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The Education of the Women of India
[Illustration: A Parsi Girl]
The Education of
the Women of India
By
MINNA G. COWAN, M.A. (+T.C.D.+)
Girton College
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration]
Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier
Edinburgh and London
PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH
Preface
It has been well said that no Western should attempt to make any
general statement about inscrutable India; the most he can venture
to say is, that “in certain places certain things which he saw may
possibly have been what he thought they really were.” The present
volume is therefore based upon appearances which may or may not have
represented reality, upon conversations with Government officials,
missionaries and Indian friends, who kindly gave of their leisure
to a stranger, and upon the study of Government Reports. Where any
generalization has been made, the writer trusts it will be taken with
the reservations which a very brief residence in the East renders
needful. If the book help the women of the West to realize how critical
is the present evolutionary period in the education of the women of
India, especially in its relation to constructive Christianity, it
will not have failed of its purpose.
My thanks are specially due to Miss Richardson and Miss M’Dougall
of Westfield College for aid in revision, to many friends for their
unstinted help, and to the Faculty of Advocates for the use of their
Library.
M. G. C.
+EDINBURGH+, _July 1912_.
To
the
G. A.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. +INTRODUCTION+ 13
II. +HISTORICAL SURVEY+ 29
III. +BURMA+ 60
IV. +EASTERN BENGAL AND ASSAM+ 78
V. +BENGAL+ 100
VI. +INTERESTING INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES
AND THE PUNJĀB+ 129
VII. +SIDELIGHTS ON SOME NATIVE STATES+ 146
VIII. +BOMBAY+ 160
IX. +UNIVERSITY EDUCATION+ 192
X. +THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION+ 223
XI. +CONCLUSION+ 244
+BIBLIOGRAPHY+ 253
+INDEX+ 254
Illustrations
A Parsi Girl _Frontispiece_
OPPOSITE PAGE
Government Examination of Girls, Calcutta 52
Girls at St Luke’s Mission, Toungoo, Burma 62
Ghurka Girl Boarder at S.P.G. Girls’ School,
Mandalay 68
A Hill School, Eastern Bengal 80
High School Class, Eastern Bengal 90
Four Scholarship Girls. United Free Church
Mission School for Hindus, Calcutta 120
Standards I. to IV. United Free Church Mission
School for Hindus, Calcutta 126
The Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow 136
C.M.S. Middle School, Amritsar--Hoop Drill 142
The Alphabet Class, Nasirabad 156
The University Settlement Students’ Hostel,
Bombay 208
Ludhiana School of Medicine--Hospital Court
Yard with Patients 216
Statistical Tables
TABLE CHAP. PAGE
I. Management of Girls’ Schools. All India II. 48
II. Classification by Race or Creed. All India II. 49
III. Management of Girls’ Schools. Burma III. 65
IV. Classification by Race or Creed. Burma III. 70
V. Comparative Figures. Bengal (Footnote [82] reference) V. 107
VI. Management of Girls’ Schools. Bengal V. 108
VII. Management of Girls’ Schools. United Provinces VI. 132
VIII. Management of Girls’ Schools. Bombay VIII. 168
IX. Classification by Race or Creed. Bombay VIII. 169
X. Classification of College Students IX. 197
XI. Diagram of University Courses IX. 204
APPENDIX
PAGE
A. Matriculation Course 250
B. Teachers’ Certificates 251
C. Growth of Female Education in India 252
I
INTRODUCTION
“That is true knowledge which can make
Us mortals saintlike, holy, pure,
The strange thirst of the spirit slake
And strengthen suffering to endure.”
