Sketches of some distinguished Indian women. [microform]

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OP
CALIFORNIA

SKETCHES OF
SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN,

SKETCHES OF SOME DISTINGUISHED

INDIAN WOMEN.

BY

MRS. E. F. CHAPMAN.

WITH A PREFACE BY

THE MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA,

LONDON : W. H. ALLEN & CO., LIMITED.

AND AT CALCUTTA.
1891.

LOAN STACK

LONDON :

PRINTED BY W. H. ALLEN AND CO., LIMITED,
13, WATERLOO PLACE. S.W

PREFACE.

IN her Introduction, Mrs. Chapman expresses some
fear lest people in England should begin to weary
of the subject of Indian women, so much having
been written of late concerning them and their
peculiar trials. But this little book needs no
apology; and I, for one, have never read anything
more interesting or more likely to be useful to the
cause of female education in India than this small
collection of biographies.

No one will read these Sketches of some Distinguished
Indian Women without a feeling of intense sympathy
and admiration for the subject of each one of them ;
or without pride and pleasure in the fact that so
much talent, perseverance, and determination should
be found combined with so much gentleness, and
with so many truly feminine qualities. One might,
perhaps, have feared that women who had had to
break through the hard and fast rules of caste and

429

VI PREFACE.

custom would have lost their more lovable charac-
teristics in the struggle ; but one rises from the
perusal of each one of these biographies with as much
affection for the woman as admiration for the student.

But besides the almost dramatic interest of these
lives, Mrs. Chapman's little volume is full of infor-
mation, and her descriptions of the childhood of her
different " distinguished women," und of the circum-
stances of their families and the religions of their
parents, are not the least admirable part of her work ;
while, in her Introduction, she gives a short and most
instructive account of questions affecting the welfare
of Indian women, and of the various efforts made to
improve their condition.

I am sure this little book will be read with interest
by everyone who takes it up ; while to all those who
have thought of Indian women, or who have worked
for their welfare in any way, it will come as a mes-
sage of hope and encouragement, and, as such, will
give them unmitigated pleasure.

HARRIOT DUFFERIN AND AVA.

CONTENTS.

I. — INTRODUCTION . . . . . . 1

II. — THE PUNDITA EAMABAI ^ARASVATI . . 26

III. — DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE .... 48

IV. — THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR . . 71

V. — TORU DUTT ...... 91

VI. — CORNELIA SORABJI 113

I.

INTRODUCTION.

So much has been written and spoken, during the
last twenty years, on the sad condition of the women
of India that people in England may be supposed to
be fairly well acquainted with the general facts, and
there is perhaps some danger of their becoming
wearied by a too frequent repetition of the story.

Missionaries, philanthropists, educational and
social reformers, have all made the condition of
Indian women their theme, and have painted in
dark and forcible colours the picture of their de-
gradation, their helplessness, their ignorance, the
cruel treatment and dreadful sufferings to which
millions of them are exposed, and the dull, empty,
colourless lives of even the happiest among them.
Happily there is now a brighter side to the picture.
The appeal to English sympathy and interest has
not been in vain, and thanks to the energy, the
courage, and the perseverance of many noble-minded

1

2 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

men and women, this sympathy and interest have
found expression in many well- directed efforts to
extend to the women of India the blessings of
civilization and of education, and to secure for them
at least a share of that liberty and honourable
respect, which we are accustomed to consider as
among the most valuable and incontestable " rights
of women."

As the evils from which Indian women suffer are
very various in character, so are and must be the
efforts to meet and remedy them, and it may be
well to glance briefly at the principal of them.

The first great blow struck in the cause of woman's
welfare was the famous edict issued by Lord William
Bentinck in 1829, after long and bitter opposition
on the part of many members of his Government,
though loyally supported by two or three, whereby
the practice of " suttee " was prohibited throughout
the British provinces, and the aiding or abetting
of it was branded as a crime to be punished by
death.

The practice of suttee, that is, the burning alive
of widows on their husbands' funeral pile, was of
great antiquity in India, although when and how it
was introduced seems to be doubtful. It is certain
that it is not sanctioned either by the Vedas, which
are the most ancient of the Hindu Scriptures, nor by
the Code of Manu, which contains the most precise

INTRODUCTION. 3

and elaborate rules of conduct for all classes of
people, and particularly lays down how a woman is
to live after the death of her husband.

It seems, however, to have been introduced by the
Brahmans for some reason not easy to discover, and
by lapse of time and the force of public opinion, it
gathered the strength which always attaches to an
immemorial custom.

M. Thevenot, a French traveller who visited
India in 1669, found this practice of suttee very
prevalent, and writes thus of it : — " The Indian
widows have a far different fate from that of their
husbands ; they dare not marry again, but are
obliged, if they will not burn themselves, to live in
perpetual widowhood ; but then they live wretchedly,
for they incur the contempt of their family and caste
as being afraid of death." After describing the
ceremonies usually observed at the burning of
widows, the same traveller goes on to say : — " The
women are happy that the Mahometans are become
the masters in the Indies, to deliver them from the
tyranny of the Brahmins, who always desire their
death, because these ladies being never burnt without
all their ornaments of gold and silver about them,
and none but they having power to touch their
ashes, they fail not to pick up all that is precious
among them. However, the Great Mogul and other
Mahometan Princes having ordered their governors

1 *

4 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

to employ all their care in suppressing that abuse
as much as lies in their power, it requires at present
great solicitations and considerable presents for ob-
taining the permission of being burnt. "

Lord W. Bentinck therefore, in prohibiting suttee,
was only carrying out a reform which had pre-
viously been attempted by the Moghul Emperors.
Yet, strange as it may appear, there were many
people at the time (and some good and wise men
among them) who held that, inasmuch as it was a
religious rite, maintained and inculcated by the
Brahmans, even although not sanctioned by their
Scriptures, that the Government had no right to put
a stop to it, the practice being on the same footing
as others, less revolting though scarcely less mis-
chievous, which were by common consent regarded
as beyond the scope of Government interference.
They even predicted that the new law would be
resisted by force, and that it would lead to mutiny
and rebellion. Happily, however, these timid counsels
were over-ruled, and though it was long before the
rite of suttee absolutely disappeared, still its down-
fall dates from that time, and no one would now
dare openly to vindicate the practice, or even to
maintain that it was inculcated by the Hindu re-
ligion.

Whether the lot of the Indian widow has been
much improved by the reform, may at first sight

INTRODUCTION. 5

seem doubtful, for the merciful Government which
has rescued her from a fiery death cannot save her
from a life of oppression and misery. To be a
widow, and more especially a childless or rather
sonless widow, is to be the object not of sympathy
and pity but of universal hatred and aversion. In
the words of one, a Hindu widow herself, " Widow-
hood is throughout India regarded as the punish-
ment for a horrible crime or crimes committed by
the woman in some former existence upon earth. It
is the child widow, or the childless young widow,
upon whom in an especial manner falls the abuse
and hatred of the community, as the greatest cri-
minal upon whom Heaven's judgment has been
pronounced." Again, " A widow is called an ' in-
auspicious thing ' ; if she appear on any occasion of
rejoicing, she will bring ill-luck. If a man starting
on a journey sees a widow on the road, he will
postpone his departure rather than run the risk of
neglecting so evil an omen." The relatives and
neighbours of a young widow's husband are always
ready to call her bad names, and to address her in
abusive language at every opportunity. There is
scarcely a day on which she is not cursed as the
cause of their beloved friend's death. In short, the
young widow's life is rendered intolerable in every
way.

A widow cannot re-marry except at the risk of

6 BOMB DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

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

To meet it, many noble efforts are being made in
various parts of India by the more enlightened of the
natives themselves. The nobles of Eajputana have
formed themselves into a league to put a stop to
child marriages, and in other places strenuous efforts
are being made to induce men of good character and
position to come forward and marry child widows,
and to encourage their re-marriage by every possible
means.

Only quite lately a movement was made by the
barbers in Bombay, who refused any longer to shave
the heads of widows, because, as they said, they
believed it was contrary to the real teaching of their
religion.

Other efforts are being made to give them instruc-
tion, so that they may have some occupation to be-
guile their weary hours of seclusion, or even that
they may be able to earn their own living, and thus

INTRODUCTION . 7

be made independent of their relations, from whose
unkindness they suffer so much. At present, how-
ever, the result produced in this direction has been
very small, and it is only by looking back and
seeing how much has been accomplished for Indian
women on other lines during the last few years that
we can have courage to persevere in the face of the
enormous difficulties still to be overcome. Of the
scheme for helping young high-caste widows, which
has been started by the Pundita Eamabai, we shall
speak hereafter.

The movement for the education of Indian women
was initiated by the missionaries, and to the Kev. H.
Ward, a Baptist missionary, is due the honour of
having first enlisted the sympathy of English-
women in the degraded and neglected state of their
Indian sisters. It was an appeal made by Mr.
Ward in 1821 to the ladies of Liverpool which led to
the embarkation of Miss Cooke, afterwards Mrs.
Wilson, the first lady teacher, and to the formation
of the Society for Promoting Native Female Educa-
tion in the East.

In 1832 eight little schools for girls were esta-
blished in Calcutta, the forerunners of hundreds now
scattered over all parts of the country, where reli-
gious and secular knowledge is imparted to the
children by lady teachers. In course of time other
schools were established by private enterprise on a

SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

non-proselytizing basis, of which the Bethune School
in Calcutta was one of the earliest and the Victoria
High School at Poona one of the most advanced and
successful. So rapid, indeed, has been the develop-
ment of female education in India, that the Indian
universities actually threw open their' degrees to
women before any English university did so. The
University of Madras threw open its degrees to women
in 1876, Calcutta followed in 1878, and it was not
till 1879 that the University of London accorded
them the same privilege.

But although schools for girls are among the most
successful means yet tried for elevating the characters
of Indian women, it must be remembered that they
touch but a very small proportion of the vast number
who require teaching. Among respectable families
no married woman is allowed by custom in most
parts of India to attend school, and as girls are
generally married at eight or nine years of age their
school days are cut short just as they are beginning
to profit by them.

It is for this reason that the employment of lady
visitors to the zenanas forms such an important
part of all schemes for women's education, and
especially of missionary work ; and to these zenana
teachers have been due the first rays of light and
hope brought into many a dark home.

In 1866 Miss Mary Carpenter, after a visit to India,

INTRODUCTION. 9

undertaken chiefly for the purpose of finding out for
herself what was the real condition of the women,
and in what way they could best be helped, came to
the conclusion that nothing was so much needed as a
supply of properly trained women teachers to visit
the zenanas ; and it was chiefly as the result of her
endeavours that the Government Normal Schools
were established, and they have undoubtedly done
much to spread elementary knowledge and civilizing
influences.

It was also, we believe, through the visits of ladies
to the zenanas that English people became aware of
the terrible sufferings to which women were exposed,
and the immense number of lives that were sacrificed
owing to the impossibility of their obtaining proper
medical attendance. The rigid seclusion to which
the higher classes of women are kept, precludes them
from calling in the assistance of medical men, and it
became evident that only through medical women
could their suffering condition be ameliorated.

Here again the missionary societies took the lead,
and prepared the way for other workers, both English
and American. Before long, however, it became
evident that the work of a few individual ladies, or
of one or two missionary societies, valuable as it was,
could not hope to cope successfully with the tremen-
dous need that existed.

In 1885 was established " The National Association

10 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

for supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of
India," which may be said to owe its existence to
the direct initiative of Her Majesty the Queen-
Empress, who personally commended the matter to
the care of the Countess of Dufferin when she,
before her departure for India, took leave of Her
Majesty.

Lady Dufferin, after her arrival in India, lost no
opportunity of studying the direction in which action
could most readily be taken for ameliorating the
condition of native women, and she came to the con-
clusion that the full requirements of the case could
only be met by a bold attempt to arouse the conscience
and the imagination of the public at large, and so to
bind together in one common effort all parts of the
empire and all classes of the community. To this
end the National Association was started, with the
object of the teaching and training in India of women
as doctors, hospital assistants and nurses ; of estab-
lishing dispensaries and cottage hospitals for women
and children ; of instituting female wards in hos-
pitals ; and, where possible, of founding hospitals for
women, and for supplying lady doctors and nurses to
visit women in their own homes.

It has now been working for five years, and has
obtained a large measure of success, not the least
important work that it has achieved, being that it
has enlisted the interest and sympathy of all races,

INTRODUCTION. 11

classes, and creeds throughout India in a common
object, and obtained once and for all a public and
national recognition of the right of women to help and
cure.

The great difficulty in the way of all those who are
anxious to raise the condition of women in India, is
the rigid seclusion in which they live.

In ancient India women seem to have occupied a
far more honourable position in society than that
accorded them in modern times, and they enjoyed a
very considerable degree of liberty. The practice of
immuring them in one particular portion of the
house, and of not allowing them to see any men ex-
cept their nearest relations, seems to have been intro-
duced at the period of the Mahometan invasion, and
was no doubt adopted partly as the means of shielding
them from the conquerors, partly in imitation of the
custom of those conquerors themselves. At the
present time, however, it is the universal custom, at
least among the upper classes, in nearly all parts of
India, and is regarded as the absolute condition of
respectability among married women of all ages.

Centuries of seclusion and of oppression have
taken from them, for the most part3 the very desire
for liberty or of independence of any sort. They
have been taught from their earliest days that a
woman's hope of happiness in this world, or the next,
lies in her implicit obedience to the will of her

12 ' SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

husband or other male relatives. They have been
brought up to consider a life of seclusion as not only
the safest but also the only respectable one, and to
look upon a breach of any of their national customs
as a crime. Even when the men of the family,
having imbibed something of European ideas on the
subject, are willing to allow a measure of freedom to
the women, these latter themselves will not unfre-
quently refuse the proffered boon, the older ones
among them over-riding the inclinations of the
younger, and denouncing in unmeasured terms the
proposed innovation.

We all know, even in England, how great is the
force of old-fashioned prejudice and of received
notions of propriety, and how difficult it is for any-
one, especially for women, to set themselves in oppo-
sition to them. Of late years, indeed, the authority
of Mrs. Grundy has been frequently and successfully
defied, and women can now do and say many things
with impunity which fifty years ago would have
brought upon them social ostracism. Bearing these
facts in mind, we shall be better able to understand
the difficulties that lie in the way of Indian ladies,
who wish to lay aside the restraints with which a
thousand years of unbroken custom has bound their
sex, and to accept the education and the social free-
dom and independence which we are so anxious to
offer them, and we shall be better able to appreciate

INTRODUCTION. 13

the courage and the force of character possessed by
those who have succeeded in carrying such a design
into execution. In the pages that follow will be
found some particulars regarding a few of these
pioneer women, women who are indeed worthy of
all true honour and respect, both from their own
countrywomen and from us who have for so long
enjoyed the advantages they are only just beginning
to taste.

It will no doubt be noticed that most of these
ladies are Christians, and as a consequence far less
trammelled than if they still belonged to the Hindu
religion ; but we should remember that the Pundita
Eamabai had made her stand for freedom before she
accepted Christianity, and that Miss Sorabji had to
contend, if not with domestic opposition, yet with
the full current of popular objection to female
education.

There is one other point to which we wish to
direct the reader's attention, and that is, all these
remarkable women have owed very much to their
parents. In every case, in a greater or less degree,
the work of education and enlightenment has been
begun in the previous generation, and Eamabai, Toru
Dutt, and Cornelia Sorabji have all borne witness to
the debt they owe to their mothers.

May we not find in this fact a real source of en-
couragement and ground of hope ? If the result of

14 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

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

The Indian ladies whose lives are briefly sketched
in the following pages, have been selected as being
more or less typical instances of the results of civili-
zing and educational influences on different races and
classes in society. They do not, however, by any
means exhaust the list of those whose influence may
be reckoned upon as a valuable factor in the cause of
the enlightenment and regeneration of Indian society.
It may, perhaps, be well to mention briefly a few
more names, so as to make it evident how various
and widespread are the influences which are at work ;
and the ultimate result of which, though it may
seem slow, cannot be really doubted by any thought-
ful observer.

Almost all English people who have visited Simla
during the last ten years are more or less acquainted
with the Kunwar Kani Harnam Singh, though as she
and her husband lead a very quiet, retired life only a
few really enjoy the privilege of her friendship. This

INTKODUCTION. 15

lady was born of Christian parents, her father, the
Eev. Golak Nath, being a pastor of the American
Presbyterian Missionary Society. She had, there-
fore, the advantage of a Christian bringing up, and
she was for some years at a large English boarding-
school for girls at the hill station of Musoorie. It is
probably in part owing to this that the Kunwar Eani
is both in speech, in mind, and in manner so
thoroughly English ; partly, too, it is no doubt due
to her birth, for the natives of the Punjab are both
physically and morally of a stronger and more robust
type than the inhabitants of more enervating dis-
tricts, and seem to have more in common with men
of Anglo-Saxon race.

This lady married the Kunwar Eajah Harnain
Singh, a member of the ruling family of Kapur-
thalla, a small principality lying between Lahore
and Umballa. The name or title of " Singh " means
a lion and denotes Sikh origin, the Sikhs being a
warlike race in the Punjab who, about 200 years
ago, under the leadership of a religious fanatic, Guru
Govind, threw off the yoke of the degenerate Maho-
medan rulers and formed themselves into a nation
distinguished for their courage, their martial prowess,
and their fierce fanaticism. Since their final con-
quest by the English, fifty years ago, the Sikhs have
proved themselves as loyal subjects as they were pre-
viously redoubtable foes. They are almost all very

16 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

fine-looking men, and are distinguished for their
manly bearing and courteous demeanour.

When the Eajah of Kapurthalla died some years
ago without children, his brother Harnam Singh
was his nearest relative, and it seemed as though it
were possible that a Christian prince should be
acknowledged as ruler of a native State. It turned
out, however, that the Eajah had availed himself of
a family custom, and had adopted an heir, and as
this child was immediately acknowledged as Eajah
by the Indian Government, the Kunwar Eajah took
his place as his subject, and as the manager of his
landed estates in Oude.

It is on this property, not far from Lucknow, that
Harnam Singh and his wife usually reside during
the cold weather, but in the summer they live at
Simla, where they have a charming house built and
furnished in European style, where they live in
thoroughly English fashion. They have paid several
visits to England, the last one during the Jubilee year,
when they left their two eldest boys in London under
the care of Mr. and Mrs. Gray, of the Church Mis-
sionary Society, intending that they shall go later to
Eton. They did this with the full conviction that
a good English education would be the greatest ad-
vantage they could give their sons, and the Kunwar
Eani spoke with tears in her eyes of the parting with
her children, and of her anxiety about their health,

INTRODUCTION. 17

making one realise that a mother's self-sacrificing
love is the same all the world over.

