religion, and opposed to the most clearly 
 established rights of humanity. No religion can 
 justify the sacrifice of innocent persons. A civ- 
 ilized government is bound to protect them or 
 lose its reputation. 
 
 It is this pledge to the people, reiterated in the 
 proclamation of 1858, and freshly emphasized in 
 the proceedings of January, 1877, that, as is pop- 
 ularly believed, ties the hands of government 
 when justice and humanity clamor for action on 
 
 the behalf of women. And it is also the cry of 
 179 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 the orthodox and opposing elements amongst the 
 Hindus against legislative interference. 
 
 Says Sir W. W. Hunter: “When the English 
 assumed the government of India, they gave 
 emphatic pledges that they would leave the reli- 
 gious and domestic customs of the people undis- 
 turbed. By degrees they found out that there 
 were three very terrible customs affecting Hindu 
 women. First, that as all women ought, accord- 
 ing to the religious law of the Hindus, to be 
 married; and as an unmarried daughter is con- 
 sidered a disgrace to a family, child marriage 
 u'as universal among the higher castes in order to 
 avoid the possible disgrace and to secure the ful- 
 fillment of the law. Second, that as in certain 
 castes it was difficult to find husbands of equal 
 rank for all the daughters, and to defray the ex- 
 travagant cost of the wedding ceremonies, female 
 infanticide u'as common. Third, that amongst 
 the highest castes the cruel rite of burning wid- 
 on's on their husband’s funeral pile prevailed; 
 and that a widow who did not burn herself 
 thus was condemned to lifelong celibacy and 
 penance. 
 
 As the English rulers realized the inhumanity 
 of the domestic system which they had under- 
 taken to perpetuate, the more conscientious of 
 180 
 
The Position of Government 
 
 them were pricked to the heart. On the one 
 hand, their pledges not to interfere had been 
 solemn and explicit. On the other hand, they 
 found themselves compelled to be the daily ac- 
 complices of acts of abominable cruelty, and to rec- 
 ognize by law the organized murder of the two 
 most helpless classes of their subjects. The 
 widow and the infant, whose defenseless condi- 
 tion made them in a special manner the wards of 
 the State, were precisely the persons to whom 
 the State refused protection. 
 
 For three-quarters of a century after Bengal 
 had legally passed under English administration, 
 the new rulers felt their hands tied by the pledges 
 which they had given. But during that period 
 a maxim of interpretation in regard to those 
 pledges had been acquiring precision and force. 
 It was at length admitted that the British gov- 
 ernment could maintain the customary and reli- 
 gious law, only so far as that law did not con- 
 flict with its higher duty to protect the lives of its 
 subjects." 
 
 Has it been an accident that the sovereign who 
 is at the head of this great empire should be a 
 woman; and that that woman should be one of 
 the noblest and best women that the century has 
 
 produced; as if Providence had decreed that the 
 181 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 people of India should have a living, standing 
 protest against their treatment of \vomen in the 
 person of their sovereign ? In India, according 
 to the census of 1891, there is a population of 
 over 287,000,000 under her rule; of which over 
 140,000,000 are women ; more than twice as 
 many women as are in all Great Britain and 
 America taken together. This large number is 
 composed of Christians, Mohammedans, Jains, 
 Parsees, Hindus, Buddhists and Aborigines; but 
 the larger proportion of them are Hindus. 
 
 Among these women we find, by the same 
 census, nearly 23,000,000 widows. Eliminating 
 widows of other religions, aged widows, wid- 
 ows with families, and widows of all but the 
 two higher castes. Sir W. W. Hunter said, in 
 1886, “ Broadly speaking, I believe that there are 
 about 1,000,000 young widows of the Brahman 
 and Rajput castes, to whom the system of forced 
 celibacy must be held to be a cruel infringement 
 of their natural rights.” He further says that, 
 “adding these to the young women of other 
 high castes, there are not less than 2,000,000 
 widows in India to whom the existing Hindu 
 law is an injustice and a wrong.” This Hindu 
 law the government recognizes, and accepts. 
 
 To make this mass of 2,000,000 injured women 
 182 
 
The Position of Government 
 
 real to our readers, we may say that it is equal 
 to the whole population of the women of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 “This evil has its root in child marriage. All 
 Hindu girls are either wives or widows before 
 they reach the age of fifteen; ” and, may we add, 
 a large proportion of them are mothers when 
 they should be playing with dolls, or should be 
 in school. In one of the Bombay hospitals a 
 young girl of twelve years of age was brought 
 into the maternity ward. She gave birth to a 
 little child, but in its birth her sufferings were so 
 extreme that the doctor and nurse in attendance 
 quailed at the sight of it. The doctor said with 
 much emotion and great indignation: “Govern- 
 ment should put a stop to such a thing.” 
 
 Again, in every other country women are 
 found in excess of men; but in India, according 
 to the census in 1891, there are nearly six and 
 one-quarter million less women than men. In 
 our estimation this large number cannot be 
 wholly accounted for by the practice of female 
 infanticide; or from an unwillingness to make 
 returns of the women of the family to the census 
 taker; but by other wrongs against womanhood 
 that tend to shorten life as well. 
 
 It is often said that the Acts bearing upon these 
 163 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 matters are practically inoperative and a dead 
 letter, and in advance of public opinion. It is 
 true that in some respects they are; but on the 
 other hand they are not, and the result of them 
 has been on the whole good; both as educative, 
 and in strengthening the cause of reform. 
 
 Government often seems to evade responsibil- 
 ity, by throwing it upon the people with the ex- 
 cuse that the measure proposed is ahead of public 
 opinion, or that it must be “ asked for by a sec- 
 tion sufficiently important in influence or in num- 
 bers to justify the course proposed.” But if any 
 reform can be practically promoted, it can only 
 be by government identifying itself with it. To 
 expect any unanimity, or anything approaching 
 it among Hindus on any social question, is an 
 impossibility; and if government wishes to wait 
 till such unanimity is reached, it will be impossi- 
 ble to promote any reform however needful. 
 There are hundreds of men in India who would 
 be glad of legislative interference, and who have 
 said of late, in a sort of despair, that there is no 
 hope of help from government. There are other 
 educated men who oppose legislative interfer- 
 ence; yet if government would do it without 
 their seeming to sanction it, they would be glad, 
 
 for then they could say to their people: “What 
 184 
 
The Position of Government 
 
 can we do ? Government has done it, and we 
 must submit.” 
 
 Government must be prepared to take the ini- 
 tiative in any reform measure if they are con- 
 vinced of its necessity, without waiting for the 
 people to indorse their action. Some of these 
 wrongs are a great iniquity and a scandal to any 
 government. The people would grumble; but 
 when it was done they would acquiesce. Hindu 
 fatalism, if nothing else, would help them to do 
 it. The Indian people are convinced of the 
 power of the government, and we feel that all it 
 needs to promote any reform is to be simply 
 courageous; and we do not believe there would 
 be any resistance to any of their righteous meas- 
 ures. With governments, as with individuals, it 
 is always right to do right without regard to 
 consequences. 
 
 Kaye, in his “ Administration of the East India 
 Company,” speaking of the Suttee Act, says 
 what we believe is equally true now: “It was a 
 great experiment and a successful one. Its suc- 
 cess was fraught with a great lesson. The prime 
 want of human governments is a want of faith. 
 A bold policy is generally a successful one. It is 
 always successful when the boldness is the re- 
 sult of a strong determination to do what is right 
 185 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 and to leave secondary considerations to them- 
 selves. We have been continually conjuring up 
 bugbears in the distance, only to discover, upon 
 a nearer approach, that they are the merest con- 
 ceptions of the brain. If we would only believe 
 that a righteous policy is sure in the end to be a 
 successful one, how much groundless alarm and 
 unnecessary anxiety we should be spared in all 
 our dealings with our fellows.” 
 
 We summarize our thought upon these points 
 as follows: 
 
 1. Sooner or later, government will have to 
 face the question of fixing the marriageable age 
 of girls. We feel that it made a great mistake in 
 refusing the recent Madras Bill, with the excuse 
 that it was ahead of public opinion. 
 
 2 . We trust that, very soon, the enactment 
 relating to the Restitution of Conjugal Rights 
 will be abolished, or at least amended so as to 
 make imprisonment impossible. 
 
 3. We trust the forfeiture-of-property clause 
 may be modified, so that a widow, in the event 
 of remarriage, may be able to retain her civil 
 rights. 
 
 4. We do not plead for a divorce law for the 
 wife, so much as that the “rights” of the hus- 
 band may be modified, and that the two may be 
 
 186 
 
The Position of Government 
 
 put in a more nearly equal position. If the wife 
 has no redress, then the husband should not be 
 permitted to discard her. Hindu law does not 
 regard even flagrant immorality on the part of 
 the husband as ground for a judicial separation 
 between husband and wife. 
 
 5. We plead that government disallow the 
 adoption of little girls by Nautch girls; and that 
 the dedication of girls to gods or temples be dis- 
 tinctly brought under the law in such manner as 
 to enforce punishment for every such offence. 
 
 Says Justice M. G. Ranade to his fellow-coun- 
 trymen: “If we are to abjure government help 
 
 t 
 
 under all circumstances, we must perforce fall 
 back behind the Parsees, Mohammedans and 
 Christians, who have freely availed themselves of 
 such help in recasting their social arrangements. 
 Further, as it is likely that foreign rule will last 
 over us for an indefinite length of time, we re- 
 duce ourselves, by accepting this policy, to the 
 extreme absurdity of shutting out a very useful 
 help for many centuries to come. In such mat- 
 ters, the distinction of foreign and domestic 
 rulers is a distinction without a difference. It 
 has a meaning and significance when foreign in- 
 terests override native interests; but when the 
 
 foreigners have no interest to serve, and the ini- 
 187 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 tiative is to be all our own, the recognition of 
 State help is not open to the stock objection 
 urged by those who think that we forfeit our in- 
 dependence by seeking such regulation on lines 
 approved by us.” 
 
 It has not been our desire to do any injustice 
 to government, because we fully realize the pe- 
 culiar situation in which it is placed by the 
 pledges which have been given ; but, at the same 
 time, we dare not ignore the great opportunities 
 and responsibilities of government to the millions 
 of oppressed women under them; and we plead 
 with them to rise to the full height of their op- 
 portunity and responsibility, and to be true to the 
 trust given them when God allowed India to 
 come under their rule. In view of this, we are 
 impressed with the fact of how great the neces- 
 sity is for the divine command that we “pray 
 for all those in authority,” that they may rule in 
 righteousness: and what a failure it is for all 
 Christians to neglect this command. 
 
 188 
 
XIII 
 
 WHAT GOVERNMENT HAS DONE 
 
 Let us now see what government has done for 
 the mitigation of these wrongs: 
 
 1. While the Female Infanticide Act of 1870 
 does not properly come first here, yet, in its be- 
 ginnings, it was one of the earliest forms of the 
 wrongs of woman to engage the public atten- 
 tion. 
 
 Sacrificial infanticide, discovered by Carey and 
 his fellow-workers in 1794, was soon completely 
 abolished by government; but the complete 
 abolition of Rajput infanticide is still in the fu- 
 ture tense. Rules have been passed under the 
 above Act which are working well in the local 
 government of the Punjab, and our prayer is that 
 it may not be long till the crime ceases to exist 
 in India. 
 
 2. The enactment secured by Carey for pro- 
 hibiting the sacrifice of children at Ganga Sagar 
 and on the Ganges, was soon quoted as a prec- 
 edent for further reform. Lord Wellesley took 
 the first steps in 1805 in answer to Carey’s me- 
 morial for the abolition of the Suttee, and had he 
 
 189 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 remained in office a year longer, a prohibitory 
 Act would have been passed in 1808. He de- 
 clined to notice the “prohibitory regulations” 
 recommended by civilian judges; but these were 
 adopted by Lord Minto, in 1812, who issued the 
 following instructions to his magistrates; “The 
 government after considering the replies of the 
 pundits, premised that the practice, generally 
 speaking, being recognized and encouraged by 
 the Hindu religion, it appears evident that the 
 course which the British Government should fol- 
 low, according to the principle of religious tol- 
 eration already noticed, is to allow the practice 
 in those cases in which it is countenanced by 
 their religion, and to prevent it in others in 
 which it is by the same authority prohibited.” 
 The magistrates were then ordered to interfere 
 under the following conditions: 
 
 (1) To prevent undue influences on the part 
 of the relatives of the Brahmans, or any one, on 
 the widow to induce her to burn. 
 
 (2) To prevent the criminal practice of drug- 
 ging her to have it done. 
 
 (3) To ascertain if she had attained the age 
 fixed by Hindu law at which they were permitted 
 to burn themselves. 
 
 (4) If pregnant, she was not allowed to burn. 
 
 190 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 The police were required to inquire into cases 
 to see that they fulfilled these regulations, or to 
 otherwise forbid the burning. 
 
 In 1817 these orders were further modified; so 
 that, if the widow were not in good health; if 
 she had a child under four; or if she had chil- 
 dren under seven for whom she could not pro- 
 vide a suitable guardian, she was forbidden to 
 burn. Also the family were to give due notifica- 
 tion of the burning to the authorities, and that it 
 was not to be left to the police to find it out. 
 Magistrates often attended in person to see that 
 the widow had fair play if, at the last, she wished 
 to escape. 
 
 At this apparent government sanction of the 
 Suttee many high-minded officials revolted. 
 Carey and his colleagues never ceased in their 
 agitation of the subject both in England and in 
 India. In the twenty-one years that elapsed be- 
 tween Lord Wellesley’s departure in 1808, and 
 the final prohibition of the custom by Lord Ben- 
 tinck in 1829, perhaps no question of Indian 
 policy was ever so thoroughly sifted and so mi- 
 nutely discussed. In 1824, when Lord Amherst 
 was Governor-General, the question was again 
 submitted and was one of the most pressing im- 
 portance, and he came, says a writer, “to the 
 191 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 mortifying conclusion that it would not be wise 
 to authorize any direct interference with a hoary 
 custom in which the priesthood had an imme- 
 diate interest. It appeared to him that the wisest 
 course would be to trust to the progress of edu- 
 cation, and to let Suttee die a natural death. He 
 wrote in his minute on March, 1827: ‘I am not 
 prepared to recommend an enactment prohibit- 
 ing Suttee altogether. ... I must frankly 
 confess, though at the risk of being considered 
 insensible to the enormity of the evil, that I am 
 inclined to recommend our trusting to the prog- 
 ress now making in the diffusion of knowledge 
 for the gradual suppression of this detestable 
 superstition, I cannot believe it possible that the 
 burning, or burying alive of widows will long 
 survive the advancement which every year brings 
 with it in useful and rational learning.’” The 
 next year he prophesied, “the progress of gen- 
 eral instruction, and the unostentatious exertions 
 of our local officers will produce the happy ef- 
 fect of a gradual diminution, and, at no very dis- 
 tant period, the final extinction of the barbarous 
 rite of Suttee.” His prophecy came true in a 
 very short time, but in a different way from what 
 he prophesied. Before that year closed Lord 
 Bentinck was occupying the regal-chair, and on 
 192 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 December 4th, 1829, an Act was passed prohibit- 
 ing the Suttee under stringent penal enactments 
 in the territories of British India. 
 
 3. The widow was thus rescued from the 
 flames, but was left for the next twenty-seven 
 years to the fate of what a leading reformer has 
 appropriately called “ cold Suttee.” In 1856, after 
 much agitation, Act XV. was passed by Lord 
 Canning. This Act legalized the status of Hindu 
 widows contracting a second marriage, and their 
 children by such marriage. There were upwards 
 of forty petitions against the bill, signed by from 
 fifty to sixty thousand people, while there were 
 only twenty-five petitions in favor of the bill 
 bearing five thousand signatures. But this law 
 did not preserve to the widow her civil rights, as 
 the widow on marrying a second time, forfeits 
 all property from her husband “as if,” says the 
 Act, “she had then died.” 
 
 The change that is urged is this, that the widow 
 who remarries shall be equally protected in her 
 civil rights by the law, with the widow who re- 
 mains unmarried. The difficulty with the framers 
 of the bill seems to have been that, under Hindu 
 law, a widow inherits from her husband on con- 
 dition of fulfilling certain religious duties as a 
 
 widow, which are for the spiritual benefit of the 
 193 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 husband and his ancestors, which she could not 
 do if she remarried. There is much said for and 
 against this phase of the case, but, says Sir W. 
 W. Hunter, “It is questionable whether the 
 time has not now come to modify the forfeiture 
 clause of the law of 1856, in regard to property 
 which a widow inherits from her husband’s 
 will.” 
 
 In the forty-three years since the enactment, it 
 is estimated that about five hundred widows have 
 remarried. But caste excommunicates them for 
 it, and sometimes all their friends with them. It 
 is this awful persecution, and the public stigma 
 that is still attached to remarriages, that makes 
 the Act practically inoperative up to this time. 
 Is there no way that government, having given 
 her permission and made it lawful for her to re- 
 marry, can protect her from persecution after 
 marriage.? Could not excommunication for do- 
 ing a lawful act be made illegal ? Could it not be 
 made criminal to injure the rights of a member of 
 the community in this way ? 
 
 4. As early as 1856, Dr. Chevers in his book 
 entitled “ Medical jurisprudence for Bengal,” 
 called attention to this question and showed that 
 the law, as it stood, was insufficient to protect 
 
 child wives. He reverts to the question in a later 
 194 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 edition in 1870, and recommends an increase of 
 the age of consent by an amendment of the penal 
 code which, since it had become operative in 
 i860, had stood at ten years. The revelations 
 Mr. Stead made in London, in November, 1885, 
 which formed one of the factors in the raising of 
 the age of consent in England from thirteen to 
 sixteen, called attention to the Indian Criminal 
 Law on the same subject in this country. Mr. 
 Dayaram Gidimul, of the Bombay Statutory Civil 
 Service, wrote a series of articles in the Indian 
 Spectator, and brought the question more promi- 
 nently before the Indian public, exposed the de- 
 fects in the present law, and made a proposal for 
 amending it. These letters were afterward pub- 
 lished by Mr. Malabari in pamphlet form, and 
 circulated among the leaders of native society; 
 and, in this way, he elicited a large number of 
 opinions in favor of the amendment. He also 
 elicited the private opinion of the late Sir Maxwell 
 Melville in favor of a legal remedy and published 
 the fact. This led to the public meeting held in 
 Bombay in 1886, to oppose any legislation what- 
 ever affecting a reform of Hindu marriage cus- 
 toms. The pundits of Poona also took up the 
 matter about the same time, and waited on Lord 
 
 Reay to protest against the proposal. The sub- 
 195 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 ject was not allowed to rest. The W. C. T. U. 
 ladies memorialized government on the subject. 
 In December, 1889, the social Conference held its 
 annual meeting in Bombay, and after warm dis- 
 cussion passed a resolution to government ask- 
 ing that the penal code be so amended as to ex- 
 tend protection to girls, married as well as un- 
 married, at least up to the age of twelve, and to 
 treat any violation of it as felony. 
 