+TORU DUTT.+
To write a book on the education of Indian women is a prosaic action
impelled by Western devotion to matter of fact; it would be more
fitting to write of the veil of mystic romance which has hidden the
sorrows and the joys of Indian women from the world; of the Rajput
women who issued from the royal zenana to lead a forlorn cause against
their country’s foes, or passed by hundreds to a fiery death rather
than touch the conqueror’s hand; of those whose intrigue and strategy
were redeemed from falseness by underlying devotion to others, of those
who rose above the symbols of ritual and worship to the true perception
of the Divine in life. But the modern world of the East has its own
romance, that of the meeting of diverse civilizations, of the craving
for truth and reality, of multitudes in the valley of decision. The
old chivalry is there in a new form. It is not a little thing to open
the door of self-realization, with its opportunity for an even greater
selflessness, to the myriads of Indian women. The new thought and new
ideals which are permeating the whole East have no more striking phase
than their manifestation in the life of women. The tentative attitude
towards growing freedom, the hesitation to enter in and possess, the
recurring tragedy of those who are ahead of their times, and of others
for whom the new wine is too strong, are only partial aspects of a
problem which cuts deep into modern civilization. The women who live
behind the veil in India, or who, though without, are utterly untouched
by modern education and modern ideas, are still the vast majority,
and there is in no sense a Feminist movement such as exists in Japan
and to a certain extent in China; still, the new type is there, the
pioneer in a transitional period and the fruit of modern education. A
Mohammedan lady of good social standing in Bombay keeps a school for
poor girls in her own house, and has completely given up _parda_;
Brāhma-Samāj[1] ladies are doing excellent work on Government Education
Committees; an orthodox Hindu lady goes on tour to advocate a special
system of Hindu schools; an Ārya Samāj[2] widow staffs a school for
high-caste girls in her own house with entirely voluntary teachers.
An excellent Ladies’ Magazine is edited by an Indian woman graduate
in Madras. A Parsi woman holds the position of Legal Adviser for
_parda-nashin_[3] women to the Government of Bengal. Indian women
are found doing excellent work as doctors, and a few as principals of
girls’ schools. It would be easy to multiply examples not only of those
who have taken up definite professional life, but also of others who
share in the work and interests of their husbands as closely as any
woman of the West, and who use their social influence on the side of
progress; the Maharani of Baroda has written a book to interpret to
her more secluded countrywomen the many phases of the Englishwoman’s
life; the Begum of Bhopal, on her return from the Coronation, summoned
the Ladies’ Club of her capital to exhort them once more on the
never-failing theme of education as the root of all progress; the Rani
of Gondal and many other Indian princesses take a personal interest in
the welfare of their people. The same phase is also to be seen in other
ranks; we find the orthodox Hindu wife of an Indian Deputy Commissioner
accompanying him on tour through his district, rather than that he
should live the greater part of his life apart from her.[4] Then there
are the transitional types, women who venture thus far and tremble on
the brink of many complicated problems; the wives of “England-returned”
men, whose anglicized husbands have done their best to educate them,
and by leading them painfully through the new ideas to bring them,
to some extent at least, into the “reformed life.”[5] There is much
that is pathetic here, and the tragedy of “The Broken Road,” has its
counterpart to-day in the heart of many an Indian girl, who knows that
the husband who is studying in Britain will, when he returns, have
entered a new world in which she can never share. And so by many stages
one passes back to the old, the real, India, where the woman graduates
in suffering, and where the babies seem to grow, with no stage of
girlhood, into little women on whom the burden of life falls heavily.
Yet who can say whether the influence of these “secluded ones” is not
even yet the most potent factor in modern India?