The Kunwar Eani is a remarkably well read
woman, and quite as able to hold her own in intel-
lectual society as the majority of English women,
while the respect and esteem in which she is held by
all who know her, testify to her high moral qualities
and her charm of mind and manner. Almost all her
relations are Christians, her brother being a mis-
sionary of the American Presbyterian Society, and
one of her sisters is married to a Bengali missionary,
Mr. Chaterji.

In Calcutta there are several native ladies who,
having been well educated themselves, are now
devoting their time and their abilities to helping
their fellow countrywomen.

Mrs. Wheeler is the widow of an English clergyman
and the daughter of the Kev. Dr. Bannerji, formerly
a well-known and esteemed missionary ; she holds
an appointment under Government as an Inspectress
of girls' schools, and her work as such is very
valuable.

Mrs. Chandramukhi Bose, having taken the M.A.
degree in 1884 at the Calcutta University, is now the
Lady Principal of the Bethune Girls' College, where
she herself received her education. This school,
founded about forty years ago by Mr. Drinkwater
Bethune for the education of high-caste Bengali

2

18 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

girls, has done very much for the cause of female
progress, and its pupils have of late distinguished
themselves in many ways.

Mrs. Kadambini Ganguli has taken both the B.A.
and M.B. degrees in Calcutta, and is now in full and
very successful medical practice in that city.

The sad story of Eakhmabai is well known, and
has excited general sympathy and interest in Eng-
land. She was married when she was eleven years
old to a man nine years older than herself, but
remained in her father's house till she was sixteen,
being well and carefully educated by him. On his
death her husband claimed her, but as he was idle,
ignorant, and vicious, she refused to live with him,
on the ground that the marriage having been ar-
ranged before she was of an age to have a voice in
the matter, it could not be considered as legally bind-
ing upon her. The man then brought a suit against
Kakhmabai, which was tried in the High Court in
Bombay, and decided in her favour. This decision
caused great anger and dismay throughout India,
among the party opposed to all reform of the marriage
law. They collected a sum of money, and, deter-
mined to make it a test case, they lodged an appeal,
on the ground that the matter was one which ought
to be settled purely on the grounds of Hindu law and
custom, with which the Government was bound not
to interfere. After a lapse of two years the case was

INTRODUCTION. 19

re-tried, and a decision obtained ordering Kakhmabai
to live with her husband within a month, or go to
prison for six months. Still she refused, and deter-
mined to appeal to the Privy Council in England.
The opposing party had, however, got weary of
litigation, and through the mediation of some friends
a compromise was effected, and the man signed an
agreement that he would not force her to live with
him against her will. Soon after she came to
England, where she still remains, hoping, after a
time, to return to her native country and endeavour
to help other women.

The work of emancipating and educating the
women of India, of breaking down the barriers of
prejudice and social custom by which they are sur-
rounded is, indeed, a vast one ; and time, patience,
and perseverance are needful for its accomplishment.
There are, and must be, many failures and many
disappointments, but on the other hand there are
many encouragements and many proofs that those
for whose benefit these efforts are being made are not
ungrateful.

Were it possible to entertain a doubt on this sub-
ject, it would be dispelled by such a sight as that which
was witnessed in Calcutta in December 1888, when
nearly eight hundred native ladies came together at
Government House, to present to Lady Dufferin an
address signed by over four thousand women in

2 *

20 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

Bengal, expressing their deep regret at her departure
from India, where she had proved herself such a
true friend to them, and their grateful appreciation
of all she had done for them.

Such a sight had never been seen before, and it
was one never to be forgotten. The great throne-
room in Government House was filled from one end
to the other with women of all ages, most of whom
had never in their lives been inside a European
house, while many of them had hardly seen a
European face. To all it was something strangely
new and exciting to find themselves in a crowd.

Old and young were there, dark and fair ; a few
wearing a modified European dress, but the immense
majority attired in native costume. Some in silks
and satins, and cloth of gold, and rich embroideries,
others in brightly coloured cottons, and a few in the
plain white dress and saree that betoken widowhood.
Some coquettish ly drawing their veils over faces of

I rare beauty, others who might with advantage have
made use of veils to hide the ravages of time. Some
startling one by the almost classic simplicity of
their drapery, and by the graceful poise of their
small heads, others proclaiming their oriental cha-
racter by the superabundance of barbaric jewellery
which glittered on their fingers, arms, necks, noses,
4 ears, forehead, and heavily-laden ankles.

Only a small number of them could speak English,

INTRODUCTION. 21

yet all showed themselves ready and willing to con-
verse by signs and smiles where words were wanting.
They were all overflowing with curiosity with regard
to their novel surroundings, as well as animated with
real gratitude to the English lady who, during her
short residence of four years among them, had
initiated and carried out a scheme fraught "with so
much benefit to them and to their children.

Such a gathering as this must do a great deal
towards the breaking down of the wall of seclusion
and exclusiveness with which Indian women are
surrounded, and there can be but little doubt that
more frequent opportunities of social intercourse
with cultivated Englishwomen would prove most
helpful to them. But, apart from all question of
prejudice or custom, the difference of language
proves an insurmountable difficulty in the way of
such intercourse.

Only a very few Indian ladies can speak English,
and very few English ladies, except those actually
engaged in mission work, can speak any of the native
languages. For it must be remembered that al-
though those who have been some time in the country
master sufficient Hindustani to be able to manage
their households, yet this patois is very different from
the Hindustani spoken by educated gentlemen ; and
this, again, is quite distinct from Bengali, Punjabi,
Marathi, and other languages, a knowledge of one or

22 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

other of which, varying with the district, is abso-
lutely necessary for those who wish to converse with
high-caste women in their own homes. This is so
much a recognized fact that all who take up medical
or mission work, are expected and obliged to learn
one or more native language, according to the part
of the country that is to be the scene of their
labours.

An Englishwoman going to reside in France or
Germany, and being anxious to cultivate friendly
relations with the inhabitants of the country, would,
as a matter of course, be prepared to speak the
language, otherwise the projected intercourse must
be of a very restricted nature. There are many
Englishwomen in India who would gladly make
friends with Indian ladies, but when they go to
visit them they find themselves utterly at a loss as
to what to say. Even if they are able to exchange
with them the few preliminary civil sentences which
may be learnt by heart, they are soon obliged to fall
back on smiles and signs for the remainder of the
interview.

This is surely a wrong state of things, and one
which might easily be remedied. It is considered
necessary that a well-educated girl should be able to
speak French, German, and Italian, even though the
probability of her ever residing in those countries
for more than a few weeks is a very remote one.

INTRODUCTION. 24

Yet it never seems to strike parents whose daughters
are fated to spend the best years of their life in
India, that it would be to their advantage to know
something of the languages of the country. The
time and trouble necessary to master thoroughly any
one common Indian dialect would be richly repaid
by the possibilities of friendly social intercourse it
would open out, and even those who may be inclined
to doubt this assertion may, perhaps, be influenced
by the consideration of the larger sphere of useful-
ness which would assuredly be theirs, if they were
thus able to converse in the vernacular.

In the following pages will be found a short
account of two Marathi ladies, two Bengali ladies,
and one Parsi. It is to be regretted that no Maho-
metan lady can be included in the list. There are,
indeed, in some parts of India, notably at Hyder-
abad, some Mahometan ladies who are desirous of
sharing in the educational advantages now being
offered to them, but the Mahometan community as
a whole have been backward in availing themselves
of educational advantages, and are even more con-
servative than the Hindus in their views respecting
women.

A Mahometan gentleman holding a high official
position in Calcutta, was lately asked whether any
of the ladies of his family had learned English. He
replied that they had not, and added that it was not

24 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

thought a good thing by his co-religionists to en-
courage them to learn English, though they were
well instructed in Arabic and could read the Koran.

It is to be hoped, however, that as more liberal
views respecting women gain ground generally in
India, their influence may spread to the Mahometan
section of the community.

It would be impossible to close this brief survey of
the woman question in India without alluding to
the very great sympathy and help shown to Indian
women in America, and by American ladies in India.
American missionaries and lady doctors are working
hard in India itself, and the United States have
become a second home to more than one brave
Indian woman.

It was in America that Anandibai Joshee received
her medical education, as well as the generous wel-
come and sympathy which enabled her to go through
it. It was in America that the Pundita Eamabai
found the help she so sorely needed to start her
home for young widows, and it is to two American
writers that the public in general is indebted for all
they know about these two ladies. Eamabai's work
on The High-caste Hindu Widow was written and
published in America, and prefaced with an earnest
and touching appeal by Dr. Kachel Bodley, who told
the Pundita's story in a way to touch all hearts.

Mrs. Joshee's life has been written by Mrs. Ball,

INTRODUCTION. 25

and is published by Triibner. It should be read
by all who care to know as much as possible of the
story of this brave woman.

Still more recently, the United Kingdom Branch of
the National Association for Supplying Medical Aid
to the Women of India, which has hardly as yet re-
ceived the support it is entitled to expect in England,
has received a generous gift of £100 from a gentle-
man in New York ; only one among many proofs of
the genuine interest taken by Americans in the cause
of Indian female welfare.

Surely these things should stir up the hearts of
English men and women to emulate the generosity
shown on the other side of the Atlantic, towards
those who have so much greater claims on us, and
are bound to us by so many ties of duty and of
common interest.

26 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

II.

THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SARAS-
VATI.

IN spite of all the attacks that have been made upon
it from time to time, by Buddhism, by Mahometan-
ism, and by Christianity, in spite of the under-
mining influences of education and of civilization,
Hinduism still reigns supreme over the minds of
millions of the people of India.

The old superstitions still bear sway, and the old
ceremonies and institutions are maintained in much
the same form as that in which they were practised
a thousand years ago. Not the least remarkable of
these are the annual pilgrimages to the banks of the
sacred rivers, such as the Ganges, the Nerbudda, and
the Godavery, or to some particular temple or shrine
of more than ordinary sanctity. To these holy
places flock hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from
all parts of the country. The rajahs and rich men
arrive in their carnages or on gorgeously caparisoned

THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SABASVATI. 27

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

Many of the pilgrims travel hundreds of miles to
the appointed spot, and meet there others who have
done the same ; and the occasion is often taken
advantage of by a Hindu father, to arrange that
which is ever uppermost in his thoughts, namely,
the marriage of his daughters. Although' it is
nowhere so stated in the Hindu Scriptures, it is a
popular belief that a woman cannot obtain salvation
unless she has been married. It is considered a sin
and a shame for a father to have marriageable
daughters on his hands, and it is therefore hardly
to be wondered at that parents are not very difficult
to please in the matter of suitors, and jump eagerly
at any opportunity of disposing of their daughters.

Once upon a time, that is, about fifty years ago, a
Hindu father set out upon one of these pilgrimages,
taking with him his wife and his two little girls, aged
respectively seven and nine. In the course of their

28 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

journey they halted for a day or two, to rest, in a
town on the banks of the Godavery. In .the early
morning the father went down to bathe in the sacred
river, and while he was there he perceived another
pilgrim who came down to perform the same duty.
After the conclusion of their ablutions, and of the
devotions which followed, the two men entered into
conversation.

The father inquired of the stranger, who was
a striking-looking man, who he was and whence he
came. Having learned that he was a Brahman, of
a very high class, and that he was a widower, he
without any further preliminaries offered him his
daughter in marriage. The offer was accepted, and
the very next day the marriage ceremonies were
performed, and the little girl of nine years old was
handed over to her husband, and departed with him
to his distant home, never seeing her parents again.
Happily for the child bride, she had fallen into good
hands. Her husband was a Brahman pundit,
Ananta Shastri by name, a man of good family, of
high character and of great learning, and what was
more remarkable, he was a man who believed in
women, and held the opinion that they ought to be
allowed to share with men in some at least of the
advantages of education, and to cultivate their intel-
lects and their talents. Such a doctrine was totally
opposed to the received tenets of the Hindus, and

THE PUNDITA BAMABAI SABASVATI. 29

when Ananta Shastri tried to put it into practice by
attempting to educate his first wife, his other female
relations interfered and succeeded in t thwarting
him.

He was, however, determined to try the experi-
ment again with his second wife, and as soon as he
reached his home, which was in the Mangalore
district in Western India, he set to work to teach
Lakshmibai Sanskrit. Again his mother and the
other members of his family raised their voices in
protest against this breach of time-honoured custom,
but the pundit was resolved not to be baffled this
time.

He broke up his home, and taking his child wife
with him, he journeyed away far into the jungle.
There, in the middle of the forests which clothe the
slopes of the Western Ghauts, near the fountain
head of a sacred river, he took up his abode. A rude
dwelling of branches and mats was soon constructed,
and here in the forest solitudes, with the roar of the
tiger and the howling of the hyaena breaking the
silence of night, Ananta Shastri made his home, and
devoted himself to the education of his wife. Day
by day he taught her to read Sanskrit, the language
in which the sacred books of the Hindus are written,
and then as her intelligence developed he opened out
to her the stores of Hindu poetry and philosophy ;
but not of religion. The sentences from the Code of

80 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

Maim are considered too sacred for women to utter,
and even Ananta Shastri, with all his liberal views,
could not go so far as to allow his wife to peruse the
sacred texts.

As the years went on Lakshmibai became the
mother of a son and two daughters, and shared with
her husband the task of educating them. Although,
as we have seen, Ananta Shastri held far more
advanced views than the majority of his countrymen
with regard to women, he was still an orthodox
Hindu, and well content to comply with the social
customs of his race. Accordingly, when his elder
daughter, though still a mere child, was sought in
marriage for a boy very little her senior, he con-
sented, on condition that the boy bridegroom should
be kept with him to be educated. To this the parents
agreed, but no sooner were the marriage ceremonies
concluded than they forgot their promise and took
the boy back with them to their own home, where he
grew up not only in ignorance but in vice and
brutality as well. When the girl had developed into
a beautiful and intelligent woman, the man returned
to claim her as his wife. She refused to go with him
and maintained her opposition till the case had been
taken into court, and a verdict obtained, which, in
accordance with the law of the country, condemned
her to live with her husband. Sad, indeed, might have
been her fate, tied for life to a man totally unworthy

THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SABASVATI. 31

of her, whom she could neither love nor esteem ; but
from this she was saved by an early death.

In the meantime the younger daughter, Eamabai,
born in 1858, was growing up, and her education
devolved chiefly upon her mother. How well that
mother performed her task may be guessed when we
find her daughter, now learned in the lore both of the
East and West, looking back to the lessons of her
childhood, and recalling in reverent affection the
mother " whose sweet influence and able instruction,
have been the light and guide of my life."

But now a time of sorrow came for this happy
little family ; their hospitality to the students and
pilgrims who had visited them in their jungle home
had exhausted their small means and involved them
in heavy debt, to pay which they were obliged to sell
their land and to wander forth, homeless, on a never-
ceasing pilgrimage.

For seven long years they wandered from one holy
place to another, the learned Brahman holding forth
to the pilgrims who gathered round him, and obtain-
ing from their offerings a scanty subsistence for him-
self and his family. Then he became totally blind,
and at last he died, his devoted wife following him
within a very few weeks.

Kamabai was sixteen at the time of her parents'
death, and under their able instruction she had
already developed into what was considered to be,

32 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

for a woman, " a prodigy of erudition." She was
thoroughly conversant with Sanskrit, and learned in
all the sacred books of the Hindus. Besides this,
she knew Marathi, which was the language of her
father's people, as well as Kanarese, Hindustani, and
Bengali, acquired colloquially during their travels.
For her sake her parents had defied the tyranny of
custom, and had allowed her to remain unmarried.
Left alone in the world with her brother, these two
continued to travel. They made their way as pil-
grims, often in want of the common necessaries of
life, from one end of India to the other, and wher-
ever they went they advocated the cause of female
education, maintaining that all women should, before
their marriage, be taught Sanskrit, and be able to
read and write in their own language, whatever it
might be. At last they came to Calcutta, where the
young lady lecturer attracted a great deal of interest
and attention, and the fame of her learning spread
rapidly through the city. The pundits or learned
men of Calcutta could scarcely believe the reports
that reached them, and they summoned Kamabai to
appear before them. She did so, and underwent a
long and searching examination, passing with high
honours, and receiving in recognition of her merit
the distinguished title of Sarasvati.

But just when she seemed to have reached the
Apinnacle of earthly happiness and success, a crushing

THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SABASVATI. 33

sorrow came to her, in the death of her beloved
brother, her only near relative. As he lay dying his
thoughts were all for her, and he was grieved and
troubled to think how unprotected she would be
when he was gone. Most English brothers would
have felt the same under similar circumstances ; but
for a Hindu it must indeed have seemed terrible to
think of leaving a young unmarried sister alone, and
almost friendless, in the country where women are
entirely dependent upon their male relations. Hap-
pily, however, Eamabai was not left long unprotected ;
six months after her brother's death she married an
educated Bengali gentleman named Bipin Bihari
Medhavi. Like herself, he had thrown aside the old
Hindu beliefs, without having embraced the purer
truths of Christianity. This is the case with a very
large proportion of the educated natives of India,
especially among the Hindus. As they learn more
and more, they get to see the folly, the absurdity,
and the falseness of their old religion, and they
become ashamed of the senseless, degrading teach-
ing of the Brahmans. But as their education is
purely secular there is nothing in it to lead them to
adopt Christianity, and they drift either into a
cloudy, undefined Theism, or into avowed and abso-
lute unbelief. The former is, perhaps, the most
common, and it seems to have been the state of mind
of Eamabai and her husband. They believed in

3

34 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

God as the Creator and Euler of the Universe, and
they even believed that He cared for them, and could
help and guide them. When grief came, they bowed
in humble resignation to His Almighty will, and they
thanked Him reverently for all their happiness, for
both joy and sorrow came to them in their married
life. First a little daughter was born to them, and
instead of repining and weeping, as an orthodox
Hindu mother would do, that the child was a girl
and not a boy, Kamabai rejoiced and called her baby
" Manorama," meaning " Hearts-joy." Only a few
months later came the sorrow, when the husband
was taken ill with cholera and died within a few
hours.