 In June, 1890, came the horrible death of Phul- 
 mani Dasi, a little girl under twelve years. Her 
 husband got one year's imprisonment. The story 
 of this little girl's death roused both the Indian 
 and English public. In August, 1891, the Social 
 Conference sent in their memorial to government, 
 and this, with the rumor that the Phulmani case 
 was likely to lead to a revival of the proposal of 
 the amendment for raising the age of consent, 
 were among the immediate causes of public 
 meetings held in Madras, Satara and Poona 
 against it. Phulmani Dasi’s death, one among 
 hundreds of such cases, brought matters to a 
 sudden head and led the way to immediate action. 
 
 On reading the account in the papers, Mrs. 
 Mansell, an American lady doctor at Lucknow, 
 got up that memorable memorial to government 
 
 signed by fifty-five lady doctors in India, which 
 196 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 went far toward securing the amendment. A 
 noted Indian gentleman said to us, “ I thought I 
 had known a great deal, but the facts that the 
 petition of the lady doctors brought out were ” — 
 he shivered, his face contracted, and then he 
 added: “horrible,” 
 
 The Indian Witness of October, 1890, says: 
 “These cases are too horrible and sickening in 
 their awful details to be given to the general 
 public. They prove to the hilt all the heavy 
 charges brought against the system of child mar- 
 riage on the ground of suffering inflicted. Death, 
 crippling for life, agony indescribable, torture 
 that would put a fiend to shame — these are all 
 here. If the officials of the Indian government 
 can read this memorial without blenching, their 
 hearts are turned to stone.” The memorial con- 
 cludes: “ In view of the above facts, the under- 
 signed lady doctors and medical practitioners ap- 
 peal to your Excellency’s compassion to enact or 
 introduce a measure by which the consummation 
 of marriage will not be permitted before the wife 
 has passed the full age of fourteen years.” 
 
 A very interesting memorial was sent in signed 
 by eighteen hundred native ladies from all over 
 India, addressed to Her Majesty, the Queen Em- 
 press, to this effect: “We, the undersigned 
 197 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 women living in India, beg most reverently to 
 approach your Gracious Majesty with this hum- 
 ble petition, in the hope that your Gracious Maj- 
 esty will respond to our prayer, and direct such 
 steps to be taken as may appear meet to your 
 Majesty to prevent a cruel wrong to which the 
 womanhood of India is now subject. A case 
 was recently tried in Calcutta, the circumstances 
 of which are too horrible to relate; but, coming 
 in the wake of several such previous cases, it 
 emphasizes the necessity for legislation in the in- 
 terests of child wives and other female minors. 
 Well aware of the keen maternal interest your 
 Gracious Majesty has always evinced in the wel- 
 fare of your people, we venture to appeal to 
 your Majesty for redress, and we feel confident 
 that our appeal will not be made in vain. The 
 remedy we seek is that the criminal law may be 
 so altered as to protect at least girls under four- 
 teen from their husbands, as well as from 
 strangers.” And then followed an able and ex- 
 haustive argument for the passing of the amend- 
 ment. 
 
 In the early part of 1890, Mr. Malabari had gone 
 to England hoping that the change would benefit 
 his health. His presence there at this juncture 
 
 was most opportune, and helped to bring the 
 198 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 pressure of public opinion in the home-land upon 
 the Indian government in the matter of this bill. 
 Sir Andrew Scoble introduced the bill into the 
 vice-regal council, January 9th, 1891. In the 
 discussion that followed the introduction, the 
 Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne, said: “Our object is 
 simply to afford protection to those who cannot 
 protect themselves; protection from a form of 
 physical ill-usage which 1 believe to be reprobated 
 by the most thoughtful section of the commu- 
 nity, which is, to the best of my belief, entirely 
 unsupported by religious sanction, and which, 
 tinder English law, is punishable with penal ser- 
 vitude for life. Without any exceptions or res- 
 ervations, 1 trust that the measure thus limited 
 and restricted, will receive the support of public 
 opinion, and 1 cordially commend it to the fa- 
 vorable consideration of the council.” 
 
 After the most thorough sifting, as regards the 
 religious authorities and prejudices of the people, 
 as well as the points in their objection to the bill, 
 it became law on March 19, 1891. 
 
 5. Aside from the Provinces that go to make 
 up British India, there “are hundreds of native 
 states, which still retain a greater or less degree 
 of independence, and are ruled over by their 
 hereditary princes. These are called Feudatory 
 
 199 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 States. The traditional policy of the Indian gov- 
 ernment has been for the Viceroy to appoint a 
 British resident who resides at the Capital of the 
 Indian prince. Nepaul is the only state in India 
 which is really independent. Many of these 
 states are insignificant both in size and impor- 
 tance. Only twelve have a population of over a 
 million. Hyderabad and Mysore are the largest, 
 the former with a population of about ten million 
 and the latter of about four million.” 
 
 This last state, Mysore, is in Southern India; 
 and in 1894, the Maharajah, since deceased, sec- 
 onded by his very able and well-known coun- 
 sellor, Mr. Chentsalrao, passed an act prohibiting 
 the marriage of girls under eight years of age, 
 and forbidding the marriage of old men over 
 fifty years with young girls under fourteen years. 
 The act went into operation six months after- 
 ward, and the punishment of any violation was 
 six months’ imprisonment, or a fine not exceed- 
 ing five hundred rupees. 
 
 There was not much agitation, though it was 
 brought into force greatly against the wish of 
 many of the people, even of some of the edu- 
 cated sections. It was the act of the Maharajah 
 himself, who was an enlightened man. A friend 
 
 who has lived many years in Mysore writes us: 
 200 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 “The Act is on the whole working well. There 
 has been a tendency for magistrates to inflict 
 lenient fines. I fear the Act is not always fear- 
 lessly carried out. I know of one case where an 
 old man married a child wife, contrary to the 
 provisions of the Act, but, because he was con- 
 nected with the palace, no prosecution took 
 place. My own opinion is that the Act has had a 
 very beneficial effect upon the people. 
 
 “The chief influence has been educative, and I 
 believe it will soon become a custom to marry at 
 the time fixed by government. The people have 
 realized that it is not necessary to have their chil- 
 dren marry so early. Those who were anxious 
 to move in that direction have had their hands 
 strengthened; and those eager for early marriages 
 have been restrained. But the Act only touches 
 the fringe of a great subject. If the true mar- 
 riageable age could be raised to thirteen or four- 
 teen, a great advance would have been made.” 
 
 The secretary to the government of Mysore 
 reported that in 1895-1896, thirty-nine persons 
 were prosecuted in sixteen cases, and twenty-six 
 persons were convicted in thirteen cases. The 
 Social Conference that met in 1898, at Madras, 
 congratulates itself on the fairly successful work- 
 ings of this Act, and expresses the hope it will 
 201 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood ‘ 
 
 encourage other native states to follow the ex- 
 ample of Mysore. 
 
 The Maharajah of Jeypore, a small Rajput state, 
 after consulting the highest religious authorities 
 at his court, has also fixed the marriageable age 
 of girls in his state at fourteen. 
 
 6. A bill has been proposed for the prevention 
 of child marriage in the presidency of Madras. 
 This movement began to take shape in 1897. 
 The Madras Presidency is the foremost on all 
 subjects of reform of any part of British India. 
 The different social conferences in the presidency 
 expressed a conviction “that the time had come 
 for applying to government for legislation on the 
 subject to fix at least the marriageable age for 
 boys, if not for girls; and to lay down a maxi- 
 mum limit of age for old persons who marry 
 young girls on the plan adopted by the Mysore 
 government.” 
 
 The Hindu Social Reform Association ap- 
 pointed a committee to draw up a memorial on 
 the same subject. “The province of Mysore 
 borders on this presidency, and is inhabited by 
 people most of whose institutions, customs, 
 manners and religious observances are identical 
 with those of the people in Madras. People of 
 
 Madras of all castes have largely settled them- 
 202 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 selves in Mysore, and vice versa, and intermar- 
 riages between people of Mysore and this presi- 
 dency are not uncommon. If a useful measure 
 like the present one could be successfully at- 
 tempted in any part of British India, this presi- 
 dency, which has so much in common with 
 Mysore, is best fitted for its introduction.” So 
 writes the framer of one of the bills. 
 
 Two bills were drafted proposing the marriage- 
 able age of girls to be eight years, with an im- 
 prisonment of three months or a fine, or both, for 
 any violation of the Act. This proposal the gov- 
 ernment rejected as being in advance of public 
 opinion. It is a question that, sooner or later, 
 government will have to face; and we believe it 
 made a mistake in refusing its sanction to this 
 bill. A resolution was passed at the last Annual 
 National Social Congress that says: 
 
 “ The Congress learns with regret that the government of 
 India has refused to sanction the introduction of the Infant 
 Marriage Prevention Bills in the Local Legislative Council of 
 Madras, on the ground that in its opinion the measures proposed 
 were in advance of public opinion. As both the Marriage Bills 
 were drafted on the lines of the Mysore Marriage Resolutions, 
 and fixed the minimum limits below the ages which are now 
 observed by most classes of the people, the Conference hopes 
 that, if the facts are properly placed before the government, it 
 will be satisfied that the bills were not open to the objection 
 taken to them. The Conference, therefore, recommends that 
 203 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 early steps should be taken by the Social Reform Association 
 to memorialize government with a view that it may be per- 
 suaded to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to ascertain the ad- 
 vance made by public opinion on this subject, and to advise 
 government on the action it should take in this matter.” 
 
 7. Though affecting only the natives of the 
 district of Malabar, in the Madras Presidency, and 
 dealing with a sectional difficulty, the Malabar 
 Marriage Law, passed in 1896, is a measure of 
 importance. It was introduced and conducted 
 through the Madras Legislative Council by the 
 Hon. Mr. C. Sankarao Nair, to whose persever- 
 ance, tact and moderation the success of this, the 
 first attempt at social legislation on the initiative 
 of a non-official member of council, is entirely 
 due. The law provides for the registration of 
 marriages between members of the Malabar com- 
 munity, thus giving a legal basis to what has 
 hitherto been a purely social institution. 
 
 8. There has also been passed an Act bearing 
 upon the restitution of conjugal rights. This law 
 is not native to India; is neither Hindu nor Mo- 
 hammedan; but is an English law that was im- 
 ported into India. It is enforced by imprison- 
 ment. In 1885 the celebrated Rakhmabai case 
 was tried under this law. One judge dismissed 
 
 the case, as revolting to all sense of justice to 
 204 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 compel a woman to consummate a marriage that 
 had been arranged against her will, and without 
 her consent. But the High Court decided in fa- 
 vor of the man. In 1890, when Mr. Malabari was 
 in England, he got up a very influential commit- 
 tee on the subject of Reform of Indian Marriage 
 Laws. They sent in a memorial to the Indian 
 government, asking for four reforms. One was 
 that the age of consent be raised to twelve, which 
 was done; and resolution three was “that the 
 suit for Restitution of Conjugal Rights, which is 
 founded on ecclesiastical law, and has been re- 
 pudiated in its coercive form in all countries of 
 Europe, and ought never to have been intro- 
 duced INTO India; that the continued prosecution 
 of such a suit is likely to produce injustice; and 
 that the whole requires reconsideration at the 
 hands of government with a due regard to the 
 marriage laws and the habits and customs of the 
 people of India.” 
 
 In 1894 a bill came before the Legislative 
 Council proposing an amendment to the effect 
 that imprisonment be left to the discretion of the 
 judges. It did not touch a Hindu custom, it was 
 a ruling imported from England, and the opposi- 
 tion of a part of the Bengal press to the amend- 
 ment is inexplicable. 
 
 205 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 The bill was not passed. The law remains to- 
 day. It is an injustice to womankind, and exists 
 in no other country. No woman can be impris- 
 oned in India for debt. Truly, this is a law that 
 disfigures the statue-book. It was not in defer- 
 ence to Hindu law, or custom, that Rakhmabai 
 lost her case; but under this English law that 
 was practically obsolete at the time in England ; 
 and by the defeat of this case, the hand on the 
 dial of the cause of womanhood was put back- 
 ward ten years. 
 
 9. The India Universities, of which there are 
 five, located at Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore 
 and Allahabad, are all open to women; a fact of 
 which we are justly proud, and in which we are 
 ahead of the history of Western Universities. 
 Perhaps we reaped the fruit of the agitation that 
 opened the door of Western Universities to 
 women. On the page referring to “Examina- 
 tions, Honors and Degrees ” in the calendar of 
 the Bombay University, is the following unique 
 sentence: “ In the following regulations the pro- 
 noun ‘ he ’ and its derivatives are used to denote 
 either sex, the male or female.” We shall be 
 glad when the heavy inequality between man 
 and woman shall be removed in other depart- 
 ments of life, and when the rights of “she, hers 
 206 
 
liOMHAV COU.KC.K 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 and her” shall more nearly equal those of “he, 
 his and him.” 
 
 10. The Countess of Dufferin’s scheme, or the 
 National Association for supplying medical aid 
 for woman, has also received gratifying atten- 
 tion. 
 
 The government of India has a fully equipped 
 medical department for all India; and you will 
 find hospitals and dispensaries in every town of 
 almost any size. But as nearly five million 
 women live behind the purdah, and would not 
 see a male practitioner; and as many more, 
 though not behind the purdah, are of the same 
 opinion; consequently, they often suffer severely 
 from the malpractice of ignorant doctors, and 
 especially at the hands of the ignorant, bungling, 
 superstitious midwives. Said a lady doctor re- 
 cently in a distant city, with great indignation: 
 “1 should like to hang every one in the city.” 
 
 In 1869, the American Methodist’s Foreign 
 Missionary Society sent Miss Clara Swain to In- 
 dia, the first woman physician with a diploma 
 that ever set foot in Asia. Later the Indian Fe- 
 male Normal School Society sent Miss Bielby to 
 Lucknow, whose name will ever be associated 
 with the origin of Lady Dufferin’s scheme. For 
 
 many years, lady missionaries alone carried on 
 207 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 medical work for women in India. Then came 
 the following break: 
 
 Miss Bielby was called to Punna, to attend the 
 Maharajah’s wife who was ill. She devoted her- 
 self to the sick lady, and was about to return to 
 her work in Lucknow. In the meantime, the 
 Rani had learned that Miss Bielby was about 
 leaving for England, In bidding her good-bye, 
 she dismissed all her ladies and attendants so that 
 she could be alone with Miss Bielby, and said to 
 her: “You are going to England, and I want 
 you to tell the Queen and the Prince and Princess 
 of Wales, and the men and women of England, 
 what the women of India suffer when they are 
 sick. Will you promise me.?” She then ex- 
 plained that she asked for no change in their social 
 condition, but relief from cruel suffering; and 
 begged Miss Bielby to give the message in per- 
 son. Miss Bielby explained the great difficulty 
 she would have in getting access to the queen. 
 “But,” insisted the Rani, “did you not tell me 
 that our queen was good and gracious; that she 
 never heard of sorrow without sending a mes- 
 sage to say how sorry she was, and trying to 
 help?” The Rani insisted on dictating a mes- 
 sage: “ Write it small, for I want to put it into a 
 
 locket, and you are to wear this locket around 
 208 
 
What Government Has Done 
 
 your neck till you see our great queen, and give 
 it to her yourself : you are not to send it through 
 another.” 
 
 When the queen heard, through some of her 
 court ladies, of Miss Bielby’s work and message, 
 she determined to see her and hear all for herself. 
 Her Majesty listened with great interest, and 
 asked many questions; and, turning to her ladies 
 said: “We had no idea it was as bad as this; 
 
 something must be done for these poor crea- 
 tures.” The queen accepted the locket and gave 
 a message which might be given to every one 
 with whom Miss Bielby spoke on the subject of 
 such suffering of the women in India: 
 
 “We should wish it generally known that 
 
 WE SYMPATHIZE WITH EVERY EFFORT MADE TO RE- 
 LIEVE THE SUFFERING OF THE WOMEN OF INDIA.” 
 
 The subject attracted much attention in Eng- 
 land; and, as Lord Dufferin was just about to 
 sail for India as the viceroy-elect, the queen de- 
 sired Lady Dufferin to do all in her power in this 
 direction. This is the touching story of the 
 origin of the National Association which was 
 organized after Lady Dufferin reached India in 
 August, 1885. It was one movement for India 
 that was received by Hindus and Mohammedans 
 
 with acclamation, and which received their sup- 
 209 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 port, both in sympathy and money. And though 
 it is not a Government Act, and does not prop- 
 erly come under the heading of this chapter, yet 
 it has had the patronage of the Queen-Empress 
 and of the Viceroy, and seemed fitting to be 
 classed with the other efforts for reform. 
 
 II. Female Education: government has done 
 a good deal in this line in establishing schools 
 and encouraging education for women; but we 
 expect to treat this matter more fully in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 Besides all these enactments, there are a few 
 minor provisions, both in the Penal Code and the 
 Criminal Procedure Code, which protect woman, 
 especially Sections 372 and 373. Besides, widows 
 in the Bombay Presidency have greater privileges 
 in the line of inheritance from their husbands, 
 and in the disposal of the same, than widows in 
 other parts of India. This is due probably to the 
 influential part played by Mahratta Princesses 
 during the time of Shivaji and his successors. 
 The Mahrattas were once a freer and more war- 
 like race than most of the peoples in India, which 
 probably insured greater freedom to their women. 
 
 210 
 
XIV 
 
 WHAT THE REFORMERS HAVE DONE 
 
 Sir Monier Williams says that " as often as 
 pantheistic and polytheistic ideas have been 
 pushed to preposterous extremes in India, a re- 
 action has always taken place toward simple 
 monotheism; that the reformers, Ramanuja, 
 Madhva, Vallaba and Chaitanya, who arose in 
 the twelfth, thirteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries, all taught the existence of one supreme 
 personal God, of infinite power, wisdom and 
 goodness, maker and preserver of all things, 
 whom they called Vishnu, and whom they be- 
 lieved to be distinct from the human soul and 
 the material world. But none of them succeeded 
 in counteracting the corrupt tendencies inherent 
 in the Vaishnava system, and notwithstanding 
 the partial reformation accomplished, the tide 
 of degrading idolatrous practices set in more 
 strongly than ever. 
 