The “advanced ones” have their corporate life, and one of the most
interesting features in India to-day is the number of women’s societies
which are springing up, partly in conjunction with European ladies and
partly by entirely spontaneous effort. The traveller accustomed to read
of secluded Indian ladies would be surprised to visit the Princess
Mary Victoria Gymkhana in Bombay and meet Parsi, Mohammedan and Hindu
women playing croquet and Badminton, or having tea with their friends,
and even entertaining men of their acquaintance twice a year. It is
true that Parsi influence marks off the social life of Bombay from that
of more conservative India, but the Bombay women do not always remain
in Bombay. Some of the societies are linked with the various religious
movements, others are purely social and educational. One society, the
_Bharat Stri Mahamandal_, in the United Provinces and in Bengal,
has been founded by Hindu and Moslem women, but is intended to include
all sympathizers. Its aim is “to form a common centre for all women
thinkers and co-workers of every race, creed, class, and party in India
to associate themselves together for the progress of humanity.”[6]
Another, the _Gujerati Stri Mandal_, in Bombay, is a purely Hindu
society, which aims at bringing many of the Gujerati women, who keep
_parda_, into contact with other women, and has a definite if
somewhat ambitious educational programme. _The Seva Sadan_, or
Sisters Ministrant, a society established in Bombay in 1909, with four
branches, is under a united committee of Hindu, Mohammedan, and Parsi
representatives, and aims at philanthropic and educational work. “In
the name of Him, Who has given us so many benedictions, we call upon
every woman to become a Benediction, and we call upon all who realize
that India’s two great sins are her sin against women and her sin
against the depressed, to help us in creating Sisters Ministrant.”[7]
The vow which these Sisters Ministrant are called upon to take, is to
“look upon life as a sacred trust for loving, self-sacrificing service,
and to do such service. So help me God.” It is true that when the
high idealism of this prospectus and report are compared with actual
fact, there is evident a certain lack of reality, characteristic of
many Indian schemes. Still, good work, not unlike that of a London
Settlement, is being actually done by two splendid women at the
society’s Settlement in Bombay, and idealism never fails of its
ultimate fruit.
No account of the corporate life of Indian women would be complete
without mention of the National Indian Association, which, though
organized from London, has many Indian ladies as secretaries or
committee members of its Ladies’ Branches in India. Amongst its
many activities one of the most effective has been the holding of
_parda_ lectures and other gatherings for the encouragement of
education, and scholarships are also awarded through it to suitable
candidates. Apart from all organization, the _parda_ party, pure
and simple, whether given by the wives of Government officials, or by
private individuals, has its own part to play. The honour of holding
the first of these, as a species of feminine _durbar_, belongs
probably to Lady Amherst.[8] At the request of the famous Baiza Pai,
wife of the Maharaj of Scindhia, she received a deputation of Maratha
ladies at Agra in 1827, and the account translated from a Persian
letter by one of the guests reveals the quaint misconception of all
things Western under which the deputation laboured. The number of Lord
Amherst’s supposed wives, the English “nautch girls,” who played the
table with the ivory teeth, the strange attitude of the English ladies,
reveal a world far apart, and though the modern _parda_ party may
not be needed to-day to dispel such extreme delusions, it is still a
meeting ground for worlds far apart, and the source of many new ideas
to both English and Indian ladies. These gatherings and societies
have an extraordinary influence especially on those who have fought
shy of the proffered friendship of the missionaries, or of Government
educational effort, and they certainly count for much in the breaking
down of artificial barriers to progress.
The “secluded ones” of the real India have no corporate life and belong
to no society save that of the family. The unit of Indian civilization
is the family, and where that word includes the joint-family to
remote degrees, one may perhaps faintly understand what the corporate
influence of the women of the household means, and measure it against
the impotence of a mere society.
Such in all its variety is the diverse life of the women of India
to-day, the meeting-place of two civilizations, and fraught with untold
consequences and influences for the future. Hitherto the weight of
woman’s opinion has been conservative and religious. “A combination
of enforced ignorance and overdone religion have not only made women
in India willing victims of customs unjust and hurtful in the highest
degree, but it has also made them the most formidable because the most
effective opponents of all change or innovation.”[9] But signs have not
been wanting to show that this same influence has been inflammatory of
revolution and sedition, and instances are given, by a recent writer,
of ladies’ meetings in which sympathy was extended even to anarchists
who had been guilty of murder, and in which ladies gathered together
in zenanas were urged to do all they could to advance a mischievous
propaganda.[10] True, this kind of influence is not widespread, but it
is a natural result when impressionable characters are brought into
contact with ideas which they have not the knowledge nor opportunity
of weighing aright. There is the farther risk of recoil from enforced
restraint towards the liberty which is not a law unto itself. The
slavish imitation of the West which has marred much of the modern
movement in the past and from which the Swadeshi of to-day is a
reaction, is even more repellent in the life of women than of men,
and the Indian world would lose much of its fascination and charm if
instead of a rehabilitation of the ancient ideals of womanhood the
modern type were to develop merely as a denationalized caricature.