Once more was Eamabai left unprotected to face
the world, and this time in the condition of all others
which is a sad one for a Hindu woman, that of a son-
less widow. To add to her desolation and loneliness,
she had committed the unpardonable crime of marry-
ing out of her own caste, and thereby incurred the
wrath and contempt of all her relations and friends.
Her husband had been of an inferior caste to her-
self, but it was the fact they were not of the same
caste which constituted their marriage a crime, and
caused them to be shunned by all their belongings.
The hardness and coldness of their relations had
been hard enough to bear when they had their
mutual love and help tp sustain them, but now

THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SARASVATI. 35

that Eamabai was a lone widow, it added a fresh drop
of bitterness to her cup of sorrow. To this time of
heavy trial she thus refers in a letter to an American
friend : —

" My husband being of low caste, my marriage
was altogether against the country's customs, and
we were despised and shunned by all our most inti-
mate friends and relations. So much was this the
case that my husband's brother would not write to
him, for fear of losing caste. Under such circum-
stances we had no intercourse with many, and were
too proud to ask any favours. I therefore resolved to
do what I could to take care of myself and my baby,
independent of all friends and relatives. I made
this promise to my dear husband before he left
me."

Only one woman was brave enough to hold out a
helping hand to the lonely outcast, or to send her a
message of sympathy. This was a kinswoman of
her own, Anandibai Joshee, then living with her
husband at Serampore, not far from Calcutta. She
invited Ramabai, whom she had never yet met, to go
and stay with her ; but the generous offer was proudly,
though gratefully, declined. Ramabai' s brave heart
did not fail her, and she once more resumed her
former role of lecturer, urging more than ever the
emancipation of the women of her race from the
degraded condition into which they had fallen, and

3 *

36 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

which she demonstrated, by quotations from the Hindu
Scriptures, to be contrary to the real teaching of their
religion. Leaving Calcutta, she lectured in different
parts of the country, but it was in the Bombay
Presidency and among the people of her own race
that she found the readiest response to her efforts ;
and here she toiled hard, going from city to city, and
stirring up the hearts of the people by her eloquence
and her earnestness. In Poonah she founded a
society called the Arya Mahila Somaj, having for its
object the promotion of women's education and the
discouragement of child marriage. In 1881 she gave
most valuable evidence before the Education Commis-
sion, presided over by Dr., now Sir, W. Hunter, lay-
ing particular stress on the evils resulting from early
marriages, and of the need that existed for supplying
medical aid to women.

But while thus working hard for others, Kamabai
was beginning to feel the need of further help and
guidance for herself. Like others of her race, her
longing eyes turned to England, believing that there
alone she could find the instruction and the assistance
she wanted. Yet it was some time before she could
gather up sufficient courage to leave her native land
and all her friends, and cross the sea, the " black
water " of which the Hindus have a religious horror.
At last, in the summer of 1883, accompanied by her
child and by one friend, she took this great step,

THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SARASVATI. 37

which was to prove, in more ways than one, the
turning-point in her life's history.

In the Home of the Sisters of St. Mary at Wan-
tage, the Hindu widow found a warm and loving
welcome, as well as simple, earnest instruction in the
Christian faith. For some time before leaving India
Bamabai had been contemplating the possibility of
embracing Christianity. As we have already stated,
she had long abandoned orthodox Hinduism, and
found refuge in a vague form of Theism, which, how-
ever, failed to satisfy either her heart or her intellect.
While living in Calcutta she received from Baboo
Keshub Chunder Sen, the leader of the sect of the
Brahmo-Somaj, a copy of one of his books, which
consisted of moral precepts drawn from the sacred
books of many religions. The larger number of these
extracts were from the New Testament, and their
lofty moral tone attracted Eamabai's attention. She
then studied the Bible for herself, first in Sanskrit
and then in English, and by degrees she became con-
vinced of the truth of the Gospel, and after four
years of anxious thought and consideration she was
baptized at Wantage, in September 1883, together
with her little girl.

She then set to work diligently to perfect herself
in English, and when sufficiently proficient in it she
went to the Ladies' College at Cheltenham, where
she acted as Professor of Sanskrit, at the same

38 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

time studying mathematics, English literature, and
natural science. Here she had educational advan-
tages of the highest order, by which she did not fail
to profit to the. fullest extent, as well as by the daily
intercourse with noble and highly-cultivated Christian
women, whose sympathy and wise help she found
invaluable. She remained at Cheltenham College
from 1884 to 1886, and it was then her intention to
return to India at once, and if she could obtain an
educational appointment under Government, which
it seemed almost certain she would do, to devote
herself to imparting to her countrywomen some of
the knowledge she had gained in England.

Before, however, she could complete her college
course, a different direction was given to her plans by
an invitation which she received from America to go
there in order to be present on the occasion of her
cousin, Mrs. Anandibai Joshee, taking her degree in
medicine at Philadelphia. It was this same cousin
who had given her such a friendly invitation to go to
her at Serampore nearly five years before, and
Kamabai felt a longing now to return her kindness
by showing her interest in her success. She also
had for some time had a great desire to visit America,
but, on the other hand, she felt great reluctance in
relinquishing her studies, and in giving up her plans
for a speedy return to India.

It seemed to her, however, that the invitation to

THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SAEASVATI. 39

America was a call from God, and she believed that
in thus taking a long voyage in order to show her
sympathy with her cousin, she would be, in truth,
acting for the welfare of her countrywomen at large.
She might, perhaps, have echoed the words of the
poet Wordsworth —

Stepping westward seems to be
A sort of heavenly destiny.

At any rate, she felt it her duty to go ; though, when
leaving England, she fully intended to return after a
few months and to resume her studies.

Once in the New World, however, the attraction
which it seems to have so strongly for the oldest
races of the world, began to work upon her. Ameri»
can manners and society, American institutions, and
still more American schools, interested her greatly.
New ways of helping her countrywomen presented
themselves to her mind, and the Kindergarten system,
in which the training of the hand was combined with
that of the head, struck her as peculiarly suited to
the wants of Indian women.

A correspondent of a Chicago paper, who after the
manner of the country " interviewed " Pundit a
Kamabai, inquired of her the reason why she devoted
so much time to the study of the Kindergarten
system in Philadelphia. Her reply was as follows :
" I wish all the educators would understand Froebel
as I do. I see in his system the true means of re-

40 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

forming the old ideas of religious and secular educa-
tion. In the first place, Froebel's system enables a
child to think ; all his senses are trained by it, and
this is just what education means to do. In the
second place, an intelligent thinker will not accept or
submit to any belief without taking time to think
whether it is profitable, or whether it is true. Truth
is the spirit of Froebel's teaching, and I think if the
Kindergarten system were introduced into India, in
secular and religious schools, it would give to the
people not only an advanced mode of thinking, but
would also dispel the illusion of many superstitious
beliefs, the wrong ideas that now keep women and
children in subjection. My idea is to reach the
minds of the mothers. You know that nothing will
attract the mother's attention so strongly as the wel-
fare of her children, and if there are some women in
our country, as I know they are to be found every-
where, who are opposed to their own progress and
education, the Kindergarten system, when presented
to them in its true light, will convince them that the
welfare of their children depends mostly upon them-
selves, and if they are not as intelligent and judicious
in training as they are in loving, they will do more
harm than good."

With the enthusiasm and thoroughness charac-
teristic of her nature, Kamabai was not content with
studying the Kindergarten system from the outside ;

THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI. 41

in September 1886 she enrolled herself as a pupil in
a training school for Kindergarten teachers, and lost
no time in finding out how the various toys, or
" gifts " as they are called, could best be adapted to
Indian ideas. She was much struck by the supe-
riority of the books provided in America, both for the
instruction and the amusement of children. In
England she had paid very little attention to the
subject, but in Philadelphia she found that even the
school-books were printed on excellent paper, in beau-
tiful type, and adorned with illustrations, each of
which was in its own way a triumph of art. When
she saw these fascinating little books, and compared
them mentally with the books supplied to Indian
school- children, which are almost all, and more espe-
cially those in the vernacular, badly printed on thin
discoloured paper, and destitute of any embellish-
ment, she could not help feeling that even in a small
matter like this her own people were at a great
disadvantage. But this did not discourage her.
She simply set to work to prepare a series of primers
and lesson-books in Marathi, and to collect illustra-
tions for them, so that they might be put into print
as soon as she landed in Bombay, for they could not
be printed in America, owing to the absence of
Marathi type.

By the end of the year 1887 Kamabai's plans and
ideas had taken a definite shape. She had come to

42 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

the conclusion that she could best help her country-
women, not by taking up the higher education in
high schools and colleges, but by founding native
schools, where the poorest, the most helpless, and
the most oppressed members of society, the young
widows, could find a home and learn how to gain a
respectable livelihood independent of their families.
Herself a high- caste widow, she determined to de-
vote her life, her boundless energy, and her rare
intellectual gifts to the task of educating and en-
lightening other high-caste Hindu widows. And
this she determined to do apart from all questions
of religion.

Although a true Christian herself, she felt con-
vinced that no good, but rather harm, would
ensue from making the acceptance of Christianity
by the young widows a condition of their admis-
sion to the Home she had determined to esta-
blish. From her own personal experience, she felt
sure that many suffering and down-trodden Hindu
widows, the very ones perhaps who most needed her
help, would not come to such a home if they were
obliged to give up their own religious customs or
were compelled to study the Bible.

Missionary homes and schools already existed for
those who would use them ; but Eamabai's aim was
to provide a refuge for those who would not, for
such orthodox women as, unable to bear the cruel

THE PUNDITA BAMABAI SAKASVATI. 43

hardships of a widow's lot, would commit suicide by
drowning themselves in the sacred rivers, rather than
lose their caste by putting themselves under the
care of people who would teach them a strange re-
ligion and try to convert them.

The Pundita's idea was to open homes, where
young widows of good family could take refuge with-
out losing their caste or being disturbed in their
religious belief, and where they might have entire
freedom of action with regard to caste rules, such as
cooking their food, &c. In these homes she pro-
posed to train them, according to their several tastes
and capacity, in such branches of work as might
enable them in time to earn a respectable livelihood.

Her proposal met with considerable opposition,
many good people thinking she was making a mistake
in attempting to work such an institution on non-
missionary lines ; but she had fully considered the
question, and had made up her mind on the subject.

" I admire greatly missionary work," she wrote to /
the editor of the New York Evangelist, "but that
does not make me shut my eyes to the many wants
of my sisters that cannot always be met by mis-
sionaries. . . . Although we cannot enforce the
study of religion in our school-home for widows, we
shall encourage them, if they choose, to be ac-
quainted with the teaching of Christ. Christian
literature will be placed in our school library ; be-

44 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

sides, each pupil will have a copy of the Bible given
her, with a request to read it for herself. And then
we must leave the work of their conversion to the
Holy Spirit."

The next step was to collect the necessary funds
to start such a home. With this object a society,
called the "Kamabai Association," was started in
Boston in December 1887, and continues to work up
to the present time, all its efforts being devoted to
further the cause of Hindu child widows. In -order
to make the work better known, and to enlist public
sympathy by letting people really understand the
condition of Indian women, Kamabai wrote The High-
Caste Hindu Woman, a book which could hardly fail
to produce a deep impression, or to awaken a wide-
spread interest in her work. Here for the first time
was recorded, in earnest but temperate language, the
complete story of a Hindu woman's life — her posi-
tion as defined by religion and by custom, her joys,
her sorrows, and her needs. From her very birth a
woman, we are told, is exposed to unkindness, to
contempt, and to cruelty. So unwelcome is a
daughter in most families, that it is not surprising
that means of removing them are gladly seized, and
that the practice of female infanticide, although
sternly prohibited by law, yet flourishes in secret in
some parts of the country. To quote the words of
the Pundita herself, " The census of 1870 revealed

. THE PUNDITA BAMABAI SARASVATI. 45

the curious fact that three hundred children were
stolen in one year by wolves from the city of Um-:
ritzur, all the children being girls, and this under the
very nose of the English Government." /

" Childhood is the heyday of a Hindu woman's
life," but as almost all girls are married before they
are twelve, these happy days of freedom are few in
number. With her marriage begins a life of hard-
ships, and oppression at the hands of her mother-in-
law and other female relations of her husband. If
she has sons there is some hope of happiness for
her; but if not, her life is made miserable by the
angry reproaches of her husband, and the knowledge
that he can, if he chooses, discard her and take an-
other wife. Then, if she becomes a widow her cup of
bitterness is full.

Much of all this, indeed, was known before Eama-
bai wrote her book, but it had never been stated so
clearly, nor with such authoritative knowledge of the
whole subject ; and there was in some people's minds
a tendency to regard the accounts given by mis-
sionaries and others as highly coloured and exag-
gerated. The matter of this book is highly valuable,
but it is not less remarkable from its style ; the
strong, nervous English and the calm, masterly treat-
ment of the subject would do credit to a highly- trained
and experienced English author ; and a perusal of it
must add to the respect felt for the writer, as well as

46 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

to the sympathy felt for those whose cause she
advocates so powerfully.

During the two years that Eamabai spent in
America, she devoted her time and energy without
ceasing -to the work of helping her fellow-country-
women. She visited different parts of the States, and
spoke frequently at public meetings ; and wherever
she went her eloquence attracted a crowd of lis-
teners, and her courage and perseverance commanded
universal respect. A lady who was present at one
of her meetings, wrote thus of her: — "Eamabai is
strikingly beautiful ; her face is a clear-cut oval ;
her eyes, large and dark, glow with feeling. She is
a brunette, but her cheeks are full of colour. Her
white widow's saree is drawn closely over her head
and fastened under her chin."

Having at last collected sixty thousand rupees, a
little more than four thousand pounds sterling,
Ramabai considered she had sufficient to make a,
beginning. She therefore left America, and reached
Bombay on the 1st of February 1889. She lost no
time in setting to work, and on the llth of March
opened her first home for widows, which she called
Shardu Sadan — the "Home of Learning."* She is

* This has since been removed to Poona, and at the present time
there are sixteen young widows in residence, mostly Brahmans,
and an American lady has joined the Pundita, and is assisting her in
the work.

THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SABASVATI. 47

working hard, but it is up-hill work, and there are
very many difficulties and discouragements to be
faced. She has a large circle of sympathizers and
friends; but many even of her well-wishers think that
she must fail, and point to the small number of
widows whom she has as yet induced to come to
her as a proof of the truth of their predictions.

It may, indeed, be so, though it is early days to
talk of failure ; but even if this particular effort
should fail, it will, without doubt, lead to others, and
in the end success must be attained. It may not,
perhaps, be granted to Kamabai to see the fruits of
her labour in this world, but fruit there will assuredly
be in due time, and the day will come when hundreds
and thousands of Hindu women shall learn with
good cause to bless her name.

48 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

III.

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE.

IN the story of the Pundita Kamabai, reference
has been made more than once to her kinswoman
Anandibai Joshee, between whom and herself there
existed a tie stronger even than that of blood, the
bond of a common purpose and a common aim, that
aim and purpose being nothing less than the amelio-
ration of the condition of Indian women, and their
emancipation from the state of bondage to which an
absurd tradition had condemned them.

Both these women belong to the Mahratta race,
which has played such a remarkable part in Indian
history. Lord Macaulay, in his essay on Clive and
Warren Hastings, thus refers to the rise of the Mah-
ratta power : —

" The highlands which border on the western sea-
coast of India, poured forth a formidable race, a race
which was long the terror of every native power, and

DE. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 49

which, after many desperate and doubtful struggles,
yielded only to the fortune and genius of England.

" The original seat of that singular people was
the wild range of hills which runs along the western
coast of India. In the reign of Arungzebe the in-
bitants of those regions, led by the great Sevajee,
began to descend on the possessions of their wealthier
and less warlike neighbours. The energy, ferocity,
and cunning of the Mahrattas soon made them the
most conspicuous among the new powers which were
generated by the corruption of the decaying (Moghul)
monarchy. At first they were only robbers. They
soon rose to the dignity of conquerors. Half the
provinces of the empire were turned into Mahratta
principalities."

The rapid successes of the Mahrattas were due to
their warlike character, to their pluck and hardi-
hood, all of which contrasted strangely with the in-
dolence and effeminacy of the inhabitants of the
plains. Although considerably modified by time and
circumstances, their descendants still retain most of
these characteristics, which are shared in some degree
by the women of the race. Amongst the Mahrattas,
women have always been treated with more respect,
and are allowed a greater degree of freedom than is
the case among most other Indian races, and as
a consequence they are remarkable for their courage,
their perseverance, and their strength of character.

4

50 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

Among the Mahratta freebooters who distin-
guished themselves in the earlier wars of their
people, was one of the name of Joshee, who, as a
reward for his services, received from his chief the
grant of a large tract of land and several villages in
the neighbourhood of Poonah, and here his descen-
dants continue to reside to the present day.

It was in the old palace at Poonah, which had
been the home of many generations of Joshees, that
the subject of the present sketch was born in March
1865. Her father, Gunpatrao Amritaswar Joshee,
was a rich landowner of Kalyan, a town lying a little
to the north of Bombay, and was a man looked up to
and respected by all his high-caste neighbours. He
had married a kinswoman of his own, G-ungabai
Joshee, whose father and uncle lived in Poonah.
The uncle was a distinguished physician, and it was
in order to have the benefit of his advice that Gunga-
bai Joshee had returned to her old home. Here her
little daughter was born, and here she was named
Jamuna, or Jumna, after the sacred river, a name
which means the " daughter of the sun."

Her childhood passed happily enough between her
grandfather's house at Poonah and her father's house
at Kalyan, and in both she was a great favourite,
showing even in her earliest days a bright and intel-
ligent disposition. Her father was peculiarly devoted
to her, and had her constantly with him. He was

DB. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 51

one of the large class of men in India who, though
they do not care to break openly with their national
religious customs, yet have ceased to have any real
belief in the teaching of Brahmanism, and no doubt
it was from him that Jamuna learnt, while still quite
young, to realise the absurdity and falseness of the
worship of idols. She was of an imaginative tem-
perament, and both she and all her family appear
to have been greatly impressed by a dream she had
as a child, and in which, as she believed, her
famous Mahratta ancestor appeared to her, and told
her that she alone of all his descendants had truly
inherited his spirit and his talents, and that she
was destined to achieve some great thing.

When she was but five years old, the family party
was increased by a young man, another member of
the Joshee clan, named Gopal Vinyak Joshee, whose
coming was destined to have a great influence upon
her life. He was a clerk in the Government Post
Office Department, and a fairly educated man. He
took a great fancy to Jamuna, and finding her most
anxious to learn, he undertook to teach her Sanskrit,
and continued to give her lessons for three years.

At the end of that time Gopal was transferred to
the post office at Alibag, and his little pupil's grief at
the prospective interruption to her studies knew no
bounds. She fancied that she would never have any
further opportunities of learning, and her thirst for

4 *

52 80ME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

knowledge was insatiable. Her mother had never
approved of her studies, and was not at all sorry that
they should be brought to a conclusion ; in fact, as
she was eight years old, and according to the national
custom of a marriageable age, she thought it was
time to arrange a match for her.