 “Then followed the monotheistic reaction, led 
 by Kabir in the sixteenth century, and improved 
 upon shortly afterward by Nanak, the founder 
 
 of the Sikh religion. These movements were, in 
 211 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 a great measure, due to Mohammedan influences. 
 Both Kabir and Nanak did their best to purify 
 the Augean stable of corrupt Hindu doctrine. 
 They even tried to unite Hindus and Mohamme- 
 dans on the common ground of belief in the 
 unity of the godhead. In the former they had 
 only a limited success and in the latter were 
 wholly unsuccessful.” * 
 
 Close upon the heels of the Mohammedan in- 
 vasion which had induced the reaction led by 
 Kabir and Nanak in the sixteenth century, there 
 entered, through the arrival of the English in the 
 seventeenth century, the beginnings of a power 
 and influence destined to lead to reform, and 
 eventually we believe to transform India, namely, 
 Christian truth. 
 
 Says Sir Monier Williams: "Everywhere at 
 the great centres of British authority, a mighty 
 stir of thought began to be set in motion, and 
 able men educated by us made no secret of their 
 dissatisfaction with the national religion, and 
 their desire for a purer faith than that received 
 from their fathers. At the moment when 
 thoughtful Hindus were thus asking for light 
 and leading, the right leader appeared. The 
 Hindu reformation inaugurated by Ram Mohun 
 
 ' “ Religious Thought and Life in India.” (1883.) 
 
 212 
 
What the Reformers Have Done 
 
 Roy, was the first reformation due to Christian 
 influences, and to the diffusion of European ideas 
 through English education. He was the first 
 modern theistical reformer of what may be called 
 British India.” ^ 
 
 This man was born in North India, in 1774; a 
 Brahman, whose father held offices under the 
 Mogul Emperor. That his son might rise to 
 some such place, the father had him educated in 
 Persian and Arabic, which of course included the 
 Koran, and which startled his mind into ques- 
 tions of religious reform. At the age of sixteen 
 he wrote a spirited attack against idolatry; and in 
 later years he was most vigorous in his public 
 attacks upon the same evil. On his advent in 
 Calcutta, he gathered about him men of sympa- 
 thetic spirit, and in January, 1830, he organized 
 the Hindu Unitarian church and set on foot the 
 Theistic movement now so well known in India. 
 
 He was the contemporary of the Serampore 
 missionaries and Dr. Duff. He was the first 
 prominent reformer that battled for the cause of 
 women. He was one of the leading spirits in 
 the agitation for the abolishment of the Suttee, 
 and wrote articles and booklets denouncing the 
 practice, and proving that it had no Vedic sanc- 
 
 * “ Religious Thought and Life in India.” (1883.) 
 
 213 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 tion. Besides, when he — the first native of rank 
 and influence, who had ventured to break through 
 the inveterate prejudices of centuries — arrived in 
 England in 1831, he was present when the 
 famous memorial “ affirming that the act of the 
 Suttee was not only a sacred duty, but an exalted 
 privilege, denouncing the prohibition as a breach 
 of the promise that there should be no interfer- 
 ence with the religious customs of the Hindus, 
 and begging for its restoration,” was sent by 
 Lord Wm. Bentinck to the Privy Council. When 
 presented to His Lordship, he had refused to re- 
 scind the act, but offered to transmit it to the 
 Privy Council. Ram Mohun Roy’s presence in 
 England at the time was a good antidote to the 
 memorial, and no doubt helped in its defeat, as 
 did also the influence of Lord Wellesley, Grant, 
 and others. 
 
 Those early days in India were stirring times 
 of which there is little history and little reliable 
 data; but it was the birth time of the reform 
 thought that has spread all over India. Only here 
 and there, now, can we find much trace of it; 
 here an article written by some enthusiast on the 
 condition of widows, and there a strong denun- 
 ciation of child marriage, or of some other evil 
 that enthralled women. 
 
 214 
 
What the Reformers Have Done 
 
 Dr. Duff one evening found the subject of de- 
 bate in a debating society of some fifty Hindu 
 students to be “Whether females ought to be 
 educated.” As to the theory of the subject, they 
 ended in being unanimous. One married youth 
 exclaimed, “Is it alleged that female education is 
 prohibited, if not by the letter, at least by the 
 spirit of some of our shastras ? If any of the 
 shastras be found to advance what is so contrary 
 to reason, 1, for one, will trample them under my 
 feet.” Says Dr. Duffs biographer: “It was of 
 societies where such questions were discussed, 
 that a vernacular newspaper exclaimed: ‘The 
 night of desolation and ignorance is beginning to 
 change its black aspect, and the sky, big with 
 fate, is about to bring forth a storm of knowledge 
 which will sweep those airy battlements away 
 that have so long imprisoned that tide of 
 thought.’ ” 
 
 The next in order is Ishwar Chandra Vidi- 
 ASAGAR, who led the agitation out of which rose 
 the bill for the remarriage of widows, in 1855- 
 1856. He was the learned and eminent principal 
 of the Sanskrit College in Calcutta, j He was the 
 son of a poor Brahman, but he had a remarkable 
 mother, and it is said that it was from her that he 
 
 received the inspiration to work for widows. ^ 
 215 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 On one occasion a child widow came to her 
 house, and she was so moved with pity that 
 with tears in her eyes she said to her son : “ Thou 
 hast read to the end of the shastras, and hast thou 
 found no sanction yet for the remarriage of 
 widows ?” This question first turned the atten- 
 tion of her son to the great subject that engrossed 
 much of his life, and led finally to the passing of 
 the above Act. His espousal of the cause of 
 women was very earnest, and his proving that 
 the refusal of remarriage to widows had no 
 Vedic sanction had great weight because of his 
 reputed position as a Sanskrit scholar. In a 
 pamphlet on the subject of the remarriage of 
 widows he pathetically exclaims, after speaking 
 of the power mere custom has: “When men 
 consider the observance of mere forms as the 
 highest of duties and the greatest of virtues, in 
 such a country would that women were never 
 born. Woman! In India thy lot is cast in 
 misery! ” Such language to-day would be called 
 sentimental and exaggerated. But so far as we 
 can learn, Mr. 1. C. Vidiasagar remained a most 
 orthodox Hindu all his life, and to him, possibly 
 more than any other man, is due the existence of 
 the Act whereby a widow can remarry, provided 
 she and her friends are brave enough. 
 
What the Reformers Have Done 
 
 His statue was recently unveiled at the Govern- 
 ment Sanskrit College, Calcutta. The unveiling 
 of the statue is a significant incident inaugurating 
 a new phase of public life in India in commemo- 
 rating the lives of useful men, and of making a 
 link between the past and present. But con- 
 sidering the fact that the majority of Hindus still 
 practically refuse remarriage to their widows, 
 there is a touch of irony in the action. The 
 abolition of the custom would have been a more 
 enduring and fitting monument to his name than 
 any block of sculptured marble. 
 
 Later on came the wonderful career of Keshub 
 Chunder Sen. In 1870, on his return from his 
 visit to England, he inaugurated a number of re- 
 forms. When in England the Times and the 
 Echo had struck him with the irresistible power 
 of English public opinion in exposing wrong, en- 
 couraging right, and educating the common 
 people. With the ready instinct of a true re- 
 former, he started the Sulav Samachar {Cheap 
 News) in November, 1870. It was a weekly pice 
 paper, the first enterprise of its kind in India, and 
 it made a great sensation, meeting with unex- 
 pected success. Three or four thousand copies 
 were sold weekly, and classes who had never 
 
 handled a newspaper before, began to eagerly 
 217 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 read and pay for it. This stimulated repeated 
 imitation, not only in Bengal, but all over India, 
 till, at the present moment, cheap journalism has 
 become a widespread institution, and has created 
 a public opinion which the government itself is 
 obliged to respect.” ‘ 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen was so delighted with 
 the intelligence and refinement of the women of 
 England that he did all in his power to raise the 
 status of women in this country. He started a 
 normal school for native ladies, which was at- 
 tended daily by nearly fifty high caste Hindu 
 ladies from the Zenanas. Government was so 
 pleased as to give an annual grant of two 
 thousand rupees toward its support; and the im- 
 provement of women’s condition took on a new 
 impetus from that time. 
 
 A kind of Ladies’ Club was also started, in 
 which ladies read and discussed papers. Similar 
 societies now exist in Madras and Bombay. Per- 
 haps the most important measure he brought 
 about, that affects women, was the Brahmo- 
 marriage Bill that was passed largely through Mr. 
 Sen’s efforts, on March 19th, 1872; which is prac- 
 tically a way for the performance of a civil mar- 
 riage between any two natives regardless of 
 
 • “ Life of Keshub Chunder Sen,” by Protap Moozamdar. 
 
 218 
 
What the Reformers Have Done 
 
 caste or society. The only drawback to it is that 
 the marrying parties have to declare that they do 
 not profess the Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, 
 Parsee, Buddhist, Sikh, or Jain religion. This 
 has kept it from being more popular than it is, 
 though a number of very interesting marriages 
 have been made possible by it. On December 
 2d, 1898, a most interesting intermarriage oc- 
 curred at Madras, which was possible only 
 through this Act; and which we hope will prove 
 to be a forerunner of many more. The brave 
 couple, of different castes, were Dr. Govindara- 
 julu Naidu, M. B., C. M. (Edin.) Medical Officer 
 to His Highness the Nizam’s Imperial Service 
 Troops, Hyderabad; and Miss Sarojini Chatto- 
 padhyay. As an illustration of the possibilities 
 of present day reform, we quote a paragraph 
 from an Indian newspaper: 
 
 “ Mrs. Ram Mohan Roy, a Brahmo lady of culture and re- 
 finement, acted as the bridesmaid and added grace and beauty 
 to the solemnity of the occasion. The ceremony opened with 
 a prayer by Mr. S. Somasundarum Pillai, B. A. ; and after the 
 prescribed rituals had been gone through, Rao Bahadur Pandit 
 Veerasalingam Pantulu Guru, officiated as the minister for the 
 sacred occasion. After the minister’s charge to the happy 
 couple regarding the responsibilities of life. Dr. Aghorenath 
 gave away the bride and united the pair in holy wedlock in 
 due form, the marriage being solemnized in the presence of Mr. 
 F. D. Bird, the Registrar of Marriages of Madras Town. Rao 
 219 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Bahadur Pandit Veerasalingam Pantulu Guru then pronounced 
 the benediction. Before the several guests dispersed, some 
 refreshments were served and partaken with very great cheers 
 amidst toasts and replies in perfect harmony without any dis- 
 tinction of caste. During the short time they spent in the 
 Brahmo Mandir the couple received the hearty congratulations 
 of all friends present and drove off to Capper House Hotel, where 
 Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu has been staying. Dr. and Mrs. 
 Govindarajulu left Madras for Hyderabad on Sunday evening. 
 
 “This interesting event must be regarded as unique in many 
 respects, and as marking an epoch in the history of the reform 
 movement in this country. The bridegroom belongs to the 
 Balija community, whereas the bride is a Brahman by birth ; the 
 former is a Madrasi, whereas the latter is a Bengali ; and both 
 are England-returned Hindus. Dr. Govidarajulu Naidu, 
 M. B. C. M., completed his medical course in England, and his 
 wife, a Matriculate of the Madras University, spent a couple of 
 years there to receive higher education.^ 
 
 Mr. Sen also set on foot another agitation on 
 the subject of ascertaining the proper marriage- 
 able age of Hindu girls. As President of the 
 Indian Reform Association, he addressed, in 
 April, 1871, a circular letter to the most eminent 
 medical authorities in India wishing to have their 
 opinion on the question. This agitation and the 
 medical opinions obtained were most helpful in 
 educating public opinion on the subject. In a 
 speech in the Town Hall in Calcutta, he thus 
 summarized the views received: 
 
 “ The medical authorities in Calcutta unanimously declare 
 that sixteen is the minimum marriageable age of girls in this 
 220 
 
What the Reformers Have Done 
 
 country. Dr. Charles makes a valuable suggestion : he holds 
 that fourteen, being the commencement of adolescence, may for 
 the present be regarded as the minimum age at which native 
 girls may be allowed to marry, and may serve as a starting 
 point for reform in this direction. In conformity with his sug- 
 gestion, and the opinions given by the other referees, we have 
 come to the conclusion that, for the present at least, it would 
 be expedient to follow the provision in the bill which makes 
 fourteen the minimum marriageable age of girls in this country, 
 leaving it in the hands of time to develop this reform slowly 
 and gradually into maturity and fullness.” 
 
 Thus, under the Brahmo-Marriage Bill, that 
 was afterward changed to the name of the Native 
 Marriage Act, (and is in substance a Civil Marriage 
 Bill) the husband was bound to complete the age 
 of eighteen, and the wife fourteen ; and also un- 
 der this Act, bigamy, polygamy and infant mar- 
 riages were made impossible in the Brahmo- 
 Samaj. 
 
 The tide of reform kept swelling until i88i, 
 when a new reformer appeared on the scene. 
 This time not a Hindu, but a Parsee, Mr. B. H. 
 Malabari, who right royally espoused the cause 
 of women, especially in respect to “enforced 
 widowhood and child marriage.” The next dec- 
 ade, 1881-1891, forms what we feel has been so 
 far the “golden age ” of social reform in India. 
 “ It was the widow,” wrote Malabari in 1885, 
 
 “who first set me thinking about the whole 
 221 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 question.” It will be best to let his biographer 
 tell his story. 
 
 “Malabari was not a Sanskrit scholar like Ram 
 Mohun Roy, or Vidiasagar; and he was not a 
 Hindu. But he felt vividly the sin, the folly, the 
 unnaturalness of this custom of infant marriage, 
 and traced the woes of widowhood to this cause. 
 How this pernicious custom could be abolished 
 was a question which long perplexed him. He 
 knew full well the economy of Hindu homes; 
 he was not unaware that many of these were 
 happy homes in a way. But was there not a 
 large amount of misery which could be easily 
 avoided ? And was not this practice a dead ob- 
 stacle in the way of female education and of na- 
 tional progress ? The evil was universally admit- 
 ted; and surely it could not be an evil without a 
 remedy ? 
 
 “ He was thoroughly familiar with the tremen- 
 dous difficulties of the Hindu reformers and the 
 fate which had overtaken some of them. A 
 Hindu sovereign could have easily put an end to 
 such practices if convinced of their illegality 
 from the Shastric texts. But an alien govern- 
 ment was a Kumbha haran (A Sleeping Giant) 
 in social matters, extremely difficult to awaken 
 
 to a sense of its responsibility; while the strong- 
 222 
 
What the Reformers Have Done 
 
 hold of Hindu usage and superstition was harder 
 to conquer than Ravati’s Lanka. 
 
 “What, then, was an outsider to do for the 
 victims of these baneful customs? Was he to 
 fold his arms, and do nothing because he was an 
 outsider ? Had humanity as a whole any out- 
 siders ivithin itself? . . . Was it not the 
 
 plain duty of every man to do what lay in his 
 power to mitigate the hard lot of his brothers and 
 sisters ? Were not the suffering child-brides, and 
 the suffering Hindu widows, with their heads 
 shaved for the sin of losing their husbands, his 
 own sisters, though he was a Parsee ? . . . 
 
 Was it not clear that female education would 
 never make any appreciable progress so long as 
 girls had to be married in their tender years? 
 Had not Keshub Chunder Sen proved by the 
 opinions of medical experts in India that infant 
 marriage led to an unnaturally early development 
 of functions that were in the long run ruinous to 
 the physical, and therefore to the mental strength 
 of the nation ? Was it not infant marriage again 
 that led mainly to enforced and unhappy widow- 
 hood ? 
 
 “ Having resolved to devote himself to the 
 eradication of these evils, Malabari next thought 
 
 about the ways and means, and about the plan 
 223 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 of his campaign. He knew who had abolished 
 Suttee and Infanticide. He was averse to legis- 
 lation on the subjects which had interested him 
 so deeply; but he thought the moral support of 
 the State was essential. Jotting down his 
 thoughts in the form of ‘notes,’ he presented 
 himself one day in May or June, 1884, to Lord 
 Ripon the Viceroy, at Simla.” * 
 
 Mr. Malabari received a most sympathetic 
 hearing not only from the Viceroy but from 
 other members of the government. He had a 
 large number of his “ notes ” printed and circu- 
 lated among official and non-official persons. 
 The press discussed them freely, and they were 
 translated by the native papers into almost all the 
 vernaculars of India. For the first time the 
 wrongs of Indian women were thus put before 
 all India, or that which would be representative. 
 
 In September, 1884, the supreme government 
 forwarded the “ notes” to all local governments 
 for their opinion, and that they might consult 
 representatives of native opinion. In October 8, 
 1886, government replied in the negative to the 
 measures proposed for legislation in his “ notes,” 
 some of which, after a lapse of years, seem un- 
 practical, and justify the negation. Government 
 
 > Life and labors of Mr. B. H. Malabari. 
 
 224 
 
What the Reformers Have Done 
 
 in its reply, after stating the case, and its usual 
 policy in all such matters, added: 
 
 “ Although there is much to be said in favor of each of these 
 suggestions, the Governor-General in council, as at present ad- 
 vised, would prefer not to interfere even to the limited extent 
 proposed, by legislative action until sufficient proof is forth- 
 coming that legislation has been asked for by a section, im- 
 portant in influence or number, of the Hindu community itself.” 
 