The classic Indian ideal of womanhood, with its wonderful vicarious
suffering, its selflessness and devotion, is enough to make the world
weep, yet it may be that it has proved throughout the centuries one
of the subtlest temptations to the strong. “It is a terrible thing,”
writes Sister Nivedita, who made the Hindu woman’s life her own; “it
dwarfs the wife. I often think that it would be good for the husbands
themselves if their wives were less soft and good.” But the glory and
the grace of it may live, and its gentle womanliness transfigure modern
life. The Indian woman need lose none of those qualities which made her
loved in Vedic times, but may prove to the world that she is conscious
of her own heritage and capable of choosing only what is good from the
life of the West.
History is made quietly, and the modern movement for the education
of the women of India and its guidance along right lines is a matter
of Imperial importance. On education of some sort they will insist.
The latest Quinquennial Report (1907) shows an increase in the
period of over 45 per cent. of the total number of girls at school,
and since then some districts show even more.[11] The emphasis at
present laid on girls’ schools is in part the result of the general
educational ferment in India. One hundred years have elapsed since
Lord Minto wrote his famous letter to the Directors of the East
India Company, animadverting on the decay of Hindu and Mohammedan
science and learning; this letter was followed two years later by the
decision to spend a lac of rupees annually for educational purposes,
a paltry sum in comparison with the Government’s educational outlay
to-day, yet representing the inauguration of a new policy. The great
principles of the systematic introduction of Western learning,
with the English language as a medium of instruction in the higher
stages; of the possession of English education as the criterion for
Government service; of the direct responsibility of the State for
secular instruction only, together with the encouragement of voluntary
effort on other lines by a policy of grants-in-aid, have borne fruit
far beyond the imagination of those who laid them down in the early
half of last century. A vast system has grown up: five Universities
with magnificent Government and missionary colleges, a network of
Primary and Secondary schools both in British territory and the
Native States, an Educational Department in every province under a
Director of Public Instruction, centralized till recently under a
Director-General, an expenditure in 1907 of public funds amounting
to 559 lacs, and, along with all this, to-day, a grave criticism,
representing various shades of political and religious opinion, of the
work done, with a questioning of its beneficial influence and of the
fundamental principles involved. Good results there certainly have
been, but there is a tendency to-day to emphasize the weak points in
the system rather than to lay stress on the actual good done, as always
happens in a world bent on reform. The main points of the indictment
brought against the system by current journalism are briefly these:
an educated minority has been created, while only 28.7 per cent. of
the present generation of boys are at school; the ranks of the lower
Government services are overcrowded, and disappointed candidates turn
only too readily to sedition; the Code tends to an abnormal development
of the repetitive faculty; intellect is emphasized at the expense of
character; the whole tendency is to take away from the Indian child
his own historical heritage of thought and feeling. The Government is
now devoting careful attention to the whole problem in its relation
to the general political situation. In January 1911, a new Central
Department of Education was formed, with a representative on the
Governor-General’s Council. Under its auspices a special Conference
of the higher educational officials and others was recently held at
Allahabad to discuss outlines of future policy, with special emphasis
on the burning topics of Primary education and moral teaching.
Lord Hardinge personally visited incognito some of the students’
“Messes”[12] in Calcutta to see the facts with his own eyes. The boon
granted at the Durbar includes an additional expenditure of fifty lacs
of rupees for educational purposes.