In order to enter at all into the feelings of the
little Jamuna, we must remember that in India
women develop, both physically and mentally, earlier
than they do in Europe. A girl of eight or nine
is as much advanced intellectually as an English
girl of twelve or fourteen, and at thirty she is already
considered an old woman. This little girl, who with
us would still have been in the nursery and only
just able to read and write fairly, was in India looked
upon as old enough to become a wife, and with her
marriage all prospect of any further education would
have come to an end.

We can hardly be surprised that one who had
already shown such enthusiasm for study, should
have felt dismayed at the idea of never being able
to learn any more, and we can believe how delighted
she must have been when her kind old grandmother
smoothed her path for her by offering to go and live
at Alibag, and to take Jamuna with her and make a
home for her, so that she might continue her Sanskrit
studies.

Thus the matter was arranged ; though how all the

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 53

social difficulties were got over is not quite clear.
According to some accounts Jamuna was betrothed
to Gopal before leaving her father's house, and
this would, of course, have made things easy for her ;
at any rate, whether there was any formal ceremony
or not, it is evident that it was understood that they
should eventually be married, and, owing to the
grandmother's having to leave Alibag the following
year, their marriage actually took place in March
1874, the day that the bride completed her ninth
year.

According to Mahratta custom, Jamuna changed
her name at her marriage, and was known hence-
forward as Anandibai, meaning " Joy of my heart."
The wedding festivities lasted several days, and
were similar to those usual among high-caste
families; there were feastings, fireworks, illumina-
tions, and a regular " tamasha," as the natives call
it. Gunpatrao Joshee was, as we have already said,
very fond of his daughter, and very proud of her,
and he also believed firmly in the intimation of
her future achievements given her in the dream.
He therefore loaded her with presents, quantities
of beautiful clothes, of silk, muslin, and embroideries
such as are worn by the richest Indian ladies, as well
as many ornaments, many of which were heirlooms
in his family, and were of great value. Hindu
women of all classes are very fond of ornaments, and

54 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

if they are too poor to buy gold ones they content
themselves with silver ones, or even with imitation
things made of gilt wire and glass, while in some
parts of the country bangles of glass or brass are
always worn by women of the lower classes.
The ornaments of a high-caste and wealthy lady are
very numerous and often of great beauty, both in
design and workmanship ; bangles and anklets, head
ornaments and armlets, nose-rings and ear-rings, as
well as rings for the fingers and toes, are indispensa-
ble, and their value, when made of pure gold and set
with stones, is often prodigious. Those given by a
man to his daughter on her marriage form, in fact,
the principal part of her dowry.

After their marriage the young couple' moved to
Cutch, where Gopal had been appointed postmaster.
In her new home Anandibai occupied herself in her
household duties, as well as continuing her studies
under her husband's superintendence, but she
greatly missed the affection and sympathy of her
own family, especially as at Cutch there seems to
have been no one with whom she could make
friends, or from whom she could look for sympathy
and help. The town and district of Cutch had long
had a bad name as one of the most backward and
uncivilized places in British territories, and the
inhabitants were for the most part a low, ignorant
set of people. Female infanticide was practised to

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 55

such an extent in this town that at the time when
the Joshees went to dutch there were only thirty
native-born women, in a population of nearly twelve
thousand; all the rest of the women came from other
places, and were sunk in indolence and vice.

Of this period of her life Anandibai always spoke
sadly, as having been very unhappy, and she was
greatly relieved when her husband was at last
transferred to Bombay.

In 1878 her only child was born, but it lived only
a few days, though the sorrowing mother was
convinced that it might have been saved had it been
possible for her to obtain proper medical advice, and
from this time her thoughts were turned to the need
for women doctors in India, and she conceived the
idea of studying medicine herself, with the purpose of
devoting her life and energies to alleviating the
sufferings of her fellow-countrywomen.

Her husband offered no opposition to her plans,
but, on the contrary, did his best to further them,
and agreed with her that, if possible, they should
both go to America, where she would have the
best opportunities of obtaining a thorough medical
education.

With this object in view, Gopal Vinyak Joshee
addressed a letter to the editor of a missionary paper
in America, asking for some assistance to enable him
and his wife to proceed thither. Apparently his

56 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

letter did not produce a very favourable impression
upon his correspondent, who, having seen a good
deal of young Hindu students in America, felt it his
duty to discourage others from going there, and he
refused the assistance for which Gopal had asked.
It happened, however, that a copy of the magazine
in which this correspondence appeared, fell acci-
dentally into the hands of Mrs. Carpenter, of Eoselle,
whose sympathies were stirred by the idea of the
young Indian woman's craving for education, and
she forthwith entered into correspondence with
Anandibai. The latter, meanwhile, had been making
the best of the few opportunities that came in her
way to acquire fresh knowledge. In Bombay she
attended a school established by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel, and she always spoke
•with affectionate regard of the lady teachers, and of
the enthusiasm which had led them to come out to
India and devote themselves to the work of teaching.
She complained greatly of the system pursued in
this school, where all the scholars were forced to
read the Bible on threat of expulsion, which she
considered an unwarrantable interference with the
rights of conscience. In consequence, she left the
school for a time, but was persuaded by her hus-
band to return, as he argued that the teaching she
obtained there was too valuable to be refused on
any but the most serious grounds. She frequently,

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 57

in after years, referred to her experiences at the
school, and maintained that the tone adopted by the
missionaries towards the religion of their pupils was
far too contemptuous, and really wanting in con-
sideration for their feelings. " How absurd it
would be," she wrote, " if I were to say to a
Christian, * All that you believe is nonsense, but all
that I believe is just and true.' '

That this opinion is held even by Christians, is
evident by the following extract from the report of
a conversation between the Pundita Kamabai and
an American friend, reported in the Daily Inter-Ocean
of Chicago, of December 10th, 1887 :—

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

" Eamabai. — That is just what I think, and I can
prove by the New Testament that it is the wiser way
to do, for did not St. Paul, when he stood on Mara
Hill in Athens, say : ' As I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscrip-

58 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

tion, To the unknown God : whom therefore ye
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you ' ? I
must say that those missionaries who begin to de-
nounce in strong language, good and bad equally,
whatever is said in Hindu religion, gain nothing by
it, because they themselves are ignorant of what is
said in the religion of this people whom they go to
teach, and hence arouse the indignation of the people,
who have great love and reverence for their an-
cestors and their ancestral faith."

This, indeed, is what seems to have happened in
the case of Anandibai Joshee, and though in later
years she was fortunate enough to meet with many
missionaries whose zeal was more wisely tempered
by discretion, and from whom she received valuable
assistance, yet her experience in Bombay was never
forgotten, and was referred to with mingled pain and
anger.

In 1881 Gopal Joshee was transferred to the Post
Office in Calcutta ; but here neither he nor his wife
were at all happy or comfortable. The damp, ener-
vating climate is very depressing to most people
who are not natives of Bengal, and both the Joshees
suffered in health, while it was with the greatest
difficulty that they could procure the kinds of food
to which they were accustomed. The social manners
and customs also were quite different from their Mah-
ratta ones, and when Anandibai walked about in the

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 59

town with her husband, unveiled, she was rudely
stared at by the passers-by, and sometimes even
exposed to open insult.

There was some departmental trouble, too, in
regard to the non-delivery of an important official
letter, and this probably was the reason that before
long they were moved, first to Barrackpore and then
to Serampore, small stations a few miles distant from
Calcutta, the one on the left and the other on the
right bank of the river Hooghly.

It was during their residence at Serampore that
the invitation already referred to was sent to the
recently widowed Eamabai, and, for the reasons
given, was gratefully declined.

During all this time Anandibai Joshee had been
in constant correspondence with Mrs. Carpenter,
.who was doing everything in her power to arrange
for her visit to America, but there were many diffi-
culties in the way. It was decided that it would be
useless for her husband to go to the States, and that
he would help her best by remaining in India and
following his profession. It was, therefore, necessary
to secure an escort for her, and money also was
needed, both for the expenses of her journey and for
her support during her residence in America.

At last matters were all arranged. Gopal Joshee
consented to her leaving him. An escort was found
through some missionary friends, and a sum suffi-

60 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

cient for her immediate needs was raised. A sub-
scription was got up for her in Calcutta by the
kindness of Mr. James, the Postmaster-General,
and some of the leading English people in Calcutta,
and to add to her funds she sold some of the jewels
her father had given her.

With a brave though aching heart she sailed from
Calcutta in April 1883 for England, whence, after a
very short stay, she went on to America, arriving in
New York early in June, being the first high-caste
Hindu woman to visit the United States.

She was most warmly welcomed by Mrs. Carpenter,
who took her to her own house in Koselle, New
Jersey, where she was treated with the greatest
kindness and consideration. She always said that
the months spent under this lady's hospitable roof
were among the happiest of her life. Her pleasant
manners, her readiness to be pleased, her modesty
and light-heartedness, made a favourable impression
on all who came in contact with her, and it was
impossible not to feel respect for one who had the
courage to take such an unusual step, and who, at
the same time, was endeavouring faithfully to carry
out the duties enjoined upon her by her national
traditions.

A very touching picture of her way of life is given
by her biographer, Mrs. Dall, who tells us how care-
ful she was to observe the national rites, and of the

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 61

way in which, every morning, she repeated the pre-
cepts teaching a wife's duties, and marked her
forehead with the spot of paint which showed she
was a married woman. Before leaving India she had
told her own people, " I will go to America as a
Hindu, and come back and live among my people as
a Hindu." And this brave resolve she carried out
unflinchingly. She wore her native dress, refused
to eat anything but the vegetable food allowed by
her religion, and endeavoured in every way that
was possible, during the whole period of her re-
sidence in the States, to conform to the customs of
her people.

In the autumn of 1883 she commenced her me-
dical studies in earnest. She had been offered a
scholarship in the Homoeopathic College in New York,
but after much consideration it was decided that the
best thing she could do was to enter on the regular
four-years' course at the Women's Medical College in
Philadelphia. Mrs. .Carpenter took her to Philadel-
phia and introduced her to Dr. Eachel Bodley, the
Dean of the College, who at once took a warm in-
terest in her, and became one of her most valued
friends. Dr. Bodley held a reception for her in her
own house, when she excited great interest and
curiosity by her native dress and jewellery, and
everyone felt drawn to the young stranger, who
matriculated at the College in October of that year.

62 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

From that date she devoted herself, with the
steadiness and perseverance for which she was re-
markable, to her medical work, throwing herself into
it with enthusiasm, and working sometimes as much
as fifteen or sixteen hours a day. It was not easy
work at all, and the severe application, as well as the
trying climate, told much upon her health. In
February 1884 she nearly succumbed to a severe
attack of diphtheria, and during the whole remainder
of her stay in America, she suffered constantly from
headaches or from colds on her chest.

During the spring of 1884, Mrs. Joshee, as she
was now usually called, was asked to deliver a lecture
before one of the missionary societies on the subject
of " child marriage," and surprised and disappointed
her audience by speaking in terms of approval of the
custom. Her lecture raised quite a storm of con-
troversy, and no doubt alienated from her the sym-
pathy of a good many people, who could not under-
stand the position she took up on the subject. If
they had been better acquainted with the history of
her own life, and with the traditions among which
she had grown up, they might perhaps have been
able to judge her more leniently, and might have
felt able to offer her their sympathy in what she had
been able to accomplish, while at the same time re-
gretting that her emancipation from the thraldom of
custom was not more complete.

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 63

In 1885 Gopal Joshee arrived in America, but
his coming only proved what her friends had feared
it might do, a source of embarrassment to his wife.
He began talking and writing in a quite unaccount-
able manner, speaking slightingly of women and
their capacity for education, and, at the same time,
showing himself quite ready to take every advantage
of his wife's exertions, and of the kindness which her
friends showed him for her sake. His presence
added to his wife's difficulties in every way, and
his conduct and conversation were calculated to
strengthen the belief already held by many people,
that the average Hindu is not likely to be benefited
by visiting Europe or America, and that it will take
years of education and experience to counteract the
effects, on the minds of Indian men, of the belief in
their absolute superiority to women, in which they
have been trained for so many generations.

In March 1886, Anandibai Joshee took her degree
as Doctor of Medicine in Philadelphia. Eye-wit-
nesses describe the scene as a most striking one. The
brave Hindu woman was surrounded by many friends
and sympathisers, conspicuous among whom was
Eamabai, who had come over purposely from Eng-
land in order to be present on this occasion, which
was the first on which the degree of Doctor of
Medicine had ever been conferred on a Hindu
woman. It seemed, indeed, that a brilliant and useful

64 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

career must now lie before this brave, patient woman,
and the compliments and congratulations and pre-
sents which were showered upon her, seemed only
as the forerunners of many assured successes. But
this was not to be. Mrs. Joshee' s health was already
very delicate, and during the visits that she paid
with her husband in the course of the summer, she
caught several severe chills, which fastened on her
lungs. It had been her intention to have passed
some time in practical work in the hospitals, espe-
cially the New England Hospital for Women and
Children, and the Block) ey Hospital at New York,
but a new direction was given to her plans, by the
offer of an appointment as resident physician to the
female ward of the new Albert Edward Hospital,
established at Kohlapur. The salary proposed was
Es. 300 a month, rising to Es. 400 or Es. 500, and
she was to be allowed to practise privately in her
spare time. Many considerations induced Mrs.
Joshee to accept this offer. She longed to be at
work, and to use her knowledge without delay for the
benefit of her countrywomen ; her health she felt was
failing, and she fancied that perhaps a return to
her native land might restore it, and to add to these,
there were family reasons which seemed to point to
the advisability of a speedy return to India. Mr.
Joshee had resigned his appointment in the Post
Office Department, and it was necessary that some-

DE. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 65

one should undertake the care and support of his
mother and other near relatives.

Before, however, the final arrangements could be
made, Mrs. Joshee was taken very seriously ill, and it
became evident that she was suffering from consump-
tion, and that even with the greatest care her life could
not be prolonged many months. It was with aching
hearts that her American friends bade her good-bye,
feeling that they would never see her again. She and
her husband sailed from New York in October, and
after a painful voyage reached Bombay, where she
was received with much respect by people of all
classes.

The second Annual Keport of the National Associa-
tion for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the
Women of India contained the following allusion to
her : —

" The committee take the opportunity of tendering
their congratulations to Mrs. Anandibai Joshee for
having so successfully taken her degree at the
Yeomans College at Philadelphia, in the United
States of America. Mrs. Anandibai Joshee, who is a
Maratha Brahmin lady, and a native of Kallian,
proceeded to America with her husband, matriculated
in October 1883, and entered upon the three years
course of medical instruction. After a few months
stay at the college she obtained a scholarship of 400
dollars. In March 1885 she presented herself for

5

66 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIA.N WOMEN.

final examination in the fundamental branches, ana-
tomy, physiology, and chemistry, and passed these
examinations creditably, ranking eighth in her class,
which consisted of forty-two ladies. She has since
taken her degree, and has now returned to her
native country."

The above lines had hardly appeared in print
before Mrs. Joshee's career, which had given pro-
mise of so much usefulness, was brought sadly to a
close.

On her arrival in Bombay she had been received
with marked honour and respect, even by the Brah-
mans and Pundits, who it was expected would have
denounced her breach of caste rules in crossing the
" black water," and it must have been some consola-
tion to her, when she felt her strength and life ebbing
away, to know that her countrymen appreciated the
sacrifices she had made. She remained a short time
in Bombay and its neighbourhood, in order to get
the best medical advice, but the doctors there failed
to give her substantial relief, and it was determined
to move her to Poonah, in the hope that in her native
air she would revive.

There, in the house in which she had been born,
Anandibai Joshee passed the last few weeks of her
life. She was surrounded by all nearest and dearest
to her — her mother, brother, sister, and grandmother
— and everything that affection could suggest to

DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEB. 67

soothe her sufferings was given her. Daily inquiries
were made after her health by all the principal
people in the city, and her husband spared neither
time nor money in endeavouring to perform the cus-
tomary religious offices. Although they had both
lost caste by their visit to America, their offence was
not beyond redemption, as it would have been had
they, for instance, married out of their caste, and it
was possible to obtain forgiveness and restoration.
For this purpose Gopal Joshee offered sacrifices, per-
formed penance and paid a large sum of money, in
the hope that the vengeance of Heaven might be
averted and her life prolonged, or, at any rate,
that she might be restored to full caste privileges
and entitled to the last rites, without which
Hindus believe that future happiness cannot be
obtained.

Day by day Anandibai Joshee wasted away ; her
sufferings were terrible, but were borne without a
word either of complaint or impatience, and with a
cheerfulness that astonished those around her. It
was on the 27th February 1887 that the end came,
and that the brave, patient spirit of the young Hindu
woman was released from her suffering body. Her
death caused a feeling of profound sorrow, not only
in her own family circle, but throughout her native
city, as well as in the far-off country where she had
made so many true friends. According to Hindu

5 *

68 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

custom, after death her body was bathed and
anointed, and then arrayed in her most beautiful
garments and ornaments ; it was publicly cremated,
the funeral pile being lighted from the sacred fire,
and all the ceremonials of an orthodox Hindu
funeral were observed by the priests. In one par-
ticular only was the ordinary custom departed
from ; for her ashes, instead of being consigned
to the Ganges or some other sacred river, were col-
lected by her husband, and sent over to America
to be buried there.

Thus closes the life-story of Anandibai Joshee.
Almost her last words, as she knew that the work
for which she had been preparing herself could
never be hers, were, " I have done all that I
could do." How few of those blessed with fuller
light and more ample advantages could honestly
say the same ! Yes, indeed, " she hath done
what she could " ; and are we not justified in be-
lieving that the Lord, who in these very words com-
mended the humble self-sacrifice of His Jewish
follower eighteen hundred years ago, will accept
and acknowledge the efforts of this brave Hindu
woman, even although in this life she did not attain
to the blessedness of knowing Him as the great
Physician of souls ?

She was not quite twenty-two when she died ; and
yet in her short life how much she had accomplished.

DE. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 69

She sacrificed her life in the endeavour to bring help
and relief to her suffering fellow countrywomen, and
who shall dare to say that her sacrifice was in vain,
or that her early death may not stir others up to
follow in her footsteps, and so a rich harvest may
spring from the seed she sowed in love and hope and
patience ?

70 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN,

IV.

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR,

AMONG the many illustrious visitors who caine to
England during the summer of 1887, to pay their
respects to our gracious Queen on the occasion of her
Jubilee, there were few who were received with more
marked attention by Her Majesty, or who attracted
more general interest and sympathy, than the Maha-
rajah and Maharani of Kuch Behar.

That these attentions were paid to them on per
sonal rather than on political grounds cannot be
doubted, for among the native Princes of India the
Maharajah of Kuch Behar holds but a very subordi-
nate position.