 ^ The events that followed the publication of 
 Mr. Malabari’s “notes,” from 1884 until 1891, 
 have had no parallel in any period of social re- 
 form in India. In the following January, 1885, 
 came the Surat widow’s appeal to the Nagar 
 Shett; the Nowsari widows’ appeal to the 
 Gaikwar in April; the campaign of Malabari in 
 the Punjab in September and October on these 
 subjects. The effect produced by the revelations 
 of Mr. Stead, in November, led to a series of 
 articles in the Indian Spectator by Mr. Dayaram 
 Gidumul, which called attention to the Indian 
 Criminal Code on the same subject, pointing out 
 its defects, and proposing that the age of consent 
 be raised, which Mr. Malabari afterward pub- 
 lished in pamphlet form; and their distributation 
 throughout India elicited a large number of 
 opinions in favor of the proposal. Then fol- 
 lowed the strong advocacy of legislation on the 
 225 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 subject of Infant Marriage by Justice Renade in 
 December, in an able preface to a collection of 
 papers bearing on the enactment of Act 15, of 
 1856. The following February (1886) Mr. Mala- 
 bari made another tour throughout the northwest. 
 This led to the memorial of Sir T. Madhavrao and 
 other leading citizens of Madras to the Viceroy 
 (Lord Dufferin), in March, 1886, for fixing the 
 marriageable age of Hindu girls at ten; and the 
 Meerut Memorial, in August, 1886, praying that 
 the limit of age be fixed at twelve for girls and 
 sixteen for boys; the Madhav Bagh meeting in 
 Bombay, in September, 1886, to protest against 
 any legislative interference; an interview of the 
 Shastrh with Lord Reay, a few days later, on the 
 same subject: The publication of an article on the 
 Hindu widow by Mr. Devandranath Das in The 
 Nineteenth Century, and another in The Asiatic 
 Quarterly Review by Sir William Hunter; the final 
 resolution of the government of India on Mala- 
 bari’s “notes,” refusing legislation in October, 
 1886: the publication of the opinions of Hindu 
 gentlemen consulted on the subject in the form 
 of Government Selections, in January, 1887; the 
 attacks on Mr. Malabari and Justice Renade, by 
 some of the Poona lecturers in February; and the 
 
 publication of opinions given to Mr. Malabari in 
 226 
 
What the P*.eformers Have Done 
 
 the form of a companion volume to the Govern- 
 ment Selections. 
 
 We must not forget to mention the efforts of 
 Mr. Madhavdas Raganathdas, the first Guzerati 
 Hindu to marry a widow in Bombay; his perse- 
 cutions from his castemen; his brave stand in 
 opening the Widow Remarriage Hall; and his 
 financial help and social protection of other 
 couples who wished to remarry. These events, 
 keeping up an intense public interest in these 
 questions proposed for social reform, were gen- 
 erally accentuated by the celebrated case of 
 Rakhmabai that occurred in 1885, stirring all In- 
 dia, and bringing into great prominence the 
 whole question of child marriage; also, the form- 
 ing of the National Social Congress of India, held 
 for the first time in December, 1887, in Madras; 
 and public interest culminating in the awful case 
 of Phulmani Dasi in Calcutta. This led to the 
 famous memorial of the lady doctors to govern- 
 ment, which was in itself a great public educator; 
 and the memorial of the fifteen hundred native 
 ladies to the Queen; Mr. Malabari’s visit to Eng- 
 land that helped to rouse English public opinion: 
 and finally the passing of the Age of Consent 
 Bill, in 1891, whereby the age of consent was 
 
 raised from ten to twelve, which completed a 
 227 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 decade of public agitation on the subject of child 
 marriage and enforced widowhood such as India 
 had never seen before; and, we add with sad- 
 ness, has never seen since. 
 
 228 
 
XV 
 
 SINCE 1891 
 
 In the preceding chapter we were able to give 
 only the merest outline of reform activities, giv- 
 ing only the names of the prominent leaders, and 
 leaving unmentioned many men whose names 
 are very familiar throughout India on these sub- 
 jects, and whose writings and words are quoted 
 as authoritative. But we would not altogether 
 overlook the individuals, often unknown to the 
 general public, and unsupported by any of its 
 favor, who in personal matters have made at- 
 tempts to live out their convictions. 
 
 Some years ago, a Brahman friend of ours kept 
 his little girl unmarried till she was twelve years 
 of age, an unheard of thing at that time in so 
 small a place. When he desired to marry her, a 
 bridegroom of the kind he would have liked, and 
 which his position would have entitled him to 
 procure, could not be found, as the girl was too 
 old to be an eligible match. So he married her 
 to a boy of poor but respectable parentage, and 
 then had him educated at his own expense. 
 
 We know of a well-known Bombay gentle- 
 229 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 man who kept his daughter unmarried till she 
 was sixteen ; and of another marriage that was a 
 real marriage for love, and an ideal one, and 
 which we trust will prove an earnest of what is 
 yet to be in India. Her father was one of India’s 
 most enlightened men. She was widowed at 
 fifteen. Three years later an Indian gentleman 
 saw her and sought her hand in marriage. But 
 the parents and the girl had not the courage for 
 the difficulties that the remarriage of a widow in 
 their family would plunge them into. But the 
 man, Jacob like, waited patiently seven years for 
 his bride, and finally consent was gained. The 
 bride at marriage was twenty-five and the hus- 
 band thirty-five. It can be said of them that 
 “they were married and lived happy ever after- 
 ward;” for it has been a happy union. 
 
 After ten years of wonderful activity, the cur- 
 tain dropped with the closing act, the raising of 
 the age of consent, in 1891. Since 1892, the cur- 
 tain has risen again on different scenes, and with 
 different actors on the stage. There is a very 
 evident retrograde movement in matters of social 
 reform; and matters political and religious have 
 taken their place. Government, since passing 
 the Age of Consent Bill, has been intensely con- 
 servative and disinclined to move in matters 
 
 230 
 
Since 1891 
 
 social. The Mysore and the Malabar Marriage 
 Bills have been the only special advance steps. 
 The Madras Marriage Bill unhappily was rejected. 
 In place of agitation there is on all hands a feel- 
 ing of discouragement and conservatism. Look- 
 ing over the English columns of the files of a 
 number of leading native journals in Western 
 India, for last year, we found not a half dozen 
 references to matters of social reform in them. 
 
 What has been the cause of all this change of 
 front ? What has caused this retrograde move- 
 ment ? Up to the close of 1891-92, so much was 
 hoped from the reformers. Everything seemed 
 ripe for a great movement. How did it happen 
 that the reformers lost so great an opportunity ? 
 
 Since 1891, almost another decade has been 
 completed, and we believe a key to the situation 
 will be found in reviewing the events of these 
 years. 
 
 In 1894, came the great and cruel religious riot 
 in Bombay, between the Hindus and Mohamme- 
 dans; and the spirit it engendered throughout 
 the country between these two races resulted in 
 one or two smaller riots in other places. It was 
 a time of great anxiety, and was probably treated 
 by government as an illustration of what might 
 
 take place if there was legislative interference 
 231 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 with customs that were held as religious by the 
 people, no matter how necessary the reform 
 might be. 
 
 The interests of the years 1895-96 were chiefly 
 political. A great stir and a great deal of feeling 
 was caused by the Exchange Compensation Al- 
 lowance that was sanctioned by government to 
 English officials. It was looked upon as unjust 
 to native interests. Then in Western India, Lord 
 Sandhurst, the Bombay Governor, refused to 
 have any further dealings with the Sarwa Fanih 
 (Universal) Sabha, because some of the signa- 
 tures to a memorial from it to government were 
 not genuine. During this period the National 
 Congress was more influential than now, and 
 heavily criticised the government expenditures 
 both military and civil, which, it was said, im- 
 poverished the country. 
 
 There was also at this time, in Western India, 
 a marked revival of the Gunpati festival, which 
 had both a political and religious significance. 
 Mr Tilak, the editor of the Mahratta, made a 
 public lament that the place where the body of 
 Shivaji — the founder of the Mahratta kingdom — 
 had been cremated had been allowed to go to 
 ruin. He upbraided his countrymen for want of 
 
 patriotism, and suggested that it be repaired. 
 
 232 
 
Since 1891 
 
 This proposal the governor thought might be a 
 good thing, and favored it. The anniversary of 
 Shivaji’s death, occurring near the Gunpati festi- 
 val, was incorporated into it, and both were cele- 
 brated with unheard of display, and also became 
 the occasion of speeches and songs, that, to say 
 the least, were not flattering at times to the gov- 
 ernment. The religious element arose out of the 
 riot of 1894, when the Hindus determined if pos- 
 sible, in the Gunpati festival, to outrival the Mo- 
 hammedan Mohorrum festival. The movement 
 is now dying away, but it was an episode the 
 widespread impressions of which were not alto- 
 gether pleasant or helpful. At the close of 1896, 
 the famine, which like a great vulture had been 
 hovering over the country for many months, 
 finally settled down upon it. 
 
 In 1897-1898, the famine and the plague over- 
 shadowed every interest; discouraged, disheart- 
 ened and paralyzed all movements; and for the 
 time quite engulfed all other questions. Add to 
 this, the distressing earthquakes in Eastern India; 
 the murder of the two European officials, Mr. 
 Rand and Lieutenant Ayerst, in Poona; the arrest 
 of Mr. Tilak, the editor of the Mahratta for se- 
 ditious writings; the detaining of the Nathu 
 brothers in custody without trial; the frontier 
 
 233 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 war; the measures taken by government in re- 
 gard to the plague, which greatly irritated the 
 people and led to another riot in Bombay; the 
 execution of Damodar Hari Chapakar, and the 
 recent arrest of his two brothers, and their con- 
 fessions concerning the Poona murders which 
 have made all parties shudder; and, it is feared 
 that the cold-blooded murder of these officials 
 has put back the cause of national and social 
 progress for a quarter of a century. These 
 events of the last three years, with the plague 
 still stalking about and threatening the whole 
 country, have absorbed the attention of the peo- 
 ple and the papers, and have so taken up the at- 
 tention of the government that the miseries and 
 wrongs of woman have almost seemed forgotten. 
 
 Some of these events have had a most disas- 
 trous effect on the relations between the govern- 
 ment and the people. Government has suspected 
 the people of disloyalty; and the people, for 
 many causes, have been much irritated toward 
 government. 
 
 Then another cause, which these events have 
 only accentuated, has been a growing desire for 
 individuality as a nation, and to be recognized as 
 such by the civilized nations of the earth. The 
 
 liberal Western Education that government has 
 234 
 
Since 1891 
 
 so freely given, has been one of the factors in 
 bringing this desire “ for a conscious political 
 whole” into prominence; while contact with the 
 outside world has made it inevitable. 
 
 This state of mind has made possible the en- 
 trance of another disastrous check to social re- 
 form, in the beginnings of what is now called a 
 “ Hindu Revival.” It has arisen from a variety of 
 causes, but the most prominent actor in it, at 
 present, is Mrs. Annie Besant, an English lady, 
 who has already passed through a variety of re- 
 ligious beliefs previous to her present career. 
 
 On her visit to India, in 1893, we believe, she 
 is reported to have said in Bangalore “that she 
 was a Hindu in a former birth, and is visiting her 
 own land after a sojourn in the west, where she 
 was reincarnated to know the nature of material- 
 istic civilization of the west;” and in Tinnevelly 
 she is reported to have said: “Western civiliza- 
 tion, with all its discoveries in science, is nothing 
 compared with Hindu civilization.” 
 
 In her present visit, she has settled at Benares, 
 and has been the means of starting the Hindu 
 college there. In a letter to the Statesman (Cal- 
 cutta), she speaks of the “religious revival in 
 which 1 am myself sufficiently fortunate to be 
 
 allowed to take a part;” of a “truly national 
 235 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Hindu education;” and of the college she says: 
 ‘‘The movement is one of national importance, 
 combining western culture and religious and 
 moral teaching according to the Hindu shastras ; 
 that the college aims at reproducing the ancient 
 type of the Aryan gentleman; pious, dutiful, 
 loyal, strong, brave and industrious; with healthy 
 body and well balanced mind.” The college is a 
 fact, while the hope exists of starting similar 
 colleges all over the country. Says the Indian 
 W itness : 
 
 “We imagine the leaders of Hindu society 
 must have deep searchings of heart these days in 
 contemplation of the straits to which their reli- 
 gious and social system is reduced. The hercu- 
 lean efforts of Mrs. Besant to galvanize somnolent 
 Hinduism into some degree of animation must 
 appeal to the sense of the humorous in thought- 
 ful Hindus. Imagine the situation: a foreigner, 
 a woman/ seeking to avert the chill of death 
 from the body politic of Hinduism! k woman 
 endeavoring with might and main to extort from 
 apathetic Hindus the funds with which to start a 
 Hindu college which is expected, among other 
 feats, to extirpate all disloyalty from the bosoms 
 of young Hindus! ” 
 
 Then came the arrival of Swami Vevekanand, 
 236 
 
Since 1891 
 
 in 1896, who was received in India as a conquer- 
 ing hero by many, and his journey from Ceylon 
 to Calcutta was a sort of triumphal march. We 
 consider his notoriety a free and unsought gift 
 from the Parliament of Religions to India; for he 
 was practically unknown till then, and the suc- 
 cess he was reputed to have achieved in the 
 West has won him reverence here. Two dis- 
 ciples have Joined him. One, a Miss Noble, said 
 to be an American, and who has recently been 
 advocating the worship of the goddess Kali in 
 Calcutta; the other, a very recent arrival; Miss 
 Marie Louise, or Swami Abhayananda, a lady 
 who is said to have had as many spiritual changes 
 as Mrs. Besant, and who has been described by 
 a native journal as “French by extraction, Amer- 
 ican by domicile, Shaiva by faith, Vaishnava in 
 neck ornamentation, Vendantin by philosophy, 
 and a sunnyasin (ascetic), in her mode of life.” 
 We do not see any public utterances on the 
 part of these ladies concerning the condition of 
 the women of India. Being ladies, we should 
 expect they would be deeply distressed at the 
 social condition of women in this country, and 
 the disabilities under which they suffer. We 
 should think the first question that would con- 
 front them, as they see the situation, would be, 
 237 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Why has not this beautiful philosophy, which 
 we have come so far to study on its native soil, 
 done more for Hindu women ? 
 
 Where did these three ladies get their freedom, 
 their religious liberty? Was it from Hinduism? 
 In December, 1893, a committee of seven from 
 the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association 
 wrote Mrs. Besant, asking for an interview to 
 obtain her views on these social questions. She 
 replied that “any questions of the important 
 character you suggest, could not be wisely made 
 at an interview between myself and a body of 
 gentlemen; the memory of each might easily 
 prove unreliable, and so misunderstanding and 
 controversy as to what was said might arise. If 
 any questions are submitted to me in writing, 1 
 will read them, and if 1 wish to express any opin- 
 ion on any of them, 1 will do so also in writing.” 
 
 The gentlemen renewed their request, promis- 
 ing that they would furnish a competent short- 
 hand reporter to take down what was said, and 
 to allow her to revise what was written. They 
 also furnished her ten written questions which 
 she might have time to ponder over before the 
 interview, and not be taken by surprise. This 
 Mrs. Besant refused to do, saying, “Hasty or 
 
 imperfect expression of opinion on these matters 
 238 
 
Since 1891 
 
 is dangerous, and in a person whose views are so 
 widely read, reprehensible. You must therefore 
 permit me to choose my own time and way of 
 expressing my thoughts on these subjects, and to 
 decline to express them in answers which would 
 necessarily give a very imperfect, and therefore 
 misleading idea of my attitude toward these 
 problems.” 
 
 The question began with a preamble stating 
 "that ninety-nine per cent, of the Hindu women 
 in all castes are illiterate. Among the Brahmans, 
 girls are, on peril of excommunication, married 
 before they reach puberty, often very much be- 
 fore. They are married between the ages of 
 three and twelve. Once a marriage takes place 
 it cannot be dissolved under any circumstances, 
 as far as the woman is concerned. Thousands 
 of girls are widowed before they attain age, and 
 cannot re-marry without social ostracism. In 
 some of the non-Brahman castes these conditions 
 also prevail. Is the position of women in these 
 respects consistent with your conception of what 
 the position of women ought to be ? 
 
 2 . Is it right for a man to take a second wife 
 when the first is living, on the sole ground of her 
 being childless ? 
 
 3. Is it proper that girls below twelve years 
 
 239 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 of age should be given away in marriage by their 
 parents or guardians to men of fifty, sixty or 
 seventy years of age ? 
 
 4. Is it desirable that a class of women called 
 dancing girls, who are invariably prostitutes, 
 should be given a status in Hindu temples during 
 worship, and in Hindu homes on festive occa- 
 sions, as singers or dancers ? 
 
 5. What do you think of the system prevalent 
 in parts of this country called the zenana-system, 
 by which women are compelled to keep out of 
 sight of all men except their husbands, and their 
 nearest male relatives; and are not allowed to 
 move about except in closed carriages, or when 
 veiled from head to foot ? 
 
 After two or three other questions as to caste; 
 the condition of low-castes; and voyages by 
 Hindus; the list was closed with the following 
 pertinent question: “Is there any connection be- 
 tween spiritual greatness, and greatness in poli- 
 tics, commerce, literature and science; that is, 
 does the latter depend on the former? As they 
 are at present situated, which of the two countries 
 — India or England — is spiritually superior? If 
 the former is superior to the latter, how is it that 
 Indian is inferior to England in politics, com- 
 merce, literature and science?” 
 
 240 
 
Since 1891 
 
 A month ago, one of the seven told us that as 
 yet no replies had been received. Considering 
 that the condition of its women is the test of a 
 nation’s civilization, we wonder at the silence. 
 
 In a recent London paper, in response to the 
 question whether she was a Hindu or not, 
 Mrs. Besant is represented as replying; that she 
 was almost a vegetarian; and that when she 
 lived in Benares, she lived as a Hindu, excepting 
 as regards certain laws and restrictions which 
 apply to women! What better reply to these 
 questions do we need than this ? 
 
 We hear a great deal nowadays, about “the 
 spiritual supremacy of India,” and "the gross 
 materialism of western civilization.” There has 
 been a great stimulus in later years to the study 
 of Sanskrit literature, partly due to the researches 
 of English Oriental scholars and the translations 
 they have made; and partly to the enthusiasm 
 awakened by the return of Vevekanand from his 
 visit to America and the parliament of religions. 
 Every year new translations of the sacred books 
 into English and the important vernaculars ap- 
 pear in an increasing ratio. There is also much 
 talk of the glorious past of the Aryan age, and of 
 a desire for a national religion. 
 
 Says a recent Hindu writer: "We do not un- 
 
 241 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 derstand the claim of spiritual supremacy that is 
 made on behalf of India. Mrs. Besant, with her 
 usual assurance, proclaims on public platforms 
 that India has been ordained to be the spiritual 
 teacher of the whole world. Her teaching on 
 this point is, that our mother-land was the re- 
 ligious guru of the world in the past, and if the 
 present generation of Hindus will accept her 
 teaching, and mould their actual lives by it, India 
 will once again resume her old position. . . . 
 