Apart from Government there is an expression in Indian circles of
the sense of crisis, and of the need for the extension of popular
education. Though doubtless engineered by a minority, still it is
not without value. The Indian National Congress and the All-Indian
Moslem League have passed resolutions in favour of compulsory Primary
education which show some sense of what education really means. “Its
universal diffusion is a matter of primary importance, for literacy
is better than illiteracy; education is something more than the
mere capacity to read and write. It means a keener enjoyment of
life and a more refined standard of living. It means the greater
moral and economic efficiency of the individual.” In March 1911, Mr
Gokhale introduced his Bill for Compulsory Primary Education to the
Governor-General’s Council, and thereby awakened discussion throughout
the country. Idealistic it certainly is, when the dearth of trained
teachers is considered and the conservatism of the real India taken
into account, but it marks the trend of a certain section of Indian
opinion. There is, moreover, a movement on the part of others for the
establishment of Mohammedan and Hindu Universities, as a reaction from
the secularism of the Government institutions.
It is not the purpose of this book to analyse such criticism but merely
to show its relation to the problem of women’s education. To some
thinkers the most fundamental flaw in the whole system has seemed the
development of one-half of the community far beyond that of the other.
In spite of recent progress the literate percentage is 10.50 for men,
and only 10.4 for women;[13] the removal of this discrepancy might mean
the raising of the whole of social life and go far towards the solution
of other problems. Hence in every district there are ardent advocates
of female education. “A realization of the necessity for an educated
and emancipated womanhood is now no longer confined to those sections
of the community which are directly influenced by Christianity, but
is laying hold of Eastern nations as a whole.”[14] Hardly a Congress
or debating society exists which does not pass resolutions thereon,
hardly an Indian journal which does not emphasize the importance of the
feminine factor. “Upon the condition of women depends the happiness and
prosperity of the homes. Upon their fitness will hinge the evolution
of our character. The schools and universities may make us highly
intellectual, but as for character we must look to the home and the
home alone. Let us frankly say to the Indian girl: ‘Here, child of God,
take this key to the portals of knowledge: it belongs to you by right
of birth. Enter then fearlessly and behold the beauty and the joys it
reveals.’”[15] There is nothing more striking than the emphasis which
is laid in these articles on the sanction found in the Vedic classics
for the education of women and on the modern movement as a renaissance,
and not an overthrow of ancient Aryan ideas. The Mohammedan case is
a more difficult one to prove, but there are writers, such as Ameer
Ali, strongly influenced by the Christian ideas of the West, who
attempt it in spite of the Koran.[16] There is the even bolder spirit
of those who hold that “though all the sacred _mantras_[17] were
against it,” the education of her women is the only solution of India’s
problem. The slow infiltration of the Christian ideal of woman has
had its effect and the influence of missionary educational work has
gained an increased momentum by the change in the Indian attitude.
True, the conservative influence is still there with much of the old
strength, as will be indicated in succeeding chapters, not only amongst
the orthodox but amongst the more advanced. An Indian Reform Journal
can still publish an advertisement of an undergraduate who desires
a wife of eleven years, educated in Hindi and domestic matters. Such
are the strange anomalies and contradictions of a country which defies
generalizations. There is, however, abundant evidence to show that
we have arrived at a highly critical period, in which the whole may
be sacrificed to a part, in which, through lack of considering the
question in all its bearings, the mistakes from which the education of
men in India has not been wholly free may be repeated and intensified
in the case of the women, and in which the opportunity of developing a
national system in line with modern educational science may be lost.
The present volume is an attempt to sift this evidence in the different
localities visited, and to give, in so far as is possible to a writer
who has no expert knowledge of Indian problems, an accurate description
of the conditions of girls’ education, and of the three contributing
factors, the Government, the missionary, and spontaneous Indian
effort. Where other localities have been treated the intention has
been to show that the same factors and, to a certain extent, the same
problems prevail. The survey is in no sense exhaustive; the State of
Bhopal, which doubtless presents many interesting features, is not
included. The great districts of South India and the Madras Presidency,
where women’s education is well developed, have unfortunately had
to be omitted, and any generalization made must be taken with this
reserve. The geographical division has been adopted, not because
the same problems do not to a certain extent repeat themselves but
because of the varying environment in which they are cast through
diverse religious and social influences. A brief historical survey
is included to indicate the general situation as well as certain
outstanding features which are present throughout the whole country. No
constructive theory is offered, but the need of such in relation to the
moving life of the East and the impact of Christianity upon it is made
apparent.