The fact that for the first time a ruling Indian
Prince had brought his wife to England and intro-
duced her into general society, was sufficient to
arouse genuine sympathy among those who under-
stood how great were the difficulties that lay in the

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 71

way of such a step, and what an important influence
it might possibly exert on the future of Indian women.

An additional interest was felt in the Maharani as
being the daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, who had
visited England some years previously, and who had
been known and respected by a large circle of culti-
vated Englishmen.

The story of the Maharani's life is so closely con-
nected with the most remarkable social and religious
movement that has taken place in India in modern
times, that it will be necessary to glance briefly at
the history of that movement.

Ever since the days when the first great tide of
Aryan invasion swept down from the highlands of
Central Asia, and drove the aboriginal inhabitants to
the hill fastnesses or the forest depths, the plains of
India have from time to time been the battle-ground
of opposing civilizations, though in almost every case
the ultimate victory has rested with the Brahmans.
If, on the one hand, the influence of Greek thought
may be faintly traced in Buddhism, there can, on
the other, be no doubt that the Greek philosophers
owed not a little to India ; and though the Maho-
metans established their empire in the very heart
of Hindoostan, their attempts at proselytism were
hardly successful, and the Mussalmans of India
have borrowed far more from the Hindus than
these latter have from their monotheistic conquerors

72 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

Once again a great contest is being waged between
two civilizations, between two schools of thought,
two philosophies of life and conduct. Here once
more have met two branches of the great Aryan race,
one still in the vigour of manhood, full of life and
abounding energy, furnished with all the newest dis-
coveries of science and philosophy; the other showing
signs of the decadence of age, and strong with the
strength of immutability rather than of life ; and it
seems hardly possible that in such a contest the
victory should again rest with the Brahmans.

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

The young Hindu who has studied under European
teachers, and imbibed something of Western ideas,
finds his belief in the religion of his fathers assailed
from every point. Physical science pronounces many
portions of the old-world system to be both grotesque
and impossible. History lets in a flood of light,
which reveals the hollowness and poverty of much
that had previously appeared noble and worthy of

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 73

reverence. The purer morality of the West makes
the student blush with shame at much that claims
divine sanction : a more robust philosophy sets him
free from the trammels of old-world ideas. He finds
himself drifting into a general attitude of doubt, if
not of scepticism : his faith in the religion of the
Brahmans is destroyed before he is prepared to accept
in its place the religion of Christ.

But the Indian mind is naturally a religious one,
to which free-thought or atheism in its hopeless self-
ishness is repugnant, and it clings to the hope that,
when stripped of the superstitious and degrading
accretions which have gathered round it in the course
of centuries, the religion of Brahma may yet be
found to contain something capable of satisfying the
heart without offending the intellect.

Such a via media many deem they have found in
the system of the Brahmo-Somaj. The word Somaj
means a society or association, so that it corresponds
very nearly to our word " Church," and its members
frequently speak of it as the Theistic Church of
India. This society or sect owes its origin to Eajah
Eammohun Roy, who founded it about the year
1828, with the object of reviving the primitive Hindu
religion. According to Professor Monier Williams,
" it ushered in the dawn of the greatest change that
has ever passed over the Hindu mind. A new phase
of the Hindu religion then took definite shape, which

74 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

differed essentially from every other that had pre-
ceded it. No other reformation has resulted in the
same way from the influence of European education
and Christian ideas."

The following account of the movement was given
by Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, in one of his lectures
in England. " At first this Brahmo-Somaj, to which
I belong, was simply a Church for the worship of the
One True God, according to the doctrines and ritual
inculcated in the earliest Hindu Scriptures. The
members of the Brahmo-Somaj in its infancy were
simply revivalists, if I may so say. Their object was
to restore Hinduism to its primitive state of purity,
to do away with idolatry and superstition, and caste
if possible, and to declare once more throughout
the length and breadth of India the pure mono-
theistic worship prescribed in the Vedas, as opposed
to the idolatrous teaching of the later Hindu Scrip-
tures. The founder of the Brahmo-Somaj had for
his sole object the restoration of the primitive form
of Hindu Monotheism. By numerous quotations
from the Hindu Scriptures he succeeded in con-
vincing a large number of his misguided countrymen
that true Hinduism was not to be found in the later
Puranas, which taught idolatry and superstition, but
in the earlier books, which taught the worship of the
One True God."

By degrees, " after careful, honest, and dis-

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 75

passionate inquiries," it was discovered that even
the Vedas themselves could not be regarded as
containing nothing but pure truth, as they incul-
cated some of the worst forms of nature- worship and
some absurd doctrines and ritual ; so that the mem-
bers of the Brahmo-Somaj were forced to abandon
the position of a return to primitive doctrine, and to
take up that of pure Theists, acknowledging no in-
fallible teacher, no revealed standard of life or
doctrine. Naturally, divisions soon made themselves
apparent in a society thus constituted, and the
Brahmo-Somaj is now broken up into three sects, of
which, however, the most important is that which,
under the title of the " New Dispensation," main-
tains the principles and teaching of its founder, Babu
Keshub Chunder Sen, who is, without doubt, the most
remarkable figure in the history of modern Hinduism.
He belonged to a very good high-caste Brah-
man family in Bengal, the members of which had
been for several generations men of high character
and intellectual culture. His grandfather, Earn
Comal Sen, was the intimate friend of the well-
known Orientalist and Sanskrit scholar, Horace Hay-
man Wilson, and was respected and esteemed by a
large number of English gentlemen. Keshub Chun-
der Sen himself was born in 1838, and, being early
left an orphan, was sent by his uncle to an English
school, and afterwards completed his education at

76 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

the Albert College in Calcutta. Early in his career
he had learnt to reject the worship of idols, and had
by degrees come to believe in one God ; he then
joined the Brahmo-Somaj, and before long became
the head of a reforming party in that society. It
seemed to him that even the Vedas contained teach-
ing which it was impossible to accept as of divine
authority, and he finally decided to reject them and
to maintain the theory that no special revelation was
needed to teach men about God, and that as a con-
sequence no such revelation had ever been made.
He adopted the doctrine of a divine guidance of the
faithful believing soul, and held that prayer, medi-
tation and spiritual worship were necessary to the
maintenance of the spiritual life; while gentleness,
self-denial and purity were requisite in order to bring
men into union with the Divine Spirit.

Like other theistic teachers, he was ready to ac-
knowledge the beauty of the life and example of
Christ, and the moral value of His teaching, but he
regarded Him as a mere man. Speaking of the
Bible, Keshub Chunder Sen said, " However proud
we may be of our own religious books, however great
the value which we may attach to those ancient
books inculcating the principles of pure theism be-
queathed by our fathers as a precious legacy, it is a
fact which must be admitted by all candid men, that
India cannot do without the Bible. India must read

THE MAHAEANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 77

the Bible, for there are certain things in the Gospel
of Christ which are of great importance to my
country in the present transition stage through
which it is passing."

But the reformer did not stop here. He realised
that what was needed for the regeneration of India
was not merely a return to a purer and a more
elevating faith, but likewise a deliverance from the
degrading social customs which kept the whole, or at
any rate a large portion of the community bound
hand and foot. The discouragement of polygamy,
the education and enfranchisement of women, the
overthrow of caste, and the abolition of child-mar-
riage, were some of the reforms which seemed to him
the most imperative, and to these he devoted all his
energies with remarkable success. In 1870 Keshub
Chunder visited England, where he was received with
much kindness. He made a tour through the country,
speaking and lecturing on various religious and
social subjects, and awakening a great deal of in-
terest and sympathy among a large class of people,
and the Queen granted him a private interview.

In 1872 an Act was passed by the Government of
India legalizing marriages between persons who did
not belong to any of the recognized religions of the
country, and who did not wish to be married either
by Christian, Mahometan, or Hindu rites. This
measure was passed mainly in the interests of the

78 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

Brahmoists, and of others who, like them, had re-
jected idolatry without accepting Christianity. Per-
sons availing themselves of its provisions were
required to have attained years of discretion, the
age being fixed at eighteen for men and sixteen
for women ; and they were forbidden to indulge in
polygamy. The law thus dealt a serious blow at two
of the worst social evils, and was hailed by all the
enlightened members of the Hindu community as a
great step in advance, for which they were mainly
indebted to the unwearied efforts of Keshub Chunder
Sen.

Some years later, however, a great shock was
given to the feelings of the members of the Brahmo-
Somaj, by the announcement that their leader's
eldest daughter was about to be married to the
young Eajah of Kuch Behar. This prince was the
head of one of the most ancient royal families in
Bengal, which, however, had the disadvantage of
belonging to a low caste, the Sankoche Kettry caste.
He had succeeded his father as Eajah when only ten
months old, and during his minority his State had
been governed by the British Government, who had
also superintended his education. His early train-
ing was conducted under an English tutor at Patna,
and he subsequently attended lectures on Law at the
Presidency College in Calcutta ; but no attempt was
made to interfere with his religious belief, and at

THE MAHABANI OF KUCH BEHAB. 79

sixteen years of age he was supposed to be still
attached to the faith of his fathers, that is, to
Hinduism in its modern corrupted form.

The Indian Government were desirous that, before
taking the management of his territories into his own
hands, he should visit England. But it was con-
sidered necessary by all his relations that before
starting on such a long and perilous journey he
should provide himself with a wife ; and it appeared
to his guardians that it would be advisable, both in
his own interests and in those of his subjects, to
bring about a marriage between him and the
daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen. The young lady
in question was not quite fourteen years of age, but
she had been carefully educated, and it might
reasonably be hoped that her influence and that of
her father would be most valuable in determining
the future development of the young prince and his
people. That the Brahmo leader was only a private
gentleman, while his proposed son-in-law was a sove-
reign prince, was no obstacle in the way, for the
former was a man of very high caste, and it would
be an act of condescension on his part, to allow his
daughter to marry the Eajah, to which his well-
known opinions on the subject of caste would be
likely to dispose him favourably.

But although to disinterested spectators the pro-
posed match seemed to offer advantages on both

80 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

sides, it raised a storm of opposition among the
adherents of the Brahmo-Somaj. The principles
they professed with regard to caste prevented any
objections being raised on that ground, but they
vehemently opposed the project, both on the score of
the youth of the contracting parties and also on
that of the religion of the bridegroom.

With regard to the latter objection, Keshub
Chunder Sen and his friends maintained that the
Maharajah was in heart already a Brahmoist, and
that his youth, and the influence of his mother and
his grandmother, had alone prevented him from join-
ing the Theists, and that by this marriage he would
be firmly attached to the purer faith professed by his
wife.

The question of age was a more serious one, as it
could not be denied that the marriage would involve
a virtual surrender of the principle for which Keshub
Chunder had so strenuously contended, and would
be a serious bar to further progress in this direction.
It was, moreover, pointed out that, in consequence of
the bride and bridegroom not having attained the
legal age, the marriage could not be celebrated
according to Brahmo rites, as authorized by the Act
of 1872 ; that it would, in fact, be a purely Hindu
marriage, celebrated with all the idolatrous and
superstitious ceremonies commonly in use ; and,
further, that the bride would be deprived of the pro-

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 81

tection which would have been afforded to her had
she been married under the new law. Polygamy was
an immemorial custom in the Kuch Behar family,
and it was argued, with some show of reason, that
there would be no guarantee that the Maharajah
might not at some future time choose to follow the
fashion of his race.

It would be neither useful nor interesting to follow
into further detail the controversy on this subject,
or the mutual recriminations of the two factions.
Suffice it to say that the match was finally decided
upon, and in March 1878 Babu Keshub Chunder
Sen, accompanied by his brother and other members
of his family, escorted his daughter to Kuch Behar,
where the marriage was celebrated according to
Hindu rites. A protest had indeed been entered by
the bride's friends against the introduction of idola-
trous practices, but in spite of it some of the figures
and other objects usually worshipped on such occa-
sions were placed in the courtyard where the cere-
mony took place, and the " Homa," or fire sacrifice,
was performed in the presence of the bridegroom
after the bride had withdrawn to her own apart-
ments.

This latter ceremony, which forms an important
feature at orthodox Hindu weddings, is as follows.
The bride and bridegroom sit side by side before an
altar on which a fire is kindled, and "ghee," or

6

82 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

clarified butter, is burnt as an offering to the gods.
Keshub Chunder Sen was greatly annoyed at the dis-
regard which had been paid to his wishes in this
matter, and he was further mortified at not being
allowed to perform the portion of the ceremony com-
monly allotted to the bride's father, on the ground
that he had lost caste by his visit to Europe. So
far, indeed, there seemed some reason to fear that
the prognostications of those who had opposed the
marriage were likely to be realised, and that instead
of redounding to the honour and glory of the Brahmo-
Somaj, the alliance would bring both its principles
and its leader into disrepute. Happily, however, the
young pair were not allowed to remain subject to the
retrograde influence of the palace. Very shortly after
the marriage the Maharajah set out on his journey to
England, and his wife returned to her father's house
in Calcutta, where her education was continued with
the object of preparing her in every way for the
important position she was to fill.

The dissensions in the Brahmo-Somaj still con-
tinued ; the party which had opposed the marriage
deposed Keshub Chunder Sen from his office as
minister, and when they found that public opinion
was too strong for them, they seceded and set up
a new sect for themselves, calling themselves the
Pro-Progressive Brahmoists.

Keshub Chunder himself never quite recovered

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 83

his former popularity among his countrymen, but he
continued to enjoy the confidence and esteem of his
English friends; and when, after his death, some
few years later, a public meeting was called for the
purpose of getting up a memorial to him, it was
attended by such a large number of influential per-
sons of all classes as testified to the sincere and
widespread respect in which he was held.

In the meanwhile, the Maharajah had returned from
Europe and claimed his wife, and having attained
his majority in 1883, he took the administration of
his affairs into his own hands.

The State of Kuch Behar is situated in the north-
eastern corner of Bengal. It is surrounded on all
sides by British territory, and occupies an area of
about thirteen hundred square miles ; that is, about
the size of Kent, or Hampshire. It is a well-watered
plain, and the soil is fertile and well cultivated, the
general green of the fields being diversified here and
there by graceful clumps of bamboo or by the orchards
which surround the homestead of some substantial
farmer. The country is thickly populated, but there
is only one town, and hardly any villages, the dwell-
ings of the inhabitants being scattered over the
fields or grouped round the residence of some well-
to-do family. In former times a different state of
things must have prevailed, for the ruins are still to
be seen of two extensive walled cities ; but they are

6 *

84 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

of very ancient date, and must have belonged to
a period long anterior to that of the present
dynasty.

Agriculture forms the occupation of almost the
entire population, rice, grain, and pulse of various
kinds being grown for food, and tobacco and jute for
exportation. The whole of the land belongs to the
Maharajah, the larger farmers being his tenants and
sub-letting the land to smaller cultivators, and there
are strict laws to prevent their exacting exhorbitant
rents. The Maharajah is virtually independent within
his own dominions, but he has an English official
adviser ; and were any very grievous abuses to arise
in his administration, the Indian Government would
doubtless interfere to put a stop to them, as it has
done in so many other cases. Under the rule of the
present Prince, however, there is no reason to fear
such a complication, for the good effect of his
English education is shown in the numerous im-
provements and reforms which he has introduced in
the administration of justice, the development of
public works, and the encouragement of educa-
tion.

The Maharajah himself is an excellent specimen of
an educated Hindu gentleman, and exemplifies the ease
with which a Bengali assimilates English customs and
ideas. On State occasions, when he wears his native
dress, adorned with pearls and diamonds of priceless

THE MAHABANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 85

value, he looks the very picture of an Eastern
potentate, but otherwise he dresses like any ordinary
English gentleman, and there is nothing in his
speech or manner to betray that he is not one by
birth as by education. He has, moreover, imbibed
the true English love for sport and games of all
kinds, and he is not only a first-rate shot and polo-
player, but also an excellent dancer and an accom-
plished billiard-player.

Such, then, was the country, and such the Prince
to whom Keshub Chunder Sen gave his daughter.

The Maharani Sunity Devi was born in 1864,
being not quite fourteen at the time of her marriage,
and still almost a child in years when she entered
upon the duties of an exceptionally difficult posi-
tion.

" The fierce light which beats upon a throne "
often proves a great obstacle in the way of change
and reform. What is done and said by people in
high positions is known and commented on by
everyone, and there are none more trammelled by
custom, tradition and etiquette than sovereigns and
princes. It would have been comparatively easy for
the daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, as a private
lady, to set at naught the traditional prejudices which
condemn Hindu women to lives of seclusion and
idleness, but it was a very different thing for the
Maharani of Kuch Behar to attempt the same task..

86 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

Although her husband had adopted many English
ways and ideas, the traditions of his family were very
strict, and public opinion in his dominions was by
no means prepared to welcome such an entire
revolution in the whole theory of social life, as was
implied in the enfranchisement of women ; while
there were plenty of critics ready to find fault with
each fresh step in the path of reform.

The Maharani herself was naturally of a somewhat
shy and yielding nature, and but little inclined to
set herself in opposition to the views of those by
whom she was surrounded. For some years, there-
fore, it seemed quite uncertain whether she would
make an effort to break through the barriers of
custom and go into English society, or whether she
would succumb to the influences constantly brought
to bear upon her and withdraw more and more into
seclusion.

When it was proposed that the Maharajah should
pay a second visit to England during the Jubilee
year, a question naturally arose as to whether the
Maharani should or should not accompany him.
The conservative party, which included many of
her own relatives, exerted their utmost influence to
deter the Maharani from going ; the reforming party,
together with her English friends, did their best to
persuade her to go, and ill the end they were success-
ful : and this decision may be considered as a turning-

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 87

point in her history as well as in that of Bengali
ladies in general.

The Maharajah and Maharani left India in April
1887, accompanied by their children and by the
Maharani's brother Mr. Sen, and they remained away
some months. During the summer they stayed in
London and paid some visits in the country, and
the Maharani was presented to the Queen at
Buckingham Palace. She was also received by the
Queen at Windsor, and treated most kindly by her
Majesty, who showed in every way possible her kindly
feelings towards the daughter of Keshub Chunder
Sen, as well as her appreciation of the courage and
good sense shown by the Maharani in making up her
mind to come to England. The fact of her under-
taking this journey implied a determination to break
decisively with the old traditional prejudices, and the
manner in which she was treated by our own gracious
Sovereign could not fail to have a great effect in
securing her position in society, both as regards Eng-
lish people in India and her own countrymen. There
could be no further ground for fearing that a lady
who had taken such a decided step, should ever
withdraw into the seclusion of the zenana, or succumb
in any serious degree to the influence of the re-
actionary party.