 Was India a teacher of the world in the past? 
 Was the Adwaita philosophy, on which Mrs. 
 Besant’s teaching rests, ever accepted by the 
 whole of India? . . . From the history it 
 has been possible to get out of the mass of 
 Indian literature, India was at no time an in- 
 tegral whole, either politically, it seems, or spir- 
 itually.” 
 
 Another, an Indian writer, refers to this revival 
 of the Hindu religion, and asks, “Is it not a fact 
 that as the revivalist sentiment has spread wider 
 in the land, a sort of anti-foreign feeling has also 
 deepened ? ” 
 
 In spite of the absorbing subjects of the years 
 which we have enumerated, which have filled to 
 so large extent the public mind, and eclipsed the 
 
 interest in the condition and position of women, 
 ^42 
 
Since 1891 
 
 there is still a root cause why the reformers are 
 not more successful in their efforts, jlhey have 
 no moral motive power.' 
 
 When one uses the word reformer, the mind 
 instinctively turns to men like Wycliffe, Luther, 
 the Huguenots, the sturdy Hollanders, the Pilgrim 
 Fathers, Wilberforce, Garrison and others. Vi- 
 sions of flame come before us, enfolding in its fiery 
 embrace, men like Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer. 
 The dictionary says a reformer is one who effects 
 reform. How shall we define the word in its 
 usage in India ? It is often applied to all the edu- 
 cated class indiscriminately. A man may possess 
 the highest culture, and yet be far from the ranks 
 of the reformers. Some men are prepared to suf- 
 fer a little for the cause of reform, but not too 
 much. Until Indian reformers are willing to suf- 
 fer even to the loss of all things ; to order their 
 own lives according to their convictions ; to do 
 right because it is right, regardless of conse- 
 quences ; we do not use the word in its legitimate 
 sense. Some one has said, that India has never 
 yet seen a real reformer. 
 
 An instance of the hollowness of some so-called 
 reform is illustrated by the four reformatory meth- 
 ods enunciated a few years ago by a well-known 
 
 Indian reformer in a public meeting : 
 
 243 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 1. By the Shastras. When they agree with the reformers, 
 quote them. 
 
 2. Interpretation. Interpret the Shastras so as to make 
 them agree with you. 
 
 3. When interpretation fails, appeal to reason and con- 
 science. 
 
 4. WTien that fails, ask for legislation. 
 
 We also have the anomaly of men who are 
 M. A.’s and B. A.’s, some of whom have studied 
 abroad and have also travelled in other countries, 
 who are versed in all the modern questions of the 
 day, and yet some of them have wives who have 
 been mothers at twelve and thirteen, a wrong 
 against which all present-day education and civi- 
 lization must unceasingly protest. We knew of 
 a government official, gentlemanly and popular, 
 who drew a salary of five hundred rupees per 
 month, yet when he died suddenly in the prime 
 of life, he left a young widow of eighteen who 
 had three children, the eldest being five years of 
 age. We do not see how men can ever be happy 
 or retain self-respect, who do not live up to their 
 own convictions. 
 
 Again, we repeat, that we feel the reformers 
 fail for the lack of a moral motive power which 
 would give them a spirit of real sacrifice, true 
 courage and perseverance, and make them ex- 
 amples of their teaching. A lack of conformity 
 244 
 
Since 1891 
 
 to our talk makes it useless. The Social Con- 
 gress is accused of only passing resolutions. The 
 highest moral influence that can be exerted by 
 any being is through example. Advice, precept 
 and sanction, alt have moral power, but are only 
 rendered operative by example. The world has 
 this moral motive power manifested in the atone- 
 ment of Jesus Christ. “ God so loved the world 
 that He gave His only begotten Son ” for its re- 
 demption; and it is argued, “ Hereby kno'^ 
 love, because He laid down His life for us; and 
 we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 
 The protest is often made that Europeans are 
 not patient enough with the reformers, and do 
 not understand their awful social difficulties and 
 complications. We believe we do understand 
 these sore difficulties; but we fear the reformers 
 will never rise above them until they come into 
 such relations with God as will enable them to 
 meet the conditions laid down by Christ when 
 He said: “Whosoever he be of you that for- 
 saketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My dis- 
 ciple.” “Whosoever loveth father and mother 
 more than Me is not worthy of Me: ” and “ Ex- 
 cept a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, 
 it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth 
 much fruit." 
 
 245 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Nothing but the love of Christ gives men 
 power to suffer for others, and compensates 
 them for the loss of all things. This is the 
 moral motive power that has made reformers 
 and martyrs in Christian lands, and without 
 which the reformers will never accomplish any 
 thorough or lasting amendment in India. 
 
 246 
 
XVI 
 
 WHAT THE MISSIONARIES HAVE DONE 
 
 There is a tradition that the apostle Thomas 
 first brought the gospel to India. There are three 
 places in the neighborhood of Madras that claim 
 his grave. The Syrian church on the Malabar 
 coast numbering four hundred thousand, claim 
 to be the descendants of his converts and of the 
 Syrian colonists who joined them. They stoutly 
 cling to that tradition, and are often called the 
 Christians of St. Thomas. If this tradition be 
 true, then the movement that formed the Syrian 
 church, or in other words, Christianity in India, 
 is older than Christianity in England. Rev. 
 George Rae, in his book, refutes this claim, and 
 asserts that the Syrian church is an offshoot of 
 the Nestorian church in Persia, whose missiona- 
 ries came to India in the fifth century; thus mak- 
 ing the Syrian church fourteen centuries old; and 
 the missionary, Thomas, who is said to have 
 suffered martyrdom at St. Thomas, a suburb of 
 Madras, lived several centuries after the apostle. 
 
 About 70 A. D., there was a sea-trade established 
 
 between Egypt and the Southwest coast of India, 
 247 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 famed for its spices. At this time, the rulers of 
 the several independent states of South India 
 wisely encouraged the settlers who came to 
 them and enriched them in many ways. Some 
 Indian merchants, probably Jews, who went to 
 Alexandria in Egypt to sell their spices and 
 gems, found there something far more valuable 
 — “the pearl of great price.” They became 
 acquainted with the way of salvation through 
 Jesus Christ. A petition was addressed to the 
 Bishop of Alexandria, about 180 a. d., for a 
 Christian teacher to be sent to India, and he 
 wisely selected Pantaenus for such an important 
 field. How long he was in India, or how far 
 inland he travelled, or when he returned to 
 Egypt, is not known. He found among the 
 Christians the Hebrew gospel of Matthew which 
 formed the basis of the present Greek gospel. 
 About a century later, Theopolis, surnamed 
 Indicus, visited India, where he found Chris- 
 tianity already planted in several places. 
 
 The year 1500 has been fixed upon as the date 
 of the founding of the Roman Catholic Missions 
 in India, along with the advent of the Portuguese. 
 Vasco de Gama discovered the maritime route to 
 India, landing in Calicut, May 20th, 1498; and 
 
 within the next half century, the Portuguese had 
 248 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 planted trading forts along the Northern coast of 
 India. With them came the priests, but it was 
 not till the arrival of Francis Xavier, in 1542, that 
 anything was done beyond the limits of the 
 Portuguese settlements. It was he who gave the 
 great impulse to Roman Catholic Missions in 
 India. 
 
 Akbar, the Mogul Emperor, ascended the 
 throne in 1556. One of his wives is said to have 
 been a Christian. The Jesuit missionaries went 
 as far as Nephaul, which they entered in 1661. 
 There are now Roman Catholic missionaries all 
 over India. Their directory for 1894 gives the 
 number of European (Catholic) missionaries in 
 India as six hundred and nineteen, while the 
 census of 1891 gives the whole number of Ro- 
 man Catholics of all races, European and Indian, 
 in the whole of India (by which we include the 
 French and Portuguese possessions as well as 
 British India) as 1,594,901.^ 
 
 The beginning of Protestant missions in India 
 came from the heart of the good king of Den- 
 mark, who sent two young Germans, Ziegenbalg 
 and Plutschau, to the Danish settlement at Tran- 
 quebar, on the southeast coast, in 1705. In 1750 
 
 • The author is greatly indebted for these statements to Dr. 
 Murdoch’s History of Christianity in India. 
 
 249 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 these brethren were followed by Schwartz, one 
 of the most useful men that ever came to India. 
 “From the baptism of the first convert in 1707,” 
 says Smith, “and the translation of the New 
 Testament into Tamil, till the death of Schwartz 
 in 1798, the foundations were laid around Tan- 
 jore, Madras and Tinnevelli of a native church 
 that now numbers over a half million.” These 
 Danish missions were never permanent, but were 
 later taken over by the English agencies. They 
 were a John the Baptist movement, “ a voice in 
 the wilderness,” that preceded the establishment 
 of our modern missions of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 During the last year of Schwartz’s life, God 
 was preparing another missionary who was des- 
 tined to begin a new era in the history of mission 
 effort, not only in India, but in all lands. This 
 was William Carey, the founder of modern mis- 
 sions. As he sat in his work shop and made and 
 mended shoes, he studied a rude map of his own 
 making on the wall, and thought and prayed 
 how the heathen nations of the earth might be 
 reached. 
 
 How little he dreamed of the way in which 
 his prayers would be answered! The East India 
 
 Company was singularly hostile to missionary 
 250 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 effort, and claimed that their preaching would 
 create a rebellion, so that Carey, when he arrived 
 in 1793, had to take refuge under the Danish flag 
 at Serampore, thirteen miles north of Calcutta. 
 Some missionaries were not even allowed to 
 land. Wilberforce, at the renewal of the com- 
 pany’s charter in 1793, tried to insert a clause 
 
 Seconi^^nd 
 
 ?iHOEs)|k)l'GHT 
 
 A M-n) 
 
 that would make such despotic proceedings im- 
 possible, but he did not succeed till its renewal 
 in 1813, and then in spite of great opposition. 
 “ But it was not till 1833,” says Bishop Thoburn, 
 “that the last restrictions were removed, and 
 every Christian missionary in the empire was 
 clothed with the freedom which is now enjoyed 
 by all persons bearing the Christian name.” 
 
 Carey was a sort of John Knox to the officials 
 
 of the East India Company, and he did much to 
 251 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 purify English life in India; while his letters, 
 his appeals, his writings, his work and his life, 
 were the seed whose fruitage we now behold, 
 and for which we praise God. With him the 
 English Baptist Society has the honor of being 
 the first to enter India. This was in 1793. The 
 English Congregationalists, or London Mis- 
 sionary Society came in 1798; the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society in 1807; the American Board in 
 1812; the American Baptists and English Metho- 
 dists in 1814; the Scotch Presbyterians in 1830; 
 the American Presbyterians in 1834; the Irish 
 Presbyterians in 1841; the American Methodists 
 in 1856; and from year to year other societies 
 have entered, the largest societies of later years 
 being the Christians and Missionary Alliance in 
 1892; the Kurku and Central Indian Hill Mission 
 in 1892; the Ceylon and Indian General Mission 
 in 1893; and the Poona and Indian Village Mis- 
 sion in 1895; in all over seventy societies and 
 associations. There are 2,797 missionaries, and 
 at a census in 1890 there were 648,843 Protestant 
 Indian Christians, and if they increase at the 
 ratio they did the last decade, fifty-two per cent. ; 
 in 1900 there will be over 1,000,000 of Protes- 
 tant Indian Christians. 
 
 In view of all this, we may well ask, what 
 252 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 have the missionaries done for the women of 
 India ? 
 
 1. Through the representations of Carey and 
 his fellow-workers, the custom of throwing chil- 
 dren into the Ganges forever ceased. 
 
 2 . The abolition of the Suttee. Early in his 
 missionary life, Carey witnessed the burning of a 
 widow. He begged the woman not to throw 
 away her life. “After remonstrances,” says his 
 biographer, “which the people met first by 
 argument, and then by surly threats, Carey wrote: 
 ‘ 1 told them 1 would not go, that 1 was determined 
 to stay and see the murder, and that I would cer- 
 tainly bear witness of it at the tribunal of God.’ 
 And when he again sought to interfere because 
 the two stout bamboos always fixed for the pur- 
 pose of preventing the woman’s escape were 
 pressed down on the shrieking woman like 
 levers, he adds, ‘ We could not bear to see more, 
 but left them, exclaiming loudly against the mur- 
 der, and full of horror at what we had seen.’ 
 The remembrance of that sight never left Carey. 
 His naturally cheerful spirit was inflamed to in- 
 dignation all his life through, till his influence, 
 more than that of any other one man, at last pre- 
 vailed to put out Jorever the flames of the mur- 
 derous pyre." 
 
 253 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 He and his fellow-workers spared no labor. 
 They enlightened the minds of the English and 
 Indian public on the subject ; statistics were care- 
 fully gathered; with the help of his pundit he 
 searched the Hindu shastras, and the results of 
 his researches were laid before the government, 
 and the recent enactment prohibiting the sacrifice 
 of children was quoted as a precedent for further 
 reform. Had Lord Wellesley remained Governor- 
 General a year longer, Carey would have suc- 
 ceeded in 1808. But he had to wait twenty long 
 years, and as ‘‘he waited and prayed, every day 
 saw the devilish smoke ascending along the banks 
 of the Ganges.” In 1829, when Lord Bentinck’s 
 prohibition was ready to be published among the 
 people, the crown of all Carey’s efforts was the 
 privilege of translating it into Bengali. He is 
 said to have been preparing his Sunday sermon 
 for the afternoon when it was handed to him. 
 He sent for another to do his preaching, and tak- 
 ing his pen in his hand, wrote the official trans- 
 lation, and had it issued in the Bengali Gaiette, 
 that not another day might be added to the long 
 black catalogue of many centuries. 
 
 3. During the agitation over the Bill for rais- 
 ing the Age of Consent, the awful case of Phul- 
 
 mani Dasi occurred at Calcutta. An American 
 254 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 medical missionary, Mrs. Mansell, seized the op- 
 portunity, got up a petition to government in 
 which were cited a number of similar and almost 
 equally awful cases that had come under the 
 notice of different lady practitioners, and this pe- 
 tition was signed by nearly all the lady doctors in 
 India, the majority of whom were missionaries, 
 with the result that it greatly aided in forming 
 public opinion, and helped to win the day. 
 
 4. Missionaries, from the beginning, have 
 greatly moulded public opinion upon all phases of 
 the treatment of women; and perhaps eternity 
 alone will reveal the influence that the home-life 
 and the lives of lady missionaries have had in this 
 respect. 
 
 5. Missionaries have been the pioneers and the 
 chief promoters of education for women in India. 
 This fact is generously and unreservedly conceded 
 by government and all Indians. To Mrs. Han- 
 nah Marshman belongs the honor of having 
 started the first effort. She established a day- 
 school for girls in 1807. In 1819, a company of 
 young Eurasians who had been educated by the 
 Baptist missionary ladies, formed a society for 
 the education of Indian women; and in three 
 years they had six schools and one hundred and 
 
 sixty pupils. What became of this juvenile so- 
 255 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 ciety we do not know; but we believe it to have 
 been an earnest of what God meant to have 
 done through this race for India. 
 
 In i8i8, the Calcutta School Society was started, 
 and was composed of both Europeans and In- 
 dians, They were appalled at the fact that, among 
 the 40,000,000 women that then constituted British 
 India, only about one woman in 100,000 could 
 read; and, in 1819, they appealed to the London 
 British and Foreign School Society to send out a 
 lady to form a school for training female teachers 
 for further effort. William Ward of Serampore 
 was at home when the appeal reached London, 
 and added his influence to it. A Miss Cooke 
 heard him make an appeal to the ladies of Liver- 
 pool, and volunteered for the work, reaching 
 Calcutta in 1821. Her work was changed and 
 precipitated very soon after her arrival by a 
 touching incident. 
 
 On January 25th, 1822, as she was going to 
 one of the boys’ schools to improve her pronun- 
 ciation, she saw a little girl outside the school- 
 room crying. On inquiry, she found that the 
 child had for three months besieged the master 
 with her desire to be taught, only to be driven 
 away. This so moved Miss Cooke that, the next 
 
 day, she started a girls’ school. The work 
 256 
 
What the Missionaries Flave Done 
 
 spread rapidly, until in 1825, thirty schools had 
 been formed with four hundred pupils. Both 
 Lady Hastings, the wife of the Governor-General 
 at that time, and her successor. Lady Amherst, 
 took the deepest interest in these schools. It is 
 said that the Marchioness of Hastings, in her zeal, 
 traversed the gullies and back streets of the city 
 in which some of the schools were situated, and 
 thereby produced a great impression on all classes. 
 
 At this time, 1825, the wives of the American 
 Board missionaries in Bombay opened a similar 
 work; and, four years later, they were followed 
 by Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Margaret Wilson. 
 Because the Mahratta people are not hampered 
 by the zenana, and the Parsees by caste, the 
 work here, for a time, seemed to make greater 
 strides than elsewhere, and was an encourage- 
 ment to other parts of India. 
 
 In the different presidencies, too, boarding- 
 schools for Indian Christian girls were started; 
 also orphanages, which are continually multiplied 
 over India by the periodical famines that occur, 
 and orphan and render homeless thousands of 
 children. 
 
 But to return to Calcutta. The day-schools for 
 Hindu girls had only touched the lower castes. 
 
 How were the upper-class ladies hidden behind 
 257 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 the purdah in the zenanas ever to be reached, 
 was the constant burden on many hearts. In 
 1840, Mr. T. Smith of the Free Church Mission, 
 proposed a scheme for the home education of 
 women of the upper classes, but at that time it 
 met with no practical response. In 1850, Hon. . 
 Drinkwater Bethune, a member of the Legislative 
 Council, opened the Bethune Institution at his 
 own expense; provided a closed carriage to 
 bring the girls to and from their homes to the 
 school; paid fora lady superintendent; prom- 
 ised that no Christianity should be taught; and 
 hoped by this to reach many of this class. For 
 many years it was not very prosperous, and 
 could not have been. Here and there, in isolated 
 instances, missionary ladies taught the families 
 of the more liberal-minded men. Some of them 
 taught their own families; English education be- 
 gan to spread; and interesting incidents were 
 constantly occurring that added momentum to 
 the slowly accumulating public opinion on the 
 subject. 
 