The moral and religious problem lies at the basis of all education and
is at the present moment that most acutely felt in India. A system
perfected in every technical detail and embracing the whole country
would prove a disintegrating and disastrous force if it lacked the
religious basis for the training of character. Yet its provision
through the highest revelation of religion is fraught with immense
difficulty in a country of diverse and conflicting faiths. A secular
policy for the education of boys has already produced its fruits,
and may serve as a warning in the new feminine problem. In a final
chapter this question is touched upon in its relation to the ultimate
Christianization of Indian thought and life.
II
HISTORICAL SURVEY
“We have now before us in that vast congeries of people we call India,
a long slow march in uneven stages through all the centuries from the
fifth to the twentieth.”
The history of the education of women in India must keep in view the
three conflicting ideals of womanhood which have dominated Indian
society at different epochs. These are the Vedic, the Moslem, and
the Christian or Western. While our main concern is with the last, a
brief glance into the early ages is necessary for a full comprehension
of the conflicting currents found in the modern epoch. In the early
Vedic times women apparently enjoyed an equal status with men. There
was no child-marriage, no seclusion in the zenana, no _sati_, no
prohibition of the re-marriage of widows. Ladies of culture composed
hymns and performed sacrifices as men did. Some even remained
unmarried and had their share of the paternal property. There are
many passages in the Brāhmanas which show the high esteem in which
women were held. Gārgā Vāchaknavi, a learned lady, is mentioned as
taking active part in a great assembly of learned men summoned by
Janaka, King of the Videhas, to decide which of them would prove the
wisest. There is a celebrated conversation between Yajnavalkya and his
learned wife Maitreyi on the possible comprehension of the infinite
by the finite.[18] “One poem, the Bhagwan Manu, prescribes a positive
punishment for parents who keep away from school their boys after five
and their girls after ten years of their respective ages.”[19] It would
appear, in fact, that girls had some share in whatever education was
available.
From about the fifth century +B.C.+ in successive Hindu codes
we find limiting laws, many of which were embodied about +A.D.+
200 in the Code of Manu. Their stringency is only weakened by a
general recommendation that men “who seek their own welfare should
always honour women on holidays and festivals with gifts of ornaments,
clothes, and dainty food.” The possibility of education was closed by
the exclusion of girls from the initiatory caste rites, which served as
a prelude to the education of boys.
“The nuptial ceremony is stated to be the Vedic sacrament for women and
to be equal to the initiation, serving the husband equivalent to the
residence in the house of the teacher, and the household duties the
same as the daily worship of the sacred fire.”[20]
“For women no sacramental rite is performed with sacred texts, thus the
law is settled; women who are destitute of strength and destitute of
the knowledge of Vedic texts are as impure as falsehood itself, that is
a fixed rule.”[21]
Fixed rules and settled laws do not always remain so where women are
concerned, and there is considerable evidence that the women of the
upper classes could often read and write, and, though the perusal of
the sacred literature was denied, they certainly read and memorized
the great popular epics, the Rāmāyana and the Mahābharāta, which
embody many Indian traditions and ideals. In the Ajanta caves, which
cover a period from the second to the seventh century +A.D.+,
women are represented as engaged in study with books of palm leaves.
Elsewhere they are referred to as musicians and artists. In the
dramas of Kālidāsa about the fifth century the inevitable jest at the
expense of learned women is current coin. The comic character says
he must always laugh when he hears a woman read Sanskrit or a man
sing a song.[22] Amongst the Rajputs, where status was determined by
courage not literacy, the women held a high position. In the early days
of the nineteenth century the records of these early periods were
carefully searched by Indian enthusiasts to produce evidence of former
literary achievements as an argument for the introduction of Western
education. A lecture by Pyari Chand Mittra, a Government schoolmaster,
offers an interesting list headed by the famous Lilavati, after whom a
mathematical treatise of the ninth century is named. Either she was the
authoress thereof,[23] or it was specially composed for her perusal.
“Besides