The Maharani returned to India in December 1887
with her children, the Prince following a couple of

88 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

months later. During the cold season, or at least a
part of it, they live in Calcutta, occupying a fine
house in the suburb of Alipore^. Here they entertain
a great deal ; and their handsome reception-rooms are
furnished in every respect like those of an English
house. Those, however, occupied by themselves and
the members of their family are much more simply
furnished, and in the privacy of these apartments the
Maharani retains most of the ordinary social habits
of her country. While retaining a not unnatural
preference for the customs in which she has been
brought up, she shows a wonderful aptitude for
conforming to foreign ways when more advisable, and
as a hostess she is both popular and successful. Her
parties and receptions are crowded by English
people, but though a few members of the Brahmo-
Somaj may also be seen at them, native gentlemen
are as a rule conspicuous by their absence.

The explanation is not difficult to find. There are
still very few Indian gentlemen of good position who
have adopted in any degree the Western idea of allow-
ing free social intercourse between men and women.
Some of them have learnt that, it being the accepted
principle in European society, English ladies who
appear in public are only following the custom of
their race, and are therefore entitled to be treated
with respect, but they have not advanced sufficiently
to be able to apply the same principle to native

THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 89

ladies. Still bound by prejudice and tradition, they
look upon the mixing of the two sexes in social
intercourse as a scandal, and regard the example
set by the Maharani as one to be avoided, not
followed.

On more than one occasion the Maharani has had
reason to complain of incivility from her own country-
men whom she has met at some official gathering,
and therefore it is not to be wondered at if she does
not invite them to her own house.

The above facts will no doubt surprise many, and
will perhaps make English people understand rather
better the sort of difficulties which beset the path of
social reformers in India, and which ought to enlist
our sympathy and respect for those who are brave
enough to face them.

The Maharajah and Maharani always spend some
months of the year at Kuch Behar, the capital of
their little territory, where they have a fine estate ;
but during the hot weather they usually follow the
example set them by English people, and go to the hills,
either to Darjiling or Simla, where they mix a good
deal in society. They keep up the native custom of
having many members of their family to live with
them, and their " house-party " is always a large one.
They have several children, of whom the youngest,
born soon after their return from England, is named
Victor in honour of Her Majesty. These children

90 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

have English nurses and an English governess, and
will, no doubt, become still more completely angli-
cized than their parents. The Maharani speaks and
writes English perfectly, and shows a good deal of
the facility for acquiring foreign ways so character-
istic of the people of Bengal. She has not, indeed,
shown any very striking talent nor remarkable intel-
lectual ability, like some other Indian ladies, but if
she is not destined to help her countrywomen in that
particular way, her life may be as useful to them in
others. Her quickness, her gracious manner, her
ready tact, and her readiness to please and to be
pleased, have gained her many warm friends among
the English residents in India ; and the fact that there
is at least one Indian lady of high rank in whose
house English men and women are cordially welcomed,
cannot fail to be of great value in forwarding the
development of that freer social intercourse between
the two races, to which many people look as the
surest and happiest way of solving the difficult pro-
blems that must be dealt with ere long in India.

91

V.
T O R U D U T T.

IT was a saying of the ancients that " those whom
the gods love die young," and, however we may inter-
pret it, it certainly seems as though some strange
fate was destined to cut off in their early prime those
whose youth has given promise of more than ordi-
nary achievement. Modern India has as yet pro-
duced but one real poetess, and she, alas ! is one
whose early promise has been buried in a premature
grave.

The story of the young Hindu girl's life is short
and sad.

Tarulatta Datta, or, as she is more commonly
called, Toru Dutt, was the youngest child of Babu
Govind Chunder Dutt, a Bengali gentleman of good
family, high character, and considerable attainments,
who was distinguished among his countrymen by
his broad-minded views on social questions, and by
his clear and vigorous intellect. He was a Chris-

92 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

tian, and was well known and respected in Calcutta,
where he filled the position of a magistrate. In
Calcutta Toru Dutt was born in 1856, and, with the
exception of one year spent by the family in Bombay,
it was in Calcutta that her early life was passed.

From her childhood she enjoyed educational advan-
tages such as were very unusual in the case of Ben-
gali girls ; her father took great pains to instruct her
himself, and she and her sister Aru, who was two
years older than she was, both shared the English
lessons given to her brother Abjie by Babu Shib
Chunder Banerji, for whom she always entertained
a grateful affection, and who seems to have been the
first person to instil into her mind a love for the
study of English literature, together with the tho-
roughness of application so remarkable in her sub-
sequent studies. The stern, grand poetry of Milton
is hardly what one would expect to find as the chosen
study of young Indian girls, yet these two sisters
knew large portions of "Paradise Lost" by heart,
and apparently understood and appreciated it far
more thoroughly than most English girls of the
same age. In 1869 Babu Govind Dutt determined
to take his two daughters to Europe and to give
them the best education he could. His only boy had
died a short time previously, and he felt that the
hopes of his life now depended on his girls. They went
first to Nice, where for a few months the sisters

TORU DUTT. 93

attended a pension and studied French under the
best masters. The whole family then came to Eng-
land, spending, however, a short time in Italy and
in Paris on their way. They remained in England
till the close of 1873, the girls continuing their edu-
cation the whole time. They attended some of the
then recently established lectures for women at
Cambridge, especially those of M. Bognel on French
Literature, and afterwards they went to lectures and
classes at St. Leonards, where they resided for some
time.

During their stay in Europe Toru Dutt kept a
careful journal, which is of extreme interest, as
showing the effect produced on the Indian girl's
mind by all she saw and heard around her in this
strange country.

The following extract from her diary is dated the
30th of January, 1871, 9 Sydney Place, Onslow
Square, London, S.W., and is of peculiar inte-
rest : —

" How long it is since I last wrote in my journal !
Alas ! what changes have taken place in France since
the last time I wrote ! When we were in Paris for
a few days, how beautiful it was ! What houses !
What streets ! What a magnificent army ! But
now, how has she fallen ! She who was once first
among the cities, what misery does she not contain !
Ever since the commencement of the war rny heart

94 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

has been with the French, although I all along felt
certain of their defeat."

Although the Dutt family stayed so much longer
in England than in France, it was the latter country
evidently which seized most forcibly on the imagina-
tion of the girls, especially of Toru. The strange
contrast between the France of 1869, proud, joyous,
beautiful and queen-like, and the France of 1871,
conquered, blood-stained and distracted by internal
feuds, made a deep impression on her, awakening her
keenest sympathies and inspiring one of her most
original poems.

Not dead ; oh, no, she cannot die !

Only a swoon from loss of blood.
Levite England passes her by ;
Help, Samaritan ! None is nigh

Who shall staunch me this sanguine flood.

Range the brown hair, it blinds her eyen ;

Dash cold water over her face !
Drowned in her blood, she makes no sign.
Give her a draught of generous wine !

None heed ; none hear to do this grace.

No ! she stirs ; there 's a fire in her glance.

'Ware, oh 'ware of that broken sword !
What ! dare ye, for an hour's mischance
Gather around her, jeering France,

Attila's own exulting horde ?

Lo ! she stands up — stands up e'en now,

Strong once more for the battle fray.
Gleams bright the star that from her brow
Lightens the world. Bow, nations, bow !

Let her again lead on the way.

TOEU DUTT. 95

After her return to Calcutta in November 1873,
Toru Dutt continued her French studies, and also
applied herself to the study of Sanskrit, under the
direction of her father, who also cultivated and en-
couraged her talent for writing in general and for
poetry in particular, and it was to his instructions
that she always ascribed her facility in the latter
branch of literature.

On their return to India, the Dutts once more
took up their abode in Calcutta, where they re-
sumed the quiet and retired life they had led before
their visit to Europe.

To those unacquainted with India it will no doubt
appear rather strange that a family who had been
so well received in England, and had been welcomed
in the most cultivated circles, should on their return
home have been so little noticed by the English
residents in Calcutta. It should, however, be re-
membered that fifteen years ago it was an exceed-
ingly rare thing for an Indian lady to wish to mix
in English society, or to possess the education that
would fit her for doing so ; and so it came to pass, not
unnaturally, that tha existence of two well-bred, well-
read girls like Toru Dutt and her sister, was not
even suspected by those who, if they had known it,
would have been only too well pleased to have made
friends with them.

So incredible, indeed, did it appear in those days

96 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

that a Bengali lady should achieve literary distinc-
tion, that when Toru's first writings appeared it was
supposed that they were the work of some English
writer, and that Toru Dutt was simply a nom de
plume assumed for the occasion.

Her first appearance in print was in the Bengal
Magazine, to which she contributed an essa}^ on the
poetry of Le Conte de Lisle, a writer with whom she
was much in sympathy. He was a Creole, born in
the Mauritius, and, as we may judge from the follow-
ing extract from her article, she felt that in some
respects his case resembled her own.

" The faults generally attributed to all Asiatic or
half-caste poets, writing in the languages of Europe,
are weakness, languor, conventionalism, and imita-
tion. From most of these defects Le Conte de Lisle
was singularly free. He is wonderfully vigorous and
very often thoroughly original. Not only is he very
well read, not only has he meditated much, but he
has that gifted, poetic eye, which can seize at once,
and extract poetry from the meanest object."

This paper was followed before long by some trans-
lations of French verse into English, and by various
other essays in literary criticism, of which both the
style and the matter aroused the curiosity and inte-
rest of the readers of the magazine.

It was about this time, in the year 1874, that Aru
Dutt, the elder of the two sisters, died of consump-

TORU DUTT. 97

tion. Although less original and less ambitious than
Toru, she was not less amiable, and she had equally
profited by the educational advantages she had en-
joyed. Both the sisters were good musicians. They
played well on the piano, and sang with much sweet-
ness, having good contralto voices. They kept up
their accomplishments, but at the same time they
did not disdain the more useful domestic duties
which, in Indian homes, are usually performed by
the ladies of the family ; and their father, writing
after their death, speaks with deep emotion of the
exemplary manner in which they discharged these
household duties.

In general society Toru shone more than her
sister, who was of a gentle, retiring disposition, and
inclined to keep in the background, while she listened
with sisterly pride and admiration to Toru's lively
and intelligent conversation. The younger sister had
a very remarkable memory, and could remember
every piece of poetry she had ever translated. She
read much and deeply, and whenever she met with a
difficult passage, she worked at it thoroughly, till
she had mastered not only its meaning, but its
bearing on the subject in hand.

Aru occasionally tried her hand at translation, but
her most decided talent was for drawing, and the
sisters' dream was to produce a novel, which one
should write and the other illustrate.

7

98 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

Toru's first book appeared in 1876, and consisted
of a collection of lyrics translated from the French
poets. It was printed at Bhowanipore in Bengal, and
like the greater number of works hitherto published
in India, was badly printed, on poor paper, and had
nothing attractive about its appearance. From the
ordinary reading public, accustomed to find its poetry
enshrined in a prettily designed casket, this unin-
teresting-looking, paper-covered book, received but
scant attention. Fortunately, however, it fell into
the hands of a few more discriminating critics, who
bestowed upon it some well-deserved praise.

M. Andre Theuriot, the well-known French poet
and novelist, reviewed the poems favourably in the
Revue des Deux Mondes ; while in England they re-
ceived an appreciative notice from Mr. Edmund
Gosse in the Examiner. This gentleman, in a pre-
fatory note to one of Toru Dutt's later works, thus
describes the impression made on him by them. " It
was while Professor W. Minto was editor of the
Examiner, that one day in August 1876, in the very
heart of the dead season for books, I happened to be
in the office of that newspaper, and was upbraiding
the whole body of publishers for issuing no books
worth reviewing. At that moment the postman
brought in a thin, sallow packet, with a wonderful
Indian postmark on it, and containing a most un-
attractive orange pamphlet of verse, printed at

TOBU DUTT. 99

Bhowanipore, and entitled A Sheaf gleaned in French
Fields. This shabby little book of some 200 pages,
without preface or introduction, seemed speedily
destined to find its way into the waste-paper basket.
I remember that Mr. Minto thrust it into my un-
willing hands, and said, ' Inhere, see whether you can
make something of that.' A hopeless volume it
seemed, with its queer type, printed at the Saptahik-
sambad Press. But when at last I took it out of my
pocket, what was my surprise, and almost rapture, to
open at such a verse as this —

" Still barred thy doors. The far East glows,

The morning wind blows fresh and free ;
Should not the hour that wakes the rose
Awaken also thee.

" All look for thee, Love, Light and Song ;

Light in the sky, deep red above,
Song in the lark of pinions strong,
And in my heart true love."

Although Toru's first book is the least perfect and
polished of her literary productions, it is in some
respects the most interesting, revealing as it does
both her weakness and her strength. At every turn
we are met by instances of genius overcoming all
obstacles, and yet, in its turn, baffled by ignorance
and inexperience. It is little short of marvellous to
see the way in which the oriental mind adapts itself
to Western ideas, and expresses them with a purity
and a grace that leaves nothing to be desired ; while,

7 *

100 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

on the other hand, we are constantly reminded that
she is writing in a foreign tongue, by some strange
ignoring of the rules of prosody, some quaint and
almost prosaic rendering of a poetic simile.

It would be impossible within the limits of so
short a sketch to do any justice to these poems, but
the following may serve as an example, and no doubt
expresses her own thoughts on her sister's early
death. The original is by Evariste Desforges de
Parny : —

Though childhood's ways were past and gone,

More innocent no child could be ;
Though grace in every feature shone,

Her maiden heart was fancy free.

A few more months or happy days,

And love would blossom, so we thought,

As lifts in April's genial rays

The rose its clusters richly wrought.

But God had destined otherwise,

And so she gently fell asleep,
A creature of the starry skies,

Too lovely for the earth to keep.

She died in earliest womanhood;

Thus dies, and leaves behind no trace,
A bird's song in a leafy wood,

Thus melts a sweet smile from the'face.

To these poems there was affixed the following
short postscript : —

" The author of these pages wishes to [add that
those signed ' A ' are the work of her dear and only

TORU DUTT. 101

sister Am, who fell asleep in Jesus, 23rd July 1874,
at the early age of twenty. Had she lived, this book
might have been better than it is, and its author
might perhaps have had less occasion to crave the
indulgence of the reader. Alas,

" Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest is, It might have been ! "

Not the least remarkable portion of this book are
the notes. In them Toru Dutt gives short critical
notices of the various poets from whom she has trans-
lated ; her criticism showing sometimes a naive sim-
plicity that is very engaging, at others a keenness of
insight and a purity of taste which are truly admir-
able. In addition to these criticisms we find notes
on the occasions which called forth some of the
poems, explanations regarding the allusions to persons
and occurrences which they contain, and references
to other poets and writers.

Her acquaintance with French and English litera-
was something extraordinary ; very few English or
French women of twice her age can boast as much,
and when we consider that both were to her foreign
tongues, it is difficult to understand how she can
have found time for such a wide range of reading.

Most of her translations are from nineteenth cen-
tury poets, Victor Hugo himself being the chief
object of her admiration. In the note on his poems
she writes : " It would be absurd to make any com-

102 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

ments on Victor Hugo. His name is among the
great ones of the earth. With Shakespeare, Milton,
Byron, Goethe, and Schiller, his place has been long
prepared in the Valhalla of the poets."

Her poetic imagination led her to place Victor
Hugo above Lamartine, although she was quite
ready to acknowledge the moral superiority of the
latter.

" In fancy, in imagination, in brilliancy, in
grandeur, in style, in all that makes a poet, he
must yield to Victor Hugo : in purity he yields to
none. His mind is essentially religious. He never
forgot what he learned at his mother's knee."

Toru Dutt's first collection of poems was prefaced
by a dedicatory poem to her mother, translated from
Xavier Labenski. A copy of the first edition of the
Sheaf gleaned in French Fields, in the dull orange
paper cover, is in the British Museum, and bears on
its fly-leaf the following inscription in the authoress's
handwriting : —

Au Chevalier de Chaletain, k 1'elegant traducfceur de Shake-
speare.

Hommage de la traductrice, Toru Dutt. 29 Mars 1876. Calcutta.
12, Manicktollah Street.

Very soon after the publication of her first book
Toru Dutt's health began to fail. Her father, whose
parental anxiety was quickened by the loss of his
two other children, imagined that she had been

TORU DUTT. 108

overworking herself, and that her studies were too
much for her. He, therefore, insisted on her giving
up her Sanskrit, which she did most reluctantly, for
it was her favourite study, and doubly dear to her
because in it her father was her companion and her
instructor. For a few weeks it seemed as though
rest were doing her good, but before long it became
only too evident that the insidious disease which had
carried off her sister had already seized her in its
fatal grasp. As her bodily strength declined her
mind seemed to gain in activity; her longing to
write became more and more feverish. The more
she realised that her life could be but a short one,
the more eager did she become to achieve some
literary success.

About a year before her death she became ac-
quainted with a book which struck her much. It
was La Femme dans VInde Ancienne, by Mdlle.
Clarisse Bader, and she instantly conceived a strong
desire to translate it. She wrote to the authoress,
asking her permission to do so, sending her at the
same time a copy of her " Sheaf." In her letter
she described herself as " une femme de 1'Inde
moderne."

To this Mdlle. Bader replied promptly : " Eh quoi?
C'est une descendante de mes cheres heroines indi-
ennes, qui desire traduire le livre que j'ai consacre aux
antiques Aryennes de la presqu'ile gangetique ! Un

104 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

eemblable vceu, emanant d'une telle source, me touche
trop profondement pour que je ne 1'exauce pas.
Traduisez done * La Femme dans Flnde Antique,'
Mademoiselle. Je vous y autorise de tout mon coeur,
et j'y appelle de tous mes voeux sympathiques le
succes de votre entreprise. . . . Vous etes chretienne,
Mademoiselle ; votre livre me le dit. Et en verite
votre role nous permets de benir une fois de plus la
divine religion, qui a permis a une Indienne de de-
velopper et de manifester cette valeur individuelle
que le brahminisme enchaina trop souvent chez la
femme."

In writing to acknowledge the permission thus
generously granted to her, Toru Dutt told her new
friend of her own bad state of health, and how
greatly it interfered with the pursuit of her studies.
She mentioned that her father proposed taking her
to Europe again, so as to consult some eminent
physician, and in the hope that a drier and more
bracing air than that of Bengal might perhaps check
the disease, or, at any rate, give her strength to
battle against it. With this letter she sent her
-photograph and some of her translations from the
Sanskrit. A month later she wrote again, from her
bed, to which she was then confined by very severe
illness and great pain. Yet, with the hopefulness so
characteristic of persons suffering from consump-
tion, she still looked forward to recovery, and

TOBU DUTT. 105

hailed every slight rally as a permanent improve-
ment.