 Soon after the establishment of the Bethune 
 Institution a thrilling event occurred: “The 
 
 highly educated son of an influential Hindu gen- 
 tleman had privately instructed his gifted young 
 
 wife, with whom he read, among other books, 
 258 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 the English Bible. He was under promise to his 
 mother never to become a Christian: but he read 
 the Scriptures because they were interesting as 
 an historical study. The entrance of the Word 
 gave light to the heart of the young wife, and 
 she besought her husband to accept Christ as his 
 Saviour. A widowed cousin of fourteen read 
 with them, and she also believed, but the hus- 
 band resisted. The young wife grieved and 
 died — died trusting in Jesus for salvation, — the 
 husband’s heart yielded and he and the cousin 
 were baptized. These conversions made a deep 
 impression on Christian hearts, and, combined 
 with other circumstances, led to effective effort 
 which took the form of founding an institution 
 for training the daughters of Eurasian parents 
 born in India and familiar with the language. It 
 was believed that such teachers for Hindu ladies 
 would ere long be needed, though at that time 
 they were still inaccessible.” ‘ In 1852 the Cal- 
 cutta Normal School was established. 
 
 In 1854, Rev. John Fordyce, of the Free Church 
 Mission, enthusiastically took up a scheme for 
 zenana education. He persuaded two or three 
 Hindu gentlemen to open their houses to, and to 
 pay for, the instructions of his ablest teacher, 
 
 • The Wotnen of India, by Mrs. Weitbrecht. 
 
 259 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 a European governess who knew Bengali per- 
 fectly. He also printed “a series of fly-leaves 
 which were widely circulated throughout India. 
 They contained short, strong and striking ap- 
 peals to Hindu husbands and fathers, and pro- 
 duced an impression which deepened year by 
 year; so that, at first one by one, and afterward 
 in increasing ratio, zenana doors flew open until 
 the question became, how to supply laborers, in- 
 stead of how to get in.”^ Mrs. Sale, Mrs. Mul- 
 lens and other devoted ladies developed the 
 scheme by their special fitness for it. 
 
 In i86i, “The India Normal School and In- 
 struction Society ” was formed in London, to 
 cooperate with the ladies in Calcutta; and in 
 1862 sent out its first zenana missionary. In the 
 same year Miss Brittian came from New York to 
 Calcutta, the representative of the Women’s 
 Missionary Union, an undenominational Ladies’ 
 Society for work among women. “ In ten years 
 she reported eight hundred women under the in- 
 struction of the missionaries of that society, 
 while nearly seventeen hundred were being 
 taught by missionary ladies of other socie- 
 ties.” ’ 
 
 > The IVomen of India, by Mrs. Weitbrecht. 
 
 ® The Orient and its People, by Mrs. Hauser. 
 
 260 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 The result has been truly phenomenal. In a 
 quarter of a century from that day, nearly all the 
 Woman’s Boards and Societies especially en- 
 gaged in work for women were formed, and 
 zenana instruction became a part of the work of 
 almost every mission. Dr. Duff’s constant theory 
 had always been that a generation of educated 
 men, that is educated after the English model, 
 must be the precursor of a generation of educated 
 women, “and,” says his biographer, “even 1850 
 was the day of small things in girls’, as 1830 had 
 been in boys’ education in Bengal, but the boys 
 of 1830 had become the fathers of 1850, and 
 made the time ripe for advance.” 
 
 In 1830 Dr. Duff opened an institution in 
 Calcutta, in which English was taught instead of 
 Sanskrit and Arabic, as in the government col- 
 leges. Lord Macaulay, then in India, adopted 
 Dr. Duff’s views and did much to put education 
 in India on its present basis. 
 
 The despatch of Sir Charles Wood, in 1854, 
 marks an important epoch in Indian education. 
 Complete Educational Departments were to be 
 organized, and a national system to be com- 
 menced. In 1857, the Universities of Calcutta, 
 Madras, and Bombay were founded; to which 
 
 the Punjab University was added in 1882, and 
 261 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 the Allahabad University in 1887. These are 
 simply examining bodies. 
 
 A network of schools has been extended over 
 the whole country, rising gradually from in- 
 digenous schools to the highest colleges. Mis- 
 sionaries were the inspiration to government 
 for establishing girls’ schools, as well as to Indian 
 effort. 
 
 Miss Carpenter first visited India in 1866, and 
 urged government to open training schools for 
 the training of mistresses for girls’ schools. This 
 they did, but they were not all a success. She 
 also originated the National Indian Association 
 which seeks to foster and help private efforts for 
 female education as one of its objects. The 
 Parsees control their own schools for their girls. 
 They have seven high schools in Bombay. 
 There are only two or three B. A.’s among them, 
 and about a dozen lady graduates from medical 
 colleges. About seventy-seven per cent, of the 
 girls can read. 
 
 As an evangelizing agency, we feel that the 
 high hopes of Dr. Duff and the promoters of 
 zenana education have never been realized; and 
 that, sooner or later, education will pass into the 
 hands of government and the Hindus them- 
 selves, and missionaries will largely confine their 
 262 
 
LUCKNOW COLLEGK 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 efforts to the education and training of the ever 
 increasing number of Christian young men and 
 women, though such non-Christians as prefer a 
 Christian school will not be refused. 
 
 It would require a separate volume to write 
 the history of female education in India as it 
 should be written. We must omit much that 
 is deeply interesting, skip over many years, and 
 give a peep at the present situation. It is need- 
 less to say that the Christians, though the fifth 
 race in India, have led the way in all matters of 
 female education; and the Parsees, the smallest 
 of the Indian races, come next. 
 
 There are two Christian Colleges for women 
 in India, the Lucknow College in North India, 
 an institution of the American Methodist Mis- 
 sion; and the Sarah Tucker College in Palam- 
 cottah. South India, under the Church Missionary 
 Society. There are a number of high schools 
 with college classes. Of the Lucknow College, 
 Miss Thoburn its founder and principal, says: 
 "There were, here and there, Christians in good 
 circumstances whose sons were studying in high 
 schools and colleges, reading and talking Eng- 
 lish, and living in touch with the new life of the 
 empire. They asked for a school where their 
 
 daughters might have like opportunities. Some 
 263 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 of them lived in remote places, hence a boarding 
 school was necessary. They were not rich, but 
 had money enough to pay boarding fees and all 
 incidental expenses. We opened the school for 
 such children. The mission, with a grant from 
 government, has paid for teachers and build- 
 ings.” This school is ideal in that it has received 
 all pupils sent without regard to race or lan- 
 guage; and has combined in one happy family, 
 Hindustani, Bengali, English and Eurasian girls; 
 while all are trained to work for Christ. This 
 school is alfiliated with the Allahabad University, 
 and the Sarah Tucker with the Madras Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 The Bethune Institution, formed in 1850, be- 
 came in 1879 Bethune College, and is affiliated 
 with the Calcutta University in Arts up to the 
 B. A. standard ; and is the only fully equipped col- 
 lege in Bengal for the higher education of 
 women. Its principal is Miss Chandra Bose, an 
 Indian Christian lady, a B. A. and M. A. It is 
 not a religious but a government institution, and 
 the number of students average from twenty- 
 five to thirty girls. There are two lady gradu- 
 ates on the staff of teachers, in charge of such 
 subjects as English literature, mental and moral 
 
 science, ancient and modern history, and bot- 
 264 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 any. It has not been possible yet to carry on the 
 ■work without the cooperation of gentlemen lec- 
 turers. Twenty young ladies have graduated 
 from the college with the degree of B. A., three 
 of whom have taken the degree of M. A. from 
 the Calcutta University, and two from the Alla- 
 habad University. Forty-three passed the first 
 examination in arts. Of all these young ladies, 
 none are Mohammedan; about one-half being 
 Bengali Christians, and the other half Hindu girls 
 of the Brahmo Somaj. 
 
 Then there is the Maharajah’s College for girls 
 in Travandum, in the native state of Travancore. 
 There are many excellent high schools through- 
 out the country. The majority are missionary 
 institutions. A few were started by govern- 
 ment, and a number are private enterprises. A 
 number of these high schools have college 
 classes, and may, at no distant day, blossom into 
 full-blown colleges. To some of these, like the 
 Dehra Dun High School, (American Presbyterian 
 Mission) which has had a career of forty years, 
 and the Ahmednagar High School (American 
 Board Mission) and others, we are indebted for 
 some of our best Christian women. 
 
 The most unique Hindu school that we know 
 of, is the Maharani’s Caste girls’ school in 
 
 265 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Mysore (a native state). It has at present an ex- 
 missionary lady as principal. Four Brahman 
 girls from it have passed the entrance examina- 
 tion of the Madras University. It is a high 
 school, and is steadily working up into a college, 
 having this year a college class of two girls ; but 
 caste and early marriage will no doubt be for 
 some time yet a great hindrance. This school 
 closed last year with an enrollment of three hun- 
 dred and eighty-six students. Of these, thirty- 
 two were widows, besides eight widow teachers 
 — all Brahmans! The majority of the girls above 
 the fourth class are mothers, as are almost all the 
 widows. In fact almost all the girls, except the 
 infant classes, are married. The school edits a 
 paper in Canarese and English. The school is of 
 purely Indian enterprise and management, and a 
 more interesting school, considering the social 
 conditions of India, it would be difficult to 
 find. 
 
 Then there is the Victoria High School in 
 Poona, the founder and principal being an Indian 
 Christian lady — Mrs. Sorabjee. It is an English 
 school that receives all races, Hindus, Moham- 
 medans, Parsees, Jews and English; and has 
 been a great success. Ramabai’s High School 
 
 for widows, and her farm school for her orphan 
 266 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 widows, are too well known to need comment. 
 Miss Chakarbulty, another Indian Christian lady, 
 has an orphanage in Allahabad gathered out of 
 the late famine, for the entire support of which 
 she depends upon her trust in God. 
 
 We must not omit to mention the American 
 Board High School for Christian children in 
 Bombay, which was the first attempt at coedu- 
 cation on a large scale ever made in India. Here 
 and there is an Indian Christian girl, or a Hindu 
 or Parsee girl, who is brave enough to present 
 herself at the doors of some young men’s col- 
 lege, and to finish her course of study in it ; the 
 forerunners of a great movement in that direc- 
 tion. Besides these schools are thousands of 
 primary schools. The few are in the upper 
 schools, the many in the primary. Great difficul- 
 ties have yet to be continually dealt with, either 
 in the apathy or the opposition of the people, in 
 caste, and in child marriage, which causes most 
 girls to leave school at ten or twelve years of 
 age; and with the majority of these their educa- 
 tion ends there. 
 
 The Indian universities — all honor to them, — 
 were in advance of those of England in opening 
 examinations and degrees to women. An Indian 
 
 Christian girl. Miss Chandra Bose was the first to 
 267 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 appear, and passed her entrance examination in 
 1876. Sixteen years afterward, four hundred 
 and seventy girls had followed her. Up to 1899, 
 in the Madras presidency alone, two young ladies 
 have passed the B. A. examination, and both are 
 Indian Christians; twenty-five have passed the 
 F. A. examination, of whom twenty are Euro- 
 peans and Eurasians, and five are Indian Chris- 
 tians; three hundred and nine have passed the 
 matriculation (entrance) examination, of whom 
 one is a Mohammedan, four are Brahmans, six 
 are Parsees, seventy-one are Indian Christians, 
 and two hundred and twenty-seven Europeans 
 and Eurasians. 
 
 We praise God for all the progress that has 
 been made, but a few simple figures from the 
 educational report of 1897-98 show, after all, how 
 slowly we have gone, and how much land there 
 ■ is yet to be possessed. Only six women in 
 one thousand in all India can read, or 0.6 per 
 cent. 
 
 6. But the greatest work that has been wrought 
 by the missionaries for women, and without 
 which they would count all the rest as naught, 
 has been that they have brought thousands of 
 India’s women to know Christ as their Saviour; 
 
 a work that will abide through all eternity, and 
 268 
 
What the Missionaries Have Done 
 
 for which many have gladly laid down their 
 lives.* 
 
 * By tables sent in from the different universities, (and they 
 were not all tabulated quite alike), we find that since the uni- 
 versities have opened their examinations to women, up to 1899, 
 one thousand three hundred and six women have passed the 
 matriculation or entrance examination. Of these about three 
 hundred and sixty-seven are native Christians, twenty-seven 
 Hindus, one Mohammedan, seven hundred and twenty-eight 
 European or Eurasian ; the remainder being divided between 
 other nationalities ; and thirty-eight are returned as having 
 passed the B. A. examination. 
 
 269 
 
XVII 
 
 THE REAL DIFFICULTY 
 
 The keys to the wrongs of Indian women are 
 Mohammedanism and Hinduism. What we have 
 roughly outlined in preceding chapters, is the best 
 that Mohammedanism and Hinduism can do for 
 women. As long as the Koran is obeyed, the 
 lenana and polygamy will continue to exist 
 among Mohammedans. The former is com- 
 manded by the prophet, and the latter permitted; 
 for a Mohammedan can have four wives at one 
 time, and yet obey the Koran and be a pious 
 Mussulman. It has even been contended by some 
 writers that the Koran allows no place in heaven 
 for women. This is not the case, but, says Muir, 
 “the condition fixed by Mahomet for women is 
 that of a dependent, inferior creature, destined 
 only for the service of her lord, and liable to be 
 cast off without the assignment of any reason.” 
 But arbitrary divorce is not the only privilege (?) 
 man has. In Sura IV. it is written: “ Men stand 
 above women, because of the superiority which 
 God hath conferred on one of them over the other, 
 
 and because of that which they expend of their 
 270 
 
The Real Difficulty 
 
 wealth. Therefore let the good women be obe- 
 dient, preserving their purity in secret in that 
 wherein God preserveth them. But such as ye 
 may fear disobedience (or provocation) from, re- 
 buke them, and put them away in separate apart- 
 ments and chastise {or beat) them. But if they 
 be obedient unto you, seek not against them an 
 excuse (or severity): verily God is lofty and 
 great.” 
 
 The tenet of Hinduism, that if a woman pleases 
 her husband she pleases the gods ; seems also to 
 prevail to some extent among Mohammedans. 
 
 A personal friend well illustrates this with the 
 following story of a conversation she held with a 
 Mohammedan widow : “ Our conversation led to 
 the inequalities between men and women, es- 
 pecially among the Mohammedans. The widow 
 said it was a woman’s chief business to please 
 her husband, even if he were a bad man; and 
 that by so doing, she would please God. Then 
 she told me the following story: ‘ A woman was 
 seen sitting half in the sun and half in the shade, 
 while by her side were some broken bricks, a 
 stick and a rope, and some cold and hot water in 
 different vessels. Some one, (Mahomet’s daugh- 
 ter, we think), asked her why she was sitting 
 
 half in the shade, and half in the sun. She an- 
 271 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 swered that her husband was a grass-cutter and 
 she could not tell whether in cutting his grass he 
 was at that time in the sun or in the shade, but 
 whichever it was, she wanted to sympathize with 
 him, and so felt both heat and cold at the same 
 time. She also added in explanation that she did 
 not know which he would prefer on his return 
 hot or cold water, so she had both ready. Also 
 if he were in a bad temper, and wished to beat 
 her, he would choose between the stick and the 
 rope, or throw the pieces of brick at her.’ The 
 prophet hearing this, replied that she was truly a 
 good woman, and deserved to go to heaven.” 
 
 On the other hand, Hinduism, which is the 
 greater oppressor of women of the two religions, 
 is the great interpreter of these wrongs. “The 
 yedas are believed by the devout Hindus to be 
 the eternal, self-existing word of God, revealed 
 by Him to the different sages. Besides the K edas 
 there are more than twenty-five books of sacred 
 law, ascribed to different authors, who wrote or 
 compiled them at various times, and on which 
 are based the principal customs and religious in- 
 stitutes of the Hindus. Among these, the code 
 of Manu ranks highest, and is held by all to be 
 very sacred, second to none but the them- 
 
 selves. Although Manu and the different law- 
 272 
 
RKADINK OK THK SIIASTRAS 
 
The Real Difficulty 
 
 givers differ greatly on many points, they all 
 agree on things concerning women." * 
 
 Says Dr. Wilson: “Much of the favor shown 
 to women by the Hindu shastras — when, indeed, 
 they do show her favor — is founded on the low 
 idea that she is the property of man, as his ox or 
 his ass. It is on this understanding, and that she 
 may bear to him a son, without whom, natural 
 or adopted, he can have no salvation; that her 
 life is to be preserved; and that she is to have 
 that degree of comfort which may be allotted to 
 her. Her general debasement, according to the 
 Hindu shastras, is extreme.” 
 
 Ramabai confirms this by saying: “ The wife 
 
 is declared to be the ‘ marital property ’ of her 
 husband, and is classed with ‘cows, mares, 
 female camels, slave-girls, buffalo-cows, she- 
 goats and ewes.” (See Manu ix. 48-51.) But 
 she adds, in regard to the favorable passages: 
 “ These commandments are significant. Our 
 Aryan Hindus did, and still do honor women to a 
 certain extent. Although the woman is looked 
 upon as an inferior being, she is the queen of her 
 son’s household, wields great power there, and 
 is generally obeyed as the head of the family by 
 her sons, and her daughters-in-law.” 
 
 • The High Caste Hindu Woman, by Ramabai. 
 
 273 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 Says Dr. Wilson again; “ Of the original con- 
 stitution of woman, as distinguished from that of 
 man, the Hindu sages and legislators, the authors 
 of the Hindu sacred books, have thus written: 
 ‘ Falsehood, cruelty, bewitchery, folly, covetous- 
 ness, impurity, and unmercifulness are woman’s 
 inseparable faults.’ ‘ Woman’s sin is greater than 
 that of man,’ and cannot be removed by the 
 atonements which destroy his; ‘ women are they 
 who have an aversion to good works; ’ ‘women 
 have hunger twofold more than men; intelli- 
 gence (cunning) fourfold; violence, sixfold; 
 and evil desires, eightfold.’ ‘Through their 
 evil desires, their want of settled affection, and 
 their perverse nature, let them be guarded in this 
 world ever so well; they soon become alienated 
 from their husbands. Manu allotted to such 
 women a love of their bed, of their seat, and of 
 ornaments, impure appetites, wrath, weak flexi- 
 bility, desire of mischief and bad conduct. 
 Women have no business with the text of the 
 yedas. This is the law fully settled. Having 
 therefore no evidence of law, and no knowledge 
 of expiatory texts, sinful women must be as foul 
 as falsehood itself, and this is a fixed rule. To this 
 effect, many texts which may show their true 
 
 disposition are chanted in the l^edas.’ (Manu ix. 
 
 274 
 
The Real Difficulty 
 
 i8, 19.) It will be observed that it is \htsex, and 
 not the race, that is here condemned. The idea 
 that woman is a help-meet for man, seems never 
 to have entered into the minds of the Hindu 
 sages. They uniformly treat her as a necessary 
 evil, and a most dangerous character. Her posi- 
 tion, according to them, is that of a continuous 
 slavery and dependence. ‘ They enjoin that by a 
 girl, or by a young woman, or by a woman ad- 
 vanced in years, nothing must be done, even in her 
 own dwelling-place, according to her mere pleas- 
 ure; in childhood a female must be dependent on 
 (or subject to) her father; in youth, on her hus- 
 band : her lord being dead, on her sons : a woman 
 must never seek independence.’ (Manu v. 158.) 
 
 “ The Hindu shastras have made no provisions 
 of affection and regard for a daughter. She is 
 viewed by them, as far as her parents are con- 
 cerned, merely as an object to be 'given away,’ 
 and that as soon as possible. She is declared by 
 them to be marriageable, even in her infancy, to 
 a person of any age; and of course without her 
 own choice, or intelligent consent. . . . Ac- 
 
 cording to the letter of the law, the parents are 
 not to sell their daughters, but they may receive 
 valuable gifts, the equivalent of a price, on her 
 behalf. (Manu iii. 51.) 
 
 275 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 “The Hindu wife is placed under the absolute 
 will of her lord, without any reference to moral 
 distinctions: and even in religious matters, he in- 
 tervenes between her conscience and her God. 
 ‘A husband,’ says Manu, ‘must constantly be 
 revered as a god by a virtuous wife. No sacri- 
 fice is allowed to women apart from their hus- 
 bands, no religious rite, no fasting; as far only 
 as a wife honors her lord, so far is she exalted 
 in heaven.’ (Manu v. 155.) ‘ Let a wife,’ it is 
 said in the Skanda Purana, ‘ who wishes to per- 
 form sacred ablution, wash the feet of her lord, 
 and drink the water: for a husband is to a 
 wife greater than Shankar or Vishnu. The hus- 
 band is her god, and priest, and religion : where- 
 fore abandoning everything else, she ought chiefly 
 to worship her husband.' 
 
 “The husband is actually cautioned against al- 
 lowing his affections to rest upon her in the de- 
 gree that is lawful in the case of others of his 
 kindred. ‘Let not a woman be much loved,’ 
 it is enjoined: ‘let her have only that degree of 
 affection that is necessary. Let the fullness of 
 affection be reserved for brothers, and other sim- 
 ilar connections.’ When kindness to the woman 
 is urged, it is recommended principally as calcu- 
 lated to promote the husband’s benefit. {See 
 276 
 
The Real Difficulty 
 
 the case of her ornaments, Manu iii. 6i.) A rope 
 and a rod are expressly mentioned as the ordi- 
 nary supports of a husband’s authority. On trivial 
 grounds, even for an unkind word, she may be 
 superseded, or divorced. For polygamy and 
 licentiousness on the part of the husband, there 
 can be pleaded, not only certain laxities of legis- 
 lation, according to which they appear as mat- 
 ters comparatively trivial; but even the alleged ex- 
 amples of the gods themselves ! ” ^ 
 
 Abbe Duboise in his Hindu Manners, Customs 
 and Ceremonies, devotes a chapter to rules of 
 conduct by which these general principles we 
 have quoted from the Hindu shastras are 
 worked out in detail. 
 
 These rules are taken from the Padma-Purana, 
 one of their most valued books, and are trans- 
 lated literally: 
 
 “Give ear to me attentively, great king of 
 Dilipa! 1 will expound to thee how a wife at- 
 tached to her husband and devoted to her duties 
 ought to behave. 
 
 “ There is no other god on earth for a woman 
 than her husband. The most excellent of all the 
 good works that she can do, is to seek to please 
 
 • Suppression of Infanticide in Western India, by John Wil- 
 son, D. D., F. R. S. 
 
 277 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 him by manifesting perfect obedience to him. 
 Therein should lie her sole rule of life, 
 
 "Be her husband deformed, aged, infirm, of- 
 fensive in his manners; let him also be choleric, 
 debauched, immoral, a drunkard, a gambler: let 
 him frequent places of ill-repute, live in open sin 
 with other women, have no affection whatever 
 for his home; let him rave like a lunatic; let 
 him live without honor; let him be blind, deaf, 
 dumb, or crippled; in a word let his defects be 
 what they may, let his wickedness be what it 
 may, a wife should always look upon him as her 
 god, should lavish on him all her attention and 
 care; paying no heed whatever to his character, 
 and giving him no cause whatsoever for dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 " Should she see anything which she is desir- 
 ous of possessing, she must not seek to acquire 
 it without the consent of her husband. If her 
 husband receives the visit of a stranger, she shall 
 retire with bent head and shall continue her 
 work without paying the least attention to him. 
 She must concentrate her thoughts on her hus- 
 band only, and must never look another man in 
 the face. In acting thus, she wins the praise of 
 everybody. 
 
 “ If her husband laugh, she must laugh; if he 
 278 
 
The Real Difficulty 
 
 be sad, she must be sad; if he weeps, she must 
 weep; if he asks questions, she must answer. 
 Thus will she give proof of her good disposition. 
 
 “She must take heed not to remark that an- 
 other man is young, handsome, or well propor- 
 tioned; and, above all, she must not speak to 
 him. Such modest demeanor will secure for 
 her the reputation of a faithful spouse. 
 
 “ It shall even be the same with her who, see- 
 ing before her the most beautiful gods, shall re- 
 gard them disdainfully and as though they were 
 not worthy of comparison with her husband. 
 
 “A wife must eat only after her husband has 
 had his fill. If the latter fast, she shall fast too; 
 if he touch not food, she also shall not touch it; 
 if he be in affliction, she shall be so too; if he be 
 cheerful, she shall share his joy. A good wife 
 should be less devoted to her sons, or to her 
 grandsons, or to her jewels, than to her hus- 
 band. She must, on the death of her husband, 
 allow herself to be burned alive on the same 
 funeral pyre; then everybody will praise her 
 virtue. 
 
 “She cannot lavish too much affection on her 
 father-in-law, her mother-in-law, and her hus- 
 band; and should she perceive that they are 
 
 squandering all the family substance in extrava- 
 279 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 gance, she would be wrong to complain, and 
 still more wrong to oppose them. 
 
 “ Before her husband, let her words fall softly 
 and sweetly from her mouth; and let her devote 
 herself to pleasing him every day more and 
 more. 
 
 “ If a husband keep two wives, the one should 
 not amuse herself at the expense of the other, be 
 it for good, or for evil; neither should the one 
 talk about the beauty or the ugliness of the chil- 
 dren of the other. They must live on good 
 terms, and must avoid addressing unpleasant and 
 offensive remarks to each other. 
 
 “Let her carefully avoid creating domestic 
 squabbles on the subject of her parents, or on 
 account of another woman whom her husband 
 may wish to keep, or on account of any unpleas- 
 ant remark which may have been addressed to 
 her. To leave the house for reasons such as 
 these, would expose her to public ridicule, and 
 would give cause for much evil- speaking. 
 
 “If her husband flies into a passion, threatens 
 her, abuses her grossly, even beats her unjustly, 
 she shall answer him meekly, shall lay hold of 
 his hands, kiss them, and beg his pardon, in- 
 stead of uttering loud cries, and running away 
 from the house. 
 
 280 
 
The Real Difficulty 
 
 "Let all her words and actions give public 
 proof that she looks upon her husband as her 
 god. Honored by everybody, she shall thus en- 
 joy the reputation of a faithful and virtuous 
 spouse.” 
 
 It is the Hindu religious belief that a woman 
 must never forsake her husband, but submit to 
 him in all things, that makes her afraid and 
 ashamed to leave his house for brutal treatment, 
 or even if he brings a mistress into the house 
 with her. It is this belief that would make all 
 society hound her if she did. In the accounts of 
 the lives of some of the gods there is sanction 
 for nautch-girls and devadasis. This keeps the 
 public from being shocked at the custom. It is 
 to the worship of Krishna, that much of the im- 
 morality of the country can be blamed. The 
 custom of temple girls flourishes most exten- 
 sively and almost exclusively in Vishnu or 
 Krishna temples. 
 
 As long as these beliefs exist, and the customs 
 that have grown up around them, so long will 
 these wrongs of Indian women remain in the 
 land; for not only is her own salvation secured 
 by the observance of these customs and rights; 
 but that of numberless relatives also. 
 
 In illustration of this. Sir Monier Williams tells 
 281 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 of a certain pious ascetic who determined to 
 shirk the religious duty of taking a wife. Wan- 
 dering about in the woods, absorbed in medita- 
 tion, he saw before him a deep and apparently 
 bottomless pit, around whose edges “some men 
 were hanging suspended by ropes of grass at 
 which, here and there, a rat was nibbling. On 
 asking their history, lie discovered, to his horror, 
 that they were his own ancestors compelled to 
 hang in this mannei, and doomed eventually to 
 fall into the abyss, unless he went back, into the 
 world, did his duty like a man, married a suitable 
 wife, and had a son who would be able to re- 
 lease them from their critical predicament.” 
 
 As long as men and women remain devout 
 Hindus, so long will this estimate of women 
 pervade society. By devout, we mean sincere. 
 We would dread the day that the women should 
 break away from their devoutness and sincerity, 
 and become “reformed” in outward things, at 
 the expense of becoming sceptics, atheists, insin- 
 cere and hypocritical in keeping up a form of 
 Hinduism. We have more hope of a man, who 
 is sincere, even if mistaken, than of a hypocrite. 
 The thing is to teach the woman that her hus- 
 band’s salvation is not secured by the birth of a 
 
 son; that her own and each relative’s salvation 
 282 
 
The Real Difficulty 
 
 depends on personal obedience to God; that 
 widowhood is not the result of her sin; that a 
 husband is not as a god; that by obedience to 
 him in life, heaven is not secured to her; that a 
 life of penance and austerity after his death, does 
 not secure her own or his eternal happiness. 
 Give her true ideas of salvation, if you want her 
 to find and to fill her true place. 
 
 283 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE REAL REMEDY 
 
 In previous chapters we have canvassed the 
 subject of the hope of help from government 
 and the reformers, the two sources to which 
 many look for the redemption of Indian women. 
 But we confess the outlook from either source is 
 not very bright at present. Government, under 
 the most propitious circumstances has been slow 
 in making changes, much less is it likely to do so 
 now in the presence of its present absorbing 
 questions, and in the face of the present discon- 
 tent and strong race feeling. 
 
 And the reformers? To many, the disap- 
 pointment from this source has been most bitter. 
 We give credit for all that has been done, but so 
 much that we had a right to demand from edu- 
 cated India has never been accomplished. Hon. 
 Justice Scott, of the Bombay High Court, well said 
 in a letter to Mr. Malabari: " If you wait till indi- 
 vidual Hindus take up and carry through, single 
 handed, without any outside aid, any great 
 change in their social system, you will realize 
 
 the fable of the countryman, who sat by the 
 284 
 
HIGH CASTE GIRL A LOW CASTE WOMAN 
 
The Real Remedy 
 
 river bank and waited for the stream to run dry 
 before he crossed over to the other side. It is 
 not in human nature to expect that great changes 
 will be affected in a society by its own members, 
 when the advocates of change have to face 
 family estrangement, social ostracism, and caste 
 excommunication, as a probable result of their 
 efforts.” Caste, which holds the whole fabric 
 of Hinduism together, has been too much for 
 them. They will denounce it and yet obey its 
 demands, at least to an extent sufficient to enable 
 them to keep within its sacred precincts socially. 
 
 Even Ram Mohun Roy, who has stood the 
 highest in the ranks of Indian reformers, “in 
 the eyes of the law always remained a Brahman. 
 He never abandoned the Brahmanical thread, and 
 had too lively a sense of the value of money, to 
 risk the forfeiture of his property and the con- 
 sequent diminution of his usefulness and influ- 
 ence by formally giving up his caste. In fact, 
 though far in advance of his age as a thinker, he 
 laid no claim to perfect disinterestedness of mo- 
 tive as a man. ... He died a Hindu in re- 
 spect of external observances; his Brahman serv- 
 ant performed the usual rites required by his 
 master’s caste, and his Brahmanical thread was 
 
 found coiled round his person when his spirit 
 285 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 passed away. In all his Anti-Brahmanism, he 
 continued a Brahman to the end. Even after his 
 death it was thought advisable to keep up the 
 fiction of a due maintenance of caste.” * His 
 body was not interred in a Christian burial 
 ground, though he died in Christian England, 
 tenderly nursed to the end by Christian friends; 
 but was buried in the private grounds of his 
 hostess. And this will continue to be the history 
 of reformers until they have a different motive 
 power for effort, one that will enable them to 
 suffer the loss of all things, and to receive that 
 which will compensate and satisfy their hearts 
 for what they lose. 
 
 And the women themselves, will they agitate 
 their wrongs until they are righted } Until they, 
 too, are given different ideas of religion, respect- 
 ability and right, they will be the greatest op- 
 ponents of reform on their behalf. Women are 
 always most prominent in religious matters in 
 every nation, and in India, they are the persons 
 who cling so intensely to the old ways, customs 
 and caste. No matter how deeply a young 
 widow suffers in being shorn of her hair, it fre- 
 quently happens that no one is harder than she, 
 
 ' Religious Thought and Life in India, by Sir Monier 
 Williams. 
 
 286 
 
The Real Remedy 
 
 as time goes on, on younger widows that they 
 should follow in the same steps of suffering. A 
 Brahman neighbor of ours had two widows in 
 his family, who were of the most orthodox type. 
 In the course of conversation with one of them 
 one day, he kindly proposed that she should re- 
 marry. At the mere suggestion, notwithstand- 
 ing all she had suffered, she burst into tears. 
 She regarded it as an insult. It would not be 
 respectable! 
 
 Many educated Hindus fear the women of the 
 household almost more than aught else. Men 
 who will declaim against child marriage, caste 
 and enforced widowhood in public, have not 
 courage when they go home to face the women 
 of the household; for their tears and entreaties 
 win the day. 
 
 We knew of one gentleman who lost his wife. 
 Immediately his mother proposed marriage with 
 a little girl. He pleaded to be allowed to remain 
 single. But no, the mother persisted. Then he 
 begged to be allowed to marry a woman nearer 
 his own age, who, under the circumstances, 
 would have to be a widow. At this all the fe- 
 male relations rose in a solid body against it. 
 They were uneducated; they had never shared 
 
 his thought of reform. Finally the mother 
 287 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 threatened to commit suicide, a threat which 
 she probably would have carried out, and the 
 man yielded at a sacrifice of all his convic- 
 tions, and of all his public utterances that 
 had done so much good, and married the girl- 
 wife. 
 
 Children are timid and shrinking, and some 
 one has suggested that it is from child mothers, 
 that Hindus inherit their lack of courage. Yes, 
 Indian women have great influence, and know 
 how to use it; but how often it is turned in 
 the wrong direction. God meant that woman 
 should have great influence. He meant that she 
 should be man's help-meet and comforter. It 
 was perhaps from the memory of such scenes as 
 we have described, that, in speaking of the in- 
 fluence of women in the homes of India, as in 
 other countries, Keshub Chundra Sen said, in 
 a humorous way, in an address in England: 
 “Woman has been defined as an adjective 
 agreeing with the noun, man. I should rather 
 say that man is a noun in the objective case 
 governed by woman!” 
 
 Neither are the women of India inferior to the 
 women of other lands. Given the same oppor- 
 tunity, they are the equals of any women. We 
 
 have found many who had all the possibilities of 
 
 288 
 
The Real Remedy 
 
 the career of noble women, save that they were 
 handicapped by ignorance and the disabilities 
 under which they have lived. And such women 
 are not confined only to the higher castes. We 
 knew, for a number of years, a sweeper woman 
 who would have been a most remarkable char- 
 acter had she had but half a chance. Unhappily 
 her life was turned into evil channels, and yet 
 her neighbors called her the “Begum” (a lady)! 
 There are thousands of women all over the land 
 who, were they not warped by iron custom, and 
 handicapped by cruel public opinion, would, if 
 given a purpose in life, leave their mark upon 
 the Indian world. 
 
 Indian women are loving, affectionate and 
 faithful; and, says the Indian Witness, “they 
 are entitled to the greatest admiration for the 
 wonderfully patient manner in which they ac- 
 cept their hard lot and make the best of their 
 gloomy environments.” 
 
 We are grateful for what has been accomplished 
 in female education, and for the enlightened 
 Hindu ladies we meet here and there; but the 
 real emancipation of Indian women will never 
 come, except through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 This is the real remedy for the wrongs of Indian 
 womanhood ; for this is what has elevated women 
 
 289 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 in other lands, and is waiting to do the same for 
 India. 
 
 Culture and civilization alone will never raise 
 woman to her true position. Whatever of civi- 
 lization at present that is worth anything in Chris- 
 tian nations is the outgrowth of the religion of 
 Jesus Christ. The true elevation of women in 
 these nations is due to this, and this alone. 
 Peruse the pages of history and see if this is not 
 true. What do we find to be the condition of 
 women in any land outside of Christendom, 
 either in the past or present ? 
 
 Infanticide has prevailed, in some form or 
 other, in almost every nation: “polygamy has 
 prevailed over almost the whole expanse of 
 Asia: throughout the vast empire of China, and 
 in the greater part of India, female children are 
 betrothed in childhood; in almost every pagan 
 race, ancient or modern, females are given away 
 in marriage without their own consent; in many 
 lands they are bought and sold; divorce can in 
 most cases be had on easy terms; not only the 
 Brahman of India, but the Polynesian savage, and 
 even the Negro slaves of the West Indies, will 
 not allow their wives to eat with them; intellec- 
 tual culture, when apart from the sanctifying influ- 
 ences of Christianity, has nowhere checked — has 
 290 
 
9 
 
 f 
 
 
 h • 
 
 . • * 'l' 
 
 r . 
 
 i' - 
 
 I. 
 
 \ 
 
 . . V. 
 
 r* - 
 
 • > X. 
 