But it was not to be, and on August 30, 1877,
she passed away. Her father's account of her last
•days is very touching: "It is only physical pain
"which makes me cry," said she to the doctor who
was attending her. " My spirit is in peace. I know
in whom I have believed." "Never," writes the
bereaved father, " was there a sweeter child, and she
was my last. I and my wife in our old age are left
alone in a house wide and desolate, where of old the
voices of my three loved children echoed. But we
are not forsaken. I think I can see dimly that there
is a fitness, a preparation, required for the life
beyond, which they had and I have not. One day
I shall see it all clearly. Blessed be the Lord : His
will be done."

When the first bitterness of his loss had passed,
Toru Dutt's father found a sad consolation in exa-
mining the mass of papers which his gifted daughter
had left behind her, and in preparing some of them
for the, press.

A new edition of the Sheaf gleaned in French Fields
was prefaced by a short biographical notice of the
young poetess, and with its good paper, printing,
and binding, formed a handsome volume, which was
enhanced in value by the photograph of the two
sisters, which forms its frontispiece. But to many

106 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

of Toru Dutt's admirers, the little insignificant
orange pamphlet has a greater charm.

Among the many poems which Babu Chunder
Dutt now found were a number of ballads, embody-
ing stories and legends of ancient India. It appears
that she had intended to write a series of nine such
ballads, but of the projected series two were missing,
so it was determined to fill up the blanks with two
translations of stories from the Vishnupurana, which
had already been printed in the Calcutta Review
and in the Bengal Magazine respectively. These,
though valuable as her first attempts at rendering
Sanskrit tales into English verse, are very inferior
both in form and finish to the ballads. These latter
are written in octosyllabic verse, and may be re-
garded as the most original and, at the same time,
the most successful of all her literary productions.
Though the medium in which she expresses them is-
still foreign, the ideas, the traditions, and the
memories are those of her own country and her own
people, and they have a vigour, a freshness, and a
charm which can never be infused into a mere
translation. The historic Ballads and Legends of
Hindustan are too long for quotation here, and no
fragment would give an adequate idea of them. But
we give here a few stanzas from a poem included
with some others in the same volumes, which will
enable our readers to judge of the advance Toru

TORU DUTT. 107

Dutt had made since the publication of her French
" Sheaf."

It is addressed to the " Casuarena Tree," a tall,
graceful tree which grows very freely in Calcutta and
its neighbourhood.

But not because of its magnificence

Deai- is the Casuarena to my soul.

Beneath it we have played ; though years may roll,

0 sweet companions, loved with love intense,
For your dear sakes shall the tree be ever dear ;
Blest with your images it shall arise

In memory, till the hot tears blind my eyes.

What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear,
Like the sea breaking on a shingle beach ?
It is the tree's lament, an eerie speech,
That haply to the unknown land may reach —

Unknown, yet well-known to the eye of faith.
Ah ! I have heard that wail, far, far away
In distant lands, by many a sheltered bay,
When slumbered in his cave the water-wraith,

And the waves gently kissed the classic shore
Of France or Italy beneath the moon,
When earth lay tranced in a dreamless swoon ;
And every time the music rose, a form sublime,
Thy form, 0 tree, as in my happy prime,

1 saw thee in my own loved native clime.

In addition to all these poems and translations,
Toru Dutt left behind the MS. of a French novel
entitled Le Journal de Mdlle. D'Arvers.

Both the sisters had been great novel -readers.
We may wonder how they found time for reading
novels, considering how much else they read in their

108 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

short lives, but so it was. A story is told of an
English gentleman having paid them a visit in Cal-
cutta, and asking them what were their favourite
books.

" Oh ! novels, of course," replied the younger
sister, who was almost always the spokeswoman.

" Novels ! " exclaimed their visitor ; "I am sorry
to hear that. You should read history."

" Oh, no ! " was the answer ; " for history is false,
but novels are true."

It was truth of thought, of life and character,
which these Bengali girls sought after ; not the bare
dry facts of history. What fairy • tales are to
children, novels were to these young women; and,
as we have already said, the dream of their joint
lives was to produce a novel themselves.

Whether the Journal de Mdlle. D'Arvers had taken
shape in Toru's mind before her sister's death is
uncertain, but it seems more probable that it was of
later date.

The choice of the subject was certainly a singular
one. The life, the thoughts, and love experiences of
a young French girl of good family, could only have
been known to Toru Dutt by the mysterious intuition
of imagination and sympathy, and though no one
would pretend that the attempt to portray them has
entirely succeeded, yet it is a proof of the real genius
of the authoress that it should not have signally failed.

TORU DUTT. 109

The domestic conditions portrayed in the story are
those of an English rather than of a French home,
and there are not wanting, here and there, touches
which betray the oriental cast of the writer's mind.
The hero, for instance, is described as tall and thin,
with coal-black hair, and black liquid eyes, the
typical characteristics of a young Bengali, while he
is said to have had a fair complexion, which showed
his high birth. To a European mind the latter
expression is absurd and meaningless, but it would
come quite naturally to a native of India, where the
higher classes have almost always fairer complexions
than the lower classes.

The manuscript as left by Toru Dutt was complete
so far as the story was concerned, but it required
careful editing before it could be sent to the press,
and this work was cheerfully undertaken by Ma-
demoiselle Bader, whose introduction to the book
is full of sympathetic and generous appreciation.

The story is told in the form of a journal, supposed
to have been written by Mademoiselle D'Arvers. She
begins to write her journal when she returns to her
home from the convent in which she has been edu-
cated, and depicts the very natural conflict of feelings
which fills her mind. Her joy at returning to her
parents and the pleasure she anticipates from mixing
in society being mingled with regret at quitting the
convent in which she has passed some happy years,

110 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

and at parting from her friends and school-fellows.
Soon, however, the pleasures and interests of her
new life make her forget her regrets, as she finds
herself surrounded by all that adoring parents can
give their only child, and the admiration which her
beauty excites in everyone is received with a charm-
ing naivete and simplicity.

An excellent young man, whom her parents have
long fixed on as her future husband, comes to stay at
the house; but though she appreciates his good
qualities and is quite ready to make friends with
him, he fails to touch her heart, which is captivated
almost at once by the young owner of the neighbour-
ing chateau.

Seeing that her affection is returned, the parents,
with some regret, relinquish their cherished project
and consent to her betrothal with the man of her
choice, and it seems as though for once the course of
true love were destined to run smooth. But a
terrible storm is at hand. Mademoiselle D'Arvers is
loved not only by the man she loves, but by his
brother Gaston also. The discovery of this puts the
elder brother into a fury, which passes into a fit of
temporary insanity, in which he kills his brother.
No sooner has he fired the fatal shot than his
madness leaves him, and in bitterest shame and
remorse he gives himself up to justice. He is
tried and condemned, but while awaiting his

TOEU DTJTT. Ill

punishment, the insanity returns and he com-
mits suicide.

His unhappy fiance is crushed to the earth, feeling
most bitterly the humiliation of having been the
innocent cause of two men's death, whereby their
widowed mother is left desolate. By degrees her
affection for her parents and her religious faith
enable her to rouse herself from the state of pros-
tration and dejection consequent on the tragedy, and
she accepts somewhat reluctantly her mother's sug-
gestion, that, having wrecked the lives of two men
who loved her, it is her duty to do her best to make
the third one happy.

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

As will be seen from this short sketch, the concep-
tion is very crude, and the story is full of glaring
improbabilities. But in spite of these defects, in
spite of the unnecessarily tragic features, the story
is not an unpleasant one, and gives ample evidence
both of imagination and of knowledge of human
nature, as well as of the pure and spiritual nature of
the authoress which she reproduces in her heroine.

Sad, indeed, it is to think that such a gifted nature

112 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

should have been thus early cut off, and that its rich
promise of fruit should have been blighted before
time and experience had matured it. It has been
the case in all countries and in all times, but per-
haps the modern educated native of India is pecu-
liarly exposed to the danger. The premature
development of both mind and body does not seem
to be accompanied by that physical health which can
alone make great mental cultivation really safe, and
in too many cases the bodily frame is worn out in a
few years, and hopes of future achievements are
buried in an early grave. The danger, no doubt, is
increased for those who go to England or America,
and the damp cold of these countries has cost us
more than one life that seemed destined to play a
noble part in the work of regenerating Indian
society. Yet, perhaps, as we mourn these early
deaths, these gifted women taken from us, as we
think, all too soon, we may be at fault, and that for
them as well as for their country the poets words,
may be true —

The fairest gift that life can give
Is to die young.

113

VI.
CORNELIA SORABJI

ONE of the reasons which make it so difficult for
people who have not closely studied the history of
India to understand the intricate and delicate pro-
blems which are constantly presenting themselves in
regard to its modern development, is that there are
so many different races in the country, each per-
fectly distinct, with its own religion, language, and
traditions, and with no special bond of sympathy or
patriotism to draw them all together.

Of these various nationalities, the smallest nume-
rically, though by no means the least interesting, is
that of the Parsis. They are found scattered over
various parts of Upper India, but chiefly in the
Western Presidency, and by far the larger proportion
of them live in the city of Bombay itself, where they
form the richest and most influential portion of the
inhabitants. Their position in India may in many
respects be said to be analogous to that of the Jews

8

114 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

in western Europe. Like them they have lived for
centuries as exiles and aliens in a foreign land, keep-
ing themselves distinct from the people among whom
they dwelt, in their religion, their dress, and their
social customs, and seldom intermarrying with them.
Like them they have distinguished themselves by
their aptitude for business, their enterprise, and their
commercial prosperity, as well as by their loyalty to
the Government of the country, although, like the
Jews, the Parsis are seldom if ever to be found in
the ranks of the army.

As their name signifies, the Parsis came origi-
nally from Persia, and belong to the Iranian branch
of the Aryan family. The inhabitants of Persia,
in course of time, had corrupted the primeval
faith of their forefathers, and had sunk into gross
idolatry, when, according to tradition, about the
year B.C. 1200, Zoroaster began to preach and to
lead them back to a purer and true form of reli-
gion. His doctrines spread widely, and from that
time the Persians remained monotheists, worshipping
the Creator of the Universe under the outward sym-
bols of fire and light. During the seventh century
of our era the country was conquered by the Sara-
cens, who, being Mahomedans, forced the adoption of
their religion on all those they overcame, and spread
it with fire and sword. Although the Persians had
as a nation sunk into a condition of great effeminacy,

CORNELIA SORABJI. 115

and were unable to offer any serious resistance to
their fierce invaders, a nobler spirit still breathed in
some parts of the country, where the inhabitants, who
were chiefly engaged in agricultural and pastoral
pursuits, inherited some of the indomitable courage
and patience of their forefathers. Kather than ac-
cept the faith of the Saracens, which they looked on
as idolatrous, these people submitted to the most cruel
and unceasing persecution. They were driven from one
part of the country to another, until at last, despair-
ing of ever being able to remain in peace in their
native land, a remnant of them took ship and sailed
to India, where they landed on the western coast.
Here they were kindly received by the people, and
the rajah or prince of the place gave them permis-
sion to settle, and to exercise their religion without
molestation. During the thousand years that have
passed since their arrival in India, their history has
been very uneventful. When Timur invaded Northern
India, people called Magians are enumerated among
his prisoners, from which we may infer that the dis-
ciples of Zoroaster had already made their way into
the Punjab. Gradually the Parsis abandoned the
agricultural pursuits which had occupied them on
their first arrival, and, flocking to the towns and
cities, devoted themselves to commerce.

When the English became masters of Bombay and
of Surat, they found the Parsis established in both

8 *

116 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

places, and carrying on business as merchants,
bankers, and ship-builders ; and since that time they
have continued to flourish exceedingly, although it
would appear from the census returns that their
number is not increasing. In 1841 there were
114,000 Parsis in India, while in 1881 the number
was given as only 85,000.

As we have already said, the religion of Zoroaster,
which is still professed by the Parsis, is essentially
monotheistic. Dr. Haug, who is the great authority
on the subject, writes as follows : — " The leading
idea of Zoroaster's theology was monotheism : that
there are not many gods, but only one. The prin-
ciple of his speculative philosophy was dualism,
the supposition of two primeval causes of the real
world and of the intellectual ; while his moral
philosophy was moving in the triad of thought, word,
and deed." The Creator of the Universe is wor-
shipped under the name of Hormazd, or Ahrima
Mazda; while, according to the Parsi Scriptures,
there are working in subjection to the Supreme
Being two causes or principles, by whose agency he
is the Causer of all causes, the Creator and Destroyer
of all things. These two principles are Spento
Mainyush, the increasing or Creating Spirit, and
Angro Mainyush, the decreasing or Destroying Spirit.
And these two are ever at work, and have been from
all eternity, acting and counteracting on each other,

COENELIA SOBABJI. 117

but both in subjection to Him who is at once
the Lord of Life and Death, of Light and of
Darkness.

In addition to these, Parsi theology acknowledges
six immortal spirits or benefactors, who preside
severally over the vital faculty; light and bright-
ness ; rule, power, and wealth ; piety and obedience ;
prosperity ; and immortality. The idea of a future
life and of the resurrection of the body distinctly
pervades the sacred books, both the earlier and the
later ones alike.

The most ancient of these books are the Zend-
Avesta, which contain the main principles and
outlines of the Parsi religion, and which are written
in a language allied to, but distinct from, Sanskrit.
The later books are written in Pehlevi, which belongs
to the Iranian group of languages, and these are
frequently written in the Gujerati character, it being
in Gujerat that the Par sis first found a home in
India. It is in these latter books that the details
relating to religious ceremonies and customs must be
sought. Pehlevi is the language used on all re-
ligious occasions, the daily prayers of the Parsis
being said in this tongue, although it is to the
greater number of them quite unknown, so that they
repeat their prayers as a sacred duty, but with little
or no comprehension of the words they are using.

The Zoroastrians are frequently spoken of as being

118 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

worshippers of Fire and of the Sun, but it seems
clear that this is not really part of their religion.
" God, according to the Parsis, is the embodiment of
glory, refulgence, and light, and a Parsi engaged in
prayer is directed to stand before fire, or with face to
the sun, as proper symbols of the Almighty. Fire is
the best and noblest representative of the Divinity,
in its brightness, activity, purity, and incorrupti-
bility ; while the sun is the best and most useful of
God's creation."

Fire, then, is worshipped only, if at all, as the
representative of Him who is Himself Eternal Light,
and as such the practice is very ancient among
Aryan nations.

The principles of the Parsi religion, as sketched
above, are those which may fairly be deduced from
their sacred books, and such as are held by the most
enlightened and cultivated members of their com-
munity. But, like other religions, the beliefs actually
held by the more ignorant have become much cor-
rupted and debased.

In order to avoid persecution from their neigh-
bours, the Parsis at one time or another adopted
many Hindu customs ; they neglected the study of
their sacred books, and, as a natural consequence,
their religion became corrupted and almost idola-
trous. The vulgar and unlearned ceased to see in
fire only the symbol of Divine Light, and adored the

CORNELIA SORABJI. 119

visible flame, as well as the sun, moon, and stars.
They even lost sight of the truth that there was but
one God, and worshipped two spirits, one good and
one evil, whom they believed to be contending for the
dominion of the universe. In fact, like Brahminism,
Buddhism, and even Christianity itself, the religion
of Zoroaster has been greatly perverted by his fol-
lowers, and it would be unfair to judge its real
teachings by the beliefs held by its more ignorant
professors. Its real superiority to the other re-
ligions of India may, however, be gathered from its
effect on the people who profess it. The Parsis are
distinguished from both Hindus and Mahomedans by
their general good conduct and their high standard
of morality, as well as by their general healthiness.
Their average mortality is singularly low, especially
among the children. Their women occupy a far
more honourable and independent position than
either Hindu or Mahomedan women, and are uni-
versally allowed to be both good wives and good
mothers. They are not kept in seclusion, but drive
about in open carriages, with their faces uncovered,
wearing white shawls or sarees over their heads, and
a great deal of jewellery. The men wear a white or
black coat and white trousers, and a dark turban or
cap of a peculiar shape.

The Parsis seem to have inherited that charac-
teristic of their Persian forefathers which so struck

120 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

the Greeks, namely, the facility for adapting them-
selves to foreign manners and customs ; and they are
decidedly the most Europeanized of any of the
Asiatic inhabitants of India. In one particular,
however, they cling steadfastly to their national
custom, namely, with regard to the disposal of their
dead. These they neither hury nor burn, but expose
them, uncoffined, at the top of high towers, where
they are devoured by the birds. This custom appears
to us both unnatural and disgusting, but is de-
fended by them as being the best possible, because
the speediest, way of disposing of the dead bodies,
and as wise on sanitary grounds. Cremation, which
is frequently recommended on this latter ground,
they object to from religious scruples, Zoroaster
having taught that fire was too sacred a thing to be
profaned by a dead body.

The towers on which the bodies are exposed are
called Towers of Silence, and are, some of them, of
a great height. The highest at Bombay is over
ninety feet. It is considered a very meritorious
act to build such a tower, and the completion of
one is usually made the subject of a general
rejoicing.

It is frequently claimed for the Parsis, by their
own writers, that they are a very tolerant people, and
that while they have proved their fidelity to their own
faith even to the death, they have never persecuted

CORNELIA SOBABJI. 121

or ill-used members of other religions. It should,
however, be remembered that almost all religious
systems have been tolerant while they were them-
selves in a minority, and that the era of persecuting
intolerance has been that of power, so that the Parsis
have never really been in a position to exercise into-
lerance. It is, however, notorious that they do not
view with indifference the conversion of any members
of their own body to Christianity, and that a Parsi
who desires to throw in his lot with the Christians
must expect as many difficulties and troubles as
though he were a Mahomedan or a Hindu.

A very well-known instance of this occurred in the
case of the Kev. Sorabji Kharsedji, how a missionary
of the Church Missionary Society at Poona. He was
brought up strictly as a Parsi, but while pursuing his
school studies he became acquainted with the Bible,
which he read diligently and devoutly. The pure un-
selfish morality which he found there greatly at-
tracted him, and his heart answered to the idea of a
mediator and a Saviour as set forth in the New
Testament. In some of his own sacred books he had
found a dim echo of Isaiah's prophecy that a deli-
verer should arise, who would subdue all evil and
save his people from their sins, but the religious
system of the Parsis offered him no such friend.
Gladly, therefore, he accepted the truth as revealed
in Christ, and with a willing and teachable heart he

122 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

listened to the missionaries. At last he professed
himself a Christian. At once there burst upon him
such a storm of opposition as can be but faintly
realised by us who live in a Christian land. In the
graphic and touching words of one of his daughters,
" Imprisonment, desertion, stoning, were the least he
had to suffer. They sent him out oar-less and rudder-
less to sea, in a tiny boat once, hoping he would be
drowned, and added to all, of course, was the wrath
of his people ; his father and his uncle disinherited
him, and his mother died of a broken heart." But
the faith of the young convert was proof even
against such attacks as these ; the grief and anger
of his parents moved him no more than the perse-
cution and cruelty of the priests, and the existence
of British justice in the country prevented them from
carrying their opposition further. As soon as he had
attained the necessary age Mr. Sorabji was ordained,
and henceforth devoted his life to the work of the
Church Missionary Society. His labours have been
greatly blessed, both as a teacher and a preacher,
though, perhaps, his most important work has been
done with the pen. He is a member of the Committee
for translating the Bible into Gujerati, and has also
published a work on Zoroastrianism and Christianity.
In this book he not only shows how inferior is the
religion of the Parsis to that of the Christians, but
also shows good ground for denying that the Zend

CORNELIA SOBABJI.

Avesta is at all as ancient as it claims to be, or that
it is in any real sense the work of Zoroaster.

Mr. Sorabji married a Hindu convert to Chris-
tianity, and together they both laboured at Nassick,
where they are still remembered and welcomed with
affection, and where most of their children were born.

Mrs. Sorabji herself is a woman of rare intel-
lectual power, allied to a force of character and a
spiritual charm such as are seldom to be met with.
As six daughters were born to her one after another,
her neighbours gathered round her to condole with
her, because that no son had come to redeem the
family. According to Indian ideas a woman's hope
of happiness, on earth or after death, depends upon
her being the mother of a son, so that the birth of
daughters can only be considered a trouble and a
disgrace. But Mrs. Sorabji thought otherwise ;
already she had grasped the idea that the salvation
and regeneration of Indian society should be wrought
by its women, and she gazed proudly on her little
flock, and counted them all as sons.

The fifth daughter, born at Nassick in 1866,
received the name of Cornelia. Soon after her birth
her parents removed farther south, and the child's
first reminiscences are associated with a very lovely
place in the Dekkan. There many happy years were
spent, the early lessons being made delightful to the
children by the mother's sweet and imaginative teach-

124 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

ing. There were no kindergartens in India in those
days, but the little Sorabjis had a sort of kinder-
garten of their own. " We learnt to sing our letters,"
writes Cornelia, " to tunes mother made for them,
and to the names of our friends and acquaintances.
I remember a delightful alphabet, where A was for
* Appagi Bappaji,' who was god-father to one of my
sisters. We learnt to count over playing at ' shop '
with mother. Nature around us was invested with
life, and we were told stories of the birds and insects
which brought them near us, and unconsciously we
learnt Natural History. So with our writing; * the
soldiers ' and ' towers ' (strokes and pot-hooks) were
all part of a long delightful game which had no
end."

While the mother trained and educated the
younger children, the father devoted himself to the
elder girls. In that far away village in the Dekkan
there were but few opportunities for girls to learn
much; and the young Sorabjis soon got beyond
what could be taught them in the Church Missionary
School. Fortunately for them, their father was both
willing and able to teach them, and under him they
studied mathematics, science, and Sanskrit, until
they had reached the standard required for the
matriculation at the University of Bombay.

Education had been making great strides in the
Western Presidency, both for men and women, but

CORNELIA SORABJI. 125

the question of admitting the latter to University
examinations had not yet been mooted. Mr. Sorabji
then sent in an application for his two eldest
daughters to be admitted to the matriculation
examination at the Bombay University, and it was
refused.

This refusal was a great blow both to the father
and the daughters, but the effort they had made was
not without its effect.

The question had been raised, and though it was
some years before the matter was finally settled,
the fight between the advocates and the opposers of
women's education at last ended in the unconditional
admission of women to all the University examina-
tions.

The Sorabji family had now removed to Poona,
and Mrs. Sorabji, finding her time less fully occupied
as her children grew older, determined to put into
execution a plan which she had long been revolving
in her mind.

We cannot do better than quote her daughter's
words on the subject : — " It seemed to my mother
that the great question of how to bring the nations in
India together, could best be solved by making them
learn together as children. They worked together in
offices when grown, but their relations were strained
and unhappy, and if early friendships had been there
to recall, things might have been different ; for the

126 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

minds of all a more intimate knowledge of each other
would be beneficial."

A school, on much the same lines as those Mrs.
Sorabji was contemplating, had been started at
Ahmedabad under Government auspices in 1872,
by the name of the Female Normal School, and its
success was already assured. It was attended by
women of all the better classes in Gujerat, and it
was found that the intercourse of the pupils with
each other did much towards overcoming their caste
prejudices.

Ten years after its foundation it had sent out
thirty-six well-trained teachers, and the work of
the pupils, especially map-drawing, plain needle-
work, and embroidery was such as to elicit the
warm commendation of the Government inspec-
tors.

In 1875 the work of the school was not as widely
known as it has since become, but its success during
the three years it had then been in existence, was
sufficiently marked to encourage Mrs. Sorabji in the
idea of establishing a somewhat similar institution
at Poona.

The school she founded there, and which is known
as the Victoria High School, was in many respects
different in its working from that of the normal
schools, being as far as possible on the same lines as
English high schools, and its success has been so

CORNELIA SORABJI. 127

remarkable that more than one school has been
modelled after it in other places.

In the Victoria High School Europeans, Parsees,
Brahmans, Jews, and Mahomedans are successfully
taught together, and the numbers attending it are
constantly on the increase. At the present time the
High School itself has about 150 pupils ; but there is
also a branch school in connection with it, a large
and flourishing kindergarten school, and a depart-
ment in which older girls are prepared for the
matriculation examination of the University of
Bombay.

Since the opening of the Victoria High School
Mrs. Sorabji has succeeded in establishing three other
large schools in Poona. One of these is for children
who understand nothing but the vernacular, or
Marathi language ; another is intended for young
Mahomedan girls of good family, who are not allowed
to attend mixed schools ; and the third undertakes
the task of training teachers, and is almost the only
institution of the kind in the Bombay Presidency.

In the working of these schools Mrs. Sorabji has
been assisted almost from the commencement by one
or more of her daughters, and at the present time no
less than four of them help her regularly : the eldest
is assistant superintendent ; the second teaches
music ; another is head mistress of the High School,
'where she specially manages the upper forms ; while

128 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

another devotes herself to teaching in the kinder-
garten ; in addition to which one daughter, who holds
an appointment under Government, but who lives at
home, devotes all her spare hours to the work of the
schools. Two of these girls served an apprenticeship
for some time as assistant teachers under Miss-
Collett in the Female Normal School at Ahmedahad,
so that there is ample justification for the generous-
pride with which Cornelia Sorabji speaks of her
mother and sisters as having done much for the
cause of education in Western India, and as having
been the means of bringing knowledge and enlighten-
ment to many dark and ignorant minds.

We must return, however, to Cornelia herself-
She was only nine years old when the Victoria High
School was started, and she immediately took her
place as one of its pupils. Three years later she
began to help in the teaching, though continuing her
own studies at the same time, and later on she passed
through a course in the training school established
by her mother. The sister next above her was her
special instructress, and it was to her teaching that
she ascribed her success, when, at sixteen, she went
up for matriculation at Bombay. Having passed this
examination, she was not content, like many other
students, with what she had already achieved ; suc-
cess only increased her desire to learn more and to
continue her course up to the degree. In order to do

CORNELIA SOEABJI. 129

this, it was necessary for her to keep terms at a
Government college ; accordingly, she was entered as
a student at the Dekkan College at Poona, and while
continuing to live at home, she drove every day to
the college for her work.

For a time, at any rate, her experiences there were
anything but pleasant. She was the only girl
student at the college, and her position as such was
not an easy one, among three hundred men students,
who looked on her as an intruder, and who had never
been trained as English men and boys are, to look
upon a woman with respect and to treat her with
consideration and courtesy. On the contrary, these
young Indian students had been accustomed from
their boyhood to hear the women of their family
spoken of with contempt, and to see them treated
as inferior beings ; and it is not to be wondered at
that they made Miss Sorabji's life as unpleasant as
they could. They stared at her rudely, they played
practical jokes upon her, shut the doors of the class-
rooms in her face, and tried to keep her out of
lectures. All this, however, she bore with patient
good-humour, determined not to be driven out,
because she felt that she was a pioneer in the cause
of her countrywomen's advancement, and that as
such she must be ready to endure a great deal. All
the students, moreover, did not behave so badly to
her ; her own countrymen, the Parsis, were uni-

9

130 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

formly courteous and civil, showing in their good
manners the result of the more enlightened views
with regard to women in which they had been
brought up.

Miss Sorabji worked at the college five hours every
day, but she had also to study several hours at home
in order to get through her work, which she found
rather hard. She does not appear to have studied
Latin at all before she began her college course, so
she had, as she says, " to put five years of Latin into
one." Since that time French has been introduced
into the University course, as an alternative for
Latin in the case of women students ; but it was not
so then, and the regular curriculum was a fairly diffi-
cult one for a student whose previous education, good
as it had been, had not been conducted on exactly
the same lines. However, on the whole, Miss Sorabji
enjoyed her college days. The lectures she always
found delightful, and even the examinations were to
her a source of real pleasure. Nor were her exertions
unsuccessful; besides the real pleasure which she
found in study, she obtained substantial rewards of
another kind. She was a college scholar each year
of her course ; she won the Havelock prize, and the
Hughling's Scholarship of the Bombay University,
which is awarded to the highest candidate in the
First Arts Examination. At each examination she
took honours, and in the final examination for the

CORNELIA SORABJI. 181

degree, in 1887, she was one of four in the first class
of the University list, and stood at the head of all
the students from the Dekkan College.

While waiting for the results of the examination to
be made known, Miss Sorabji resumed work in the
Poona Schools, throwing herself into the work of
teaching others with the same whole-hearted enthu-
siasm which she had displayed in learning for
herself.

At the end of a month the lists were published,
and great were the rejoicings at the distinctions she
had won, not only in her own family circle, but
among all who were at all interested in watching the
development of education among Indian women.

Almost immediately afterwards she received the
offer of a teaching Fellowship in the Gujerat College
at Ahmedabad. This she refused, being anxious to
devote her time and talents to the education of
women rather than of men ; but when, a short time
after, she was again offered a Fellowship at the same
college, and found that the authorities had created a
new one expressly to meet the demands she had
made, she felt that she could not again refuse. It
seemed, indeed, to her that there must be work for
her to do at Ahmedabad, and believing that " it
would do Indian men good to be ruled for a time by
a woman," and " also that if Indian women were
ever to be raised, it must be by the respect gained for

9 *

132 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

the sex by certain members of it," she made up her
mind to go.

It was a formidable undertaking, and one which
required no small amount of moral courage. It had
been hard enough to find herself the only girl at the
Dekkan College ; but then she had her home to go
back to every day, and the sympathy of her parents
and sisters to help and encourage her.

Now she had to leave home altogether, and alone
to appear before a large body of young men, not as
their fellow- student, but as their teacher. It was an
ordeal which few girls of twenty-one would have
sustained with equanimity, but she came through it
unscathed. She writes of it thus : " I do not like to
recall my first lecture ; but the men behaved well.
One rather dreaded contest was all I have to record,
and a little sarcasm cured the men. I found them
docile and very appreciative."

Her work was to lecture to a class of men on
English Literature and Language, her pupils being
candidates preparing both for the Previous Examina-
tion and the two examinations for the B.A. degree ;
and she soon won her way by her quiet decision of
character and ready tact. It was a great victory;
for it demonstrated to all who were willing to be con-
vinced, that an Indian woman may not only possess
marked intellectual abilities, but also those qualities
of character which are of greater importance and

COBNELIA SORABJI. 133

more lasting value, and which must be held to
entitle her, without question, to honour and respect.

Three months after Miss Sorabji's appointment as
Fellow, she received an acting appointment as Pro-
fessor of English in the college. The work of this
appointment is usually performed by the English
Principal of the College, but owing to the absence of
this gentleman, a vacancy occurred for about six
months, during which time Miss Sorabji performed
the duties and received the salary of the English
professor.

It was a great honour to be awarded to one so
young, and it was doubly welcome, as it enabled her
to put by some money towards the expenses of a visit
to England, on which she had set her heart. Not
content with the successes she had already gained in
India, Miss Sorabji desired to prosecute her studies
still further, and her great ambition was, if possible,
to go through a course at some college preparatory
to passing the Degree Examination of one of our
universities.

The Government of India, in order to encourage
students to go to England, have established several
scholarships, and Miss Sorabji hoped to be able to
obtain one of them. But although her qualifications in
other respects would have fully entitled her to it, the
Government decided that it could only be held by a
man. It was a cruel disappointment, and when, in

134 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

1888, the selected scholar succumbed to sea-sicknees
on his way to England and returned home from Aden,
her hopes revived, for she felt confident of passing
the ordeal by water. But again her application was
refused, and it became evident that if she was to go
to England at all, she must depend on her own exer-
tions and on such help as she could obtain from the
friends of women's education.

She had saved about ^60 out of her salary, and
had borrowed about as much from friends in India.
This was enough, at any rate, to pay her passage to
England and back; and, having received a warm
invitation from Miss Manning, the Hon. Secretary
of the National Indian Association, and a promise of
help from friends in England, she resigned her post
in the Gujerat College and set out on her journey of
faith and hope.

Miss Sorabji was not allowed to leave Ahmedabad
without many tokens of the appreciation in which her
work was held by all. Her pupils presented her with
a farewell address, accompanied by a present of Cutch
silverwork, and the Principal of the College gave her
a very handsome testimonial. It ran as follows : —

" Miss Cornelia Sorabji having passed the exami-
for the degree of B.A. in the First Class, was
appointed a Dakshina Fellow in the Guzerat College,
for the year 1888. As a teacher in the college, she
did her work with remarkable ability and tact, in a-

COKNELIA SORABJI. 135

very quiet and unassuming way, at the same time
that she exercised complete control over the students.
Whatever work was entrusted to her, she did it in the
most satisfactory manner, leaving nothing to be
desired.

" I had recently, on a vacancy occurring, recom-
mended Miss Sorabji for a Professorship in this
college, and I still wish that she may be allowed to
continue her connection with this college, where she
has already done such good work. By her brilliant
University and College career, and by her excellent
work as a teacher this year, Miss Sorabji has shown
that she is pre-eminently fitted to supply in her
person the great want felt in many towns and in the
Native States, namely, a thoroughly able and quali-
fied lady superintendent for girls' schools.

" Miss Cornelia Sorabji will carry with her the
good wishes of all her colleagues in this college.
(Signed) " J. A. DALAL, M.A.,

Principal,
" Guzerat College, Ahmedabad."

It was some disappointment to Miss Sorabji on her
arrival in England to find that the only actual degree
attainable by women was that of the University of
London, and that the course for that degree, as well
as that for the Tripos Examinations at Cambridge,
was both too long and too expensive for the time and
means at her command.

136 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

The course laid down by the University of Oxford,
however, seemed to offer special advantages, and a
scholarship of ^£25 a year at Somerville Hall having
been awarded to her, she took up her residence there
at the beginning of the October term 1888. Miss
Sorabji was advised to devote her time chiefly to the
study of English Literature, with a view of taking,
honours in that subject, in which she had already
shown herself so well informed ; and she worked at
this for some time. However, the opening of the
Honour School of Law at Oxford to women turned
Miss Sorabji' s ideas in a new direction, and she thought
that by qualifying herself in this subject she might
be able to open out a new career for women in India.
She is now, therefore, studying law, and her answers
at the last examination were such as to call forth
warm expressions of praise from the examiners, and
to make her friends hope that her success in the
final examination will be very marked.

Miss Sorabji has made many warm friends since
she came to England, and the assistance which they
have given towards continuing her studies has been
prompted as much by personal affection as by admira-
tion for her abilities and her brave endeavours.

When Miss Sorabji first came to England she was
frequently asked to .speak at missionary meetings,
especially at those in support of Zenana Missions ;
but, under medical advice, she has now been obliged

CORNELIA SOEABJI. 137

to give this up, as her health is by no means very
robust, and the exertion of speaking in public is more
than she can stand.

It may be mentioned here that Mrs. Sorabji paid a
visit to England in 1886, at the invitation of the
Indian Female School and Zenana Missionary
Society, and made many friends, who were prepared
to welcome her daughter when she arrived two years
later.

Mrs. Sorabji herself is, as has already been said, a
woman of great character and keen intellect. She was
one. of the witnesses examined by the Commission on
Indian Education in 1882, and her evidence given at
Poona was considered very valuable, both from her own
position as one of the leading educationalists in the
Bombay Presidency, and from her intimate acquaint-
ance with the needs of native society. She stated
on this occasion that she did not consider that " home
education " for either boys or girls in India was of
much value, except as a supplement to what they
were taught at school. In fact, it was her opinion
that education, in the proper sense of the word, must
begin with women, if it was to be of any use to the
men, because it was the mother's influence which
was strongest in moulding the child's character ; and
for this reason she thought no trouble or expense
should be spared to raise the standard of female
education in India.

* 10

138 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN.

While Mrs. Sorabji was in England in 1886, the
work of her schools was ably carried on by her
daughters ; but her absence was keenly felt in every
department of missionary work at Poona.

Her husband wrote thus : "I feel as though I had
lost my right hand. Often, when I have been in need
of her wise counsel and prompt action, I have been
forced to wait and hesitate. The mercy and wisdom
of God in providing a help-meet for man never came
home to me so forcibly before. I must take this
opportunity of observing that my wife, who is still in
England, speaks with heart-felt gratitude of the
kindness and love shown to her by people in that
Christian land."

Mrs. Sorabji's schools are now partly supported
by a Government grant-in-aid, a clear proof of the
value attached to them ; she has made them over to
a society, so that they may be carried on on the same
lines when she and her daughters are no longer there
to direct them.

That some members, however, of this remarkable
family may long continue to work in Poona we may
reasonably hope. The youngest Miss Sorabji 'already
gives promise of emulating her elder sister's achieve-
ments, for she has recently matriculated at Bombay,
though only fourteen, and she stood nineteenth in
order of merit among nearly three thousand candi-
dates ; she, however, intends to be a doctor.

CORNELIA SORABJI. 139

The success achieved by Mrs. Sorabji and her
daughters is no doubt exceptional, and it must not be
supposed that every Indian woman to whom the
same advantages may be offered would make as
good a use of them. They have, however, proved
beyond all possible doubt that Indian women are,
under favourable circumstances, quite as capable as
English women of high educational development, and
moreover, that such development renders them all
the better qualified to serve their generation, either
in the domestic circle as wives, mothers, and
daughters, or in the more extended sphere of teachers
and workers.

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