 
 . k 
 
 M 
 
 
 
(lO.Sl’I'.I, WA(;ON 
 
The Real Remedy 
 
 rather precipitated — the derangement of the rela- 
 tion of the sexes to each other.” ‘ 
 
 What did the high civilization of Greece and 
 Rome, and the philosophies there extant do for 
 women.? Says Dr. Murdoch: “When Chris- 
 tianity was first made known in Europe, the state 
 of society in the most civilized nations was most 
 corrupt. Adultery was a fashionable crime. 
 . . . A single temple to the goddess Venus 
 had a thousand prostitutes for its priestesses ; ” 
 and he quotes another writer as saying, “The 
 tender reverence for women is not mere product 
 of culture and civilization, for it was unknown to 
 Greece and Rome in the zenith of their refine- 
 ment. . . . It is the reflection on earth of 
 
 that self-devoting love that brought the Son of 
 God from heaven.” And, says the Rev. F. W. 
 Robertson: “It was from that time forward 
 that womanhood assumed a new place in the 
 world, and steadily and gradually rose to a 
 higher dignity in human life. It is not to mere 
 civilization, but to the spirit of life in Christ, 
 that woman owes all she is, and all she has yet 
 to gain.” 
 
 The religion of Jesus Christ is not so much a 
 
 1 The Influence of Christianity on the Position and Character 
 of Women, by Dr. Kay. 
 
 291 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 system of doctrine, though this has its value, as 
 it is a life that moulds and transforms the charac- 
 ter of its believers. Says one: “ It expelled cru- 
 elty; curbed passion; punished and repressed an 
 execrable infanticide; drove the shameless im- 
 purities of heathendom into a congenial darkness; 
 freed the slave; protected the captive; sheltered 
 the orphan; shrouded as with a halo of sacred in- 
 nocence the tender years of a child; elevated 
 woman; sanctified marriage from little more 
 than a burdensome convention into little less than 
 a blessed sacrament ; ” and where men and women 
 have received it, has made their hearts and lives 
 so pure that it has given to men a reverence and 
 chivalrous care for women; and on the other 
 hand, has so hallowed the character of woman, 
 as to make the words, “mother,” “sister,” 
 “wife” and “daughter,” the tenderest words in 
 the language of men. It has taught the equality 
 of woman with man, and made her his help-meet 
 and comforter. It is a religion that offers salva- 
 tion regardless of sex, and teaches that “in Christ 
 there is neither male nor female.” (Gal. iii. 28.) 
 It makes woman a responsible moral being, whose 
 salvation and possibilities of a holy life on earth, 
 and her future eternal blessedness, depend on her 
 
 own personal acceptance of Christ and obedience 
 292 
 
The Real Remedy 
 
 to Him, and not on her relations to her husband 
 or any other relative. 
 
 Christianity does not subvert the relations of 
 the household. It recognizes man as the head of 
 the house, and asks obedience of the wife; while 
 in the same breath it bids husbands “love their 
 wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave 
 Himself for it.” It demands obedience of son 
 and daughter to both father and mother alike; 
 and hallows the entire home by making the re- 
 lation of husband and wife as a type of Christ 
 and the Church, and the relations of parents to 
 their children, a faint shadow of the great 
 Fatherhood of God. But in all these relations, 
 the obedience of the wife to her husband, the 
 love of the husband for the wife, or the submis- 
 sion of the children to the parents, are never to 
 supersede love and obedience to God. This 
 helps us to understand what it meant by the 
 words: “He that loveth father or mother more 
 than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that 
 loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not 
 worthy of Me.” (Matt. x. 37.) 
 
 This is one of the places where Hinduism 
 breaks down, in that family caste relations are 
 made to supersede obligations to God and their 
 
 fellow-men. This is the rock upon which so 
 293 
 
The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood 
 
 many reformers make shipwreck. This is the 
 cause of much unhappiness on the part of the 
 educated Hindus who sacrifice their convictions 
 to these considerations. This is the point where 
 so many hundreds of men and women in India 
 reject the gospel, which is the very hope not 
 only of India’s women, but of India herself. 
 
 India has had some wonderful proofs of what 
 Christ can do for women in Ramabai, in her 
 tireless love and self-denial for her Indian sisters; 
 in the energetic Mrs. Sorabjee, with her Victoria 
 High School; and in her accomplished daughter, 
 Cornelia, the first lady graduate of the Deccan 
 College, the first lady professor in an India Col- 
 lege whose students were men, and the first lady 
 law-student; in that earnest quartette of sisters, 
 Sunderbai, Manjulabai, Shewantibai, and Jai- 
 wantibai Power, in their evangelistic efforts for 
 women; in Toru Dutt, the gentle poetess ; in 
 Krupabai Satthianadhan, the authoress; in 
 Chandra Bose, the esteemed lady principal of the 
 Bethune College; in Lilawanti Singh, the effi- 
 cient teacher in the Lucknow College for women; 
 in Lakshmi Goreh, the sweet hymn-writer; in 
 Dr. Gurubai Karmarker, the lady physician; and 
 in hundreds of other Christian women in equal 
 
 or humbler ranks of life. How many times we 
 294 
 
The Real Remedy 
 
 have thanked God for their lives, counted their 
 friendship sweet, and their fellowship in the 
 gospel, blessed; and, may we add, almost envied 
 their possibilities for usefulness in India ? 
 
 We know of no women in the world who 
 have the “open door” set before them for use- 
 fulness as the Christian women in India have to- 
 day. Do they realize it, and are they willing to 
 meet it If the recital of these wrongs has 
 made them realize more deeply what Christ has 
 done for them, and shall lead them to yield 
 themselves to God, that so far as in them lies, 
 every woman in India shall hear the gospel; we 
 shall be satisfied. Is it possible for the one 
 hundred and fifty million women of India of this 
 generation to hear the gospel.? We leave the 
 Christian women of India, England and America 
 to answer the question. 
 
 THE END 
 
 295 
 
Index 
 
 Adultery, Fashionable, 291. 
 Age of consent, 36, 230. 
 
 Age for Marriage, Maximum, 
 39- 
 
 American Board High School, 
 267. 
 
 Amherst, Lord, 19 1. 
 Anti-Nautch movement, 137- 
 
 147. 
 
 Arbitrary divorce, 96. 
 
 Bentinck, LordWm., 50, 192, 
 214. 
 
 Besant, Mrs. Annie, 173, 235, 
 
 2361 237-240- 
 
 Bethune, Hon. D., 258. 
 Bethune Institution, 258, 264. 
 Bhandarkar, Dr., quoted, 172. 
 Bhavins, The, 124. 
 
 Bible, The, on Widowhood, 48, 
 49. 50- 
 
 Bielby, Miss, 207, 208. 
 
 “ “ on the Zenana, 98. 
 
 “ “ visits the Queen, 
 
 209. 
 
 Bishop, Mrs. Isabella B., 95. 
 Bradford, Rev. A. H., quoted, 
 1 14. 
 
 Brittian, Miss, 26 q. 
 
 Calcutta School Society, 256. 
 
 Cardinal Manning, quoted, 39. 
 
 Carpenter, Miss, 262. 
 
 Carey, William, 250. 
 
 Carey and Infanticide, 151. 
 
 Carey’s sign, 251. 
 
 Carey, Work of, 252-254. 
 
 Caste, Power of, 64. 
 
 “ Evil of, 285. 
 
 Chaitanya Sect, The, 121. 
 
 Chentsalrao, Hon. P., quoted, 
 61. 
 
 Child Marriage, 33, 174, 201, 
 202. 
 
 Child wife. Hardships of a, 43. 
 
 Child widow, A, 59. 
 
 “ “ Sufferings of, 59. 
 
 “ “ and famine, 1 7 1. 
 
 Christianity, Introduction of, 
 247-249. 
 
 Christianity, Need of, 245. 
 
 “ the real remedy, 
 293- 
 
 Christianity, Power of illus- 
 trated, 294. 
 
 Civilization, Influence of, 290. 
 
 Close Carriage, A, 76. 
 
 Cold Suttee, 53. 
 
 College Degrees for women, 
 264, 265, 268. 
 
 Conjugal Rights, Restitution 
 of, 204, 205. 
 
 297 
 
Index 
 
 Consent, Age of, 36. 
 
 Converted Hindu women, 294, 
 295. 
 
 Cooke, Miss, 256. 
 
 Cruel punishments, 43. 
 
 Custom, Power of, 27, 163. 
 
 Devadasis, The, 1 12- 125. 
 
 “ Character of, 119, 
 120. 
 
 Difficulty, The real, 270, 283. 
 Divorce, Arbitrary, 96. 
 
 “ Checks to, 97. 
 
 “ Law of, 42. 
 
 “ Thirteen kinds of, 96. 
 Duboise, Abbe, quoted, 277, 
 281. 
 
 Duff, Dr., quoted, 215, 261. 
 Duncan, Jonathan, 156. 
 
 “ “ his monu- 
 
 ment, 157. 
 
 East India Company, The, 
 175. 176, 179 - 
 Education, Female, 210. 
 
 “ Western, 234. 
 Enforced widowhood, 48, 167. 
 
 Famine of 1898, 233. 
 
 Famine, Child widows and, 17 1. 
 Female education, 210. 
 
 Fordyce, Rev. J., 259. 
 
 Ganga Sagar, Festival at, 
 152. 
 
 Ganga Sagar, Infanticide at, 
 189. 
 
 Gospel, Need of the, 290. 
 
 Gospel, and woman, 292. 
 Government, The position of, 
 175, 178. 
 
 Gunpati Festival, The, 233. 
 
 Harem, The, 77. 
 
 Hastings, Lady, 257. 
 
 Hewlett, Miss, quoted, 87. 
 Hindu home life, 26. 
 
 “ houses, 91. 
 
 “ sects, 89. 
 
 “ shastras. The, 116. 
 
 “ Social Reform Associa- 
 tion, 138, 202. 
 
 Hindu Social Reform Associa- 
 tion, Memorial of, 139, 140. 
 Hindu Social Reform Associa- 
 tion, Memorial of reply to, 
 
 141. 
 
 Hindu Temples, form of, 112. 
 
 “ “ uses of, 112- 
 
 114. 
 
 Hindu widows. Number of, 61. 
 Home, Immorality in the, 58. 
 Hope, A ray of, 18. 
 
 Hunter, Sir W. W,, quoted, 180, 
 182, 194. 
 
 Immorality in the home, 58. 
 India, Modern, 23. 
 
 Indian Mutiny, The 176. 
 Indian Social Reformer, The, 
 quoted, 116, 126, 132, 142, 
 143, 164, 167, 173. 
 
 Indian Spectator, The, quoted, 
 
 ‘ 95 - 
 
 298 
 
Index 
 
 Indian Testimony, A chapter 
 of, 161-174. 
 
 Indian Witness, The, quoted 
 
 161, 197. 236, 289. 
 
 Indian Universities, 206. 
 
 “ “ Women in, 
 
 207. 
 
 Infanticide, 58, 148. 
 
 “ abolished, 153. 
 
 “ Act of 1890, 159. 
 
 “ in Bible times, 149. 
 “ Carey on, 151, 189. 
 “ Christianity opposed 
 to, 150. 
 
 Infanticide, Dr. Wilson on, 150. 
 “ declared illegal, 1 5 2. 
 “ Wholesale, 160. 
 
 JAGANNATH, Temple of, 115. 
 Jarejas, The, 156. 
 
 Jejuri, Temple at, 102, 104. 
 Jogtins, The, 125. 
 
 Juggernaut, 115. 
 
 Kashmari pandit. A, quoted, 
 88, 89. 
 
 Keshub, Chunder Sen, 217- 
 221, 288. 
 
 Khandoba’s sword. Marriage to, 
 100. 
 
 Koran and Polygamy, The, 61. 
 
 “ the Veil, The, 77. 
 
 Krishna, 120. 
 
 Legislation desired, 186, 187. 
 Lucknow Advocate, 164. 
 Lucknow College, 263. 
 Lucknow, Nautch-girls of, 131. 
 
 Madras Marriage Bill, The, 
 
 231. 
 
 Madras Reform Association, 
 
 165. 
 
 Mahomet’s daughter, S tory of, 
 271. 
 
 Malabari, Mr., quoted, 64, 163, 
 
 174. 195. 198. 
 
 Malabari, Mr., Reforms by, 22 1- 
 
 224. 
 
 Malabari, Famous “ Notes ” of, 
 
 225. 
 
 Manning, Cardinal, quoted, 39. 
 Mansell, Mrs., 196, 197, 254, 
 
 255- 
 
 Manu, Laws of, 272. 
 
 Marriage, Fixing age for, 174. 
 
 “ Maximum age for, 39. 
 
 “ A mere show, 34. 
 
 Marshman, Mrs. H., 255. 
 Maximum age for marriage, 39. 
 Missions, Protestant, 249. 
 
 “ Roman Catholic, 248, 
 249. 
 
 Missionaries, do they exagger- 
 ate? i6l. 
 
 Modem India, 23. 
 
 Mohammed, Story of, 78-80. 
 
 “ Institutes the Veil, 
 80, 81. 
 
 Mohammed, Wives of, 81. 
 Mohammedan sects, 90. 
 Morals, Double standard of, 144. 
 Muir, Sir W., quoted, 88, 92. 
 Muller, Max, Testimony of, 165, 
 
 166. 
 
 Muralis, The, lOO-lll. 
 
 299 
 
Index 
 
 Muralis, Character of, 104. 
 
 “ Missionaries of, 108. 
 
 “ Vows of, 106. 
 Murdoch, Dr., quoted, 87, 116, 
 117, II9, 132, 291. 
 
 Mutiny, The Indian, 176. 
 Mysore Marriage Bill, The, 231. 
 Mysore, State of, 200. 
 
 N ATiONAL Social Congress, The, 
 203, 204. 
 
 Nautch-girls, The, 126-136. 
 
 “ Antiquity of, 126. 
 •• Character of, 134. 
 “ Earnings of, 1 3 1 . 
 
 “ Education of, 128, 
 129. 
 
 Nautch-girls, Training of, 127, 
 128. 
 
 Nautch-girls at government din- 
 ners, 135. 
 
 Nautch-girls at weddings, 134. 
 
 “ and ballet dancers, 
 145 - 
 
 Nepaul, State of, 200. 
 
 Normal School, The India, 260. 
 
 Obscene books, Use of, 115. 
 
 “ paintings, 116. 
 
 Patriarchal system, The, 47. 
 Phulmani Dasi, 19, 196, 227. 
 Plague of 1898, The, 233. 
 Polygamy allowed by the Koran, 
 61, 93. 
 
 Polygamy, Evils of, 94, 290. 
 
 Prayaschitt, The, 31. 
 
 Preface, 15. 
 
 Prostitution of temple girls, 122. 
 
 Protestant missions, 249. 
 
 Punishments, Cruel, 43. 
 
 Purdah Lady, A, 77. 
 
 Puree, Temple of, 114. 
 
 Purity associations, 137. 
 
 Queen Empress, Memorial to, 
 197, 198. 
 
 Radha Krishna, 154. 
 
 Ragnathdas, Case of, 120. 
 
 Ragunathrio, Mr., quoted, 55, 
 56, 65. 
 
 Rajput infanticide, 170, 171. 
 
 Rakhmabai, Case of, 39, 41, 204. 
 
 Ramabai, Introduction by, 1 1. 
 
 “ quoted, 21, 53, 54, 68, 
 162, 273. 
 
 Ram Mohun Roy, 212, 213, 
 285, 286. 
 
 Ram Mohun Roy visits Eng- 
 land, 214. 
 
 Ranade, Justice, 187, 188. 
 
 Rao Bahadur, Case of, 65-67, 
 69, 227. 
 
 Rao, Mr. K. S., Statement of, 
 170, 171. 
 
 Real Difficulty, The, 270-283. 
 
 Real Remedy, The, 284-295. 
 
 Recent Reforms, 229-246. 
 
 Reformers, Methods of, 243, 244. 
 
 Robertson, Rev. F. W., 291. 
 
 Roman Catholic missions, 248, 
 249. 
 
 300 
 
Index 
 
 Sandhurst, Lord, 232. 
 
 Sarah Tucker College, 263. 
 Schools for Girls, 265, 266. 
 Schwartz, 250. 
 
 Sects, Hindu, 89. 
 
 “ Mohammedan, 90. 
 
 Sen, Keshub Chunder, 2 17-221. 
 Seventy million devils, in. 
 Shastras, The Hindu, 273. 
 Shaving the head, 54, 56-58, 
 
 71-73- 
 
 Since 1891, 229-246. 
 
 Social Conference, Action of, 
 137. 138- 
 
 Social Congress, The, 67, 68, 
 
 245- 
 
 Stead, Mr., 195. 
 
 Stridhan, The widow’s, 63. 
 Suttee Act, The, 135, 190, 193. 
 “ Rite, The, 50, 53. 
 
 “ “ Petition in favor of, 
 
 53- 
 
 Suttee Rite, Ramabai on, 53. 
 Swain, Miss Clara, 207. 
 
 Sword, Married to a, 100, I02- 
 104. 
 
 Tagore, S. N., on child mar- 
 riage, 174. 
 
 Tani, Trial of, 168. 
 
 Temple boys, 107. 
 
 Temple girls. Prostitution of, 
 122. 
 
 Temple worship, 114. 
 
 Temples, Form of, 112. 
 
 “ Uses of, 112-114. 
 
 Thobum, Miss, quoted, 82, 162, 
 263, 264. 
 
 Thomas, The Apostle, 247. 
 Tilak, Mr., 233. 
 
 Times, The, quoted, 131. 
 
 Universities, The Indian, 206. 
 “ Women in, 206. 
 
 Vedas, The, 272. 
 
 Veil, Koran and the, 77. 
 Vevekanand, Swami, 173, 236. 
 Viceroy’s reply to memorial, 
 140-142, 
 
 Victoria proclaimed Empress, 
 176. 
 
 Victoria, Proclamation by, 177. 
 Victoria High School, The, 266. 
 Vidiasgar, I. C., 215-217. 
 
 Warren Hastings, 175. 
 
 W. C. T. U., Memorial of, 196. 
 Wellesley, Lord, 191. 
 
 What government has done, 
 189-210. 
 
 What missionaries have done, 
 247-269. 
 
 What reformers have done, 21 1- 
 228. 
 
 Widows, Dress of, 73. 
 
 “ Number of, 61, 182. 
 Widow’s Stridhan, The, 63. 
 Widow Remarriage Act, 63. 
 Widow remarriages. Number 
 of, 67. 
 
 301 
 
Index 
 
 Widowhood, Bible on, 48, 49, Wilson, Dr., quoted, 150, 155 
 50. 274-277. 
 
 Widowhood, Enforced, 48. 
 
 “ Remedies for, 62. Zenana, The, 36, 76-99, 78. 
 Williams, Sir Monier, 21 1, 212, “ Evils of, 84-87. 
 
 282, 283. Ziegenbalg and Plutschau, 249 
 
 302 
 
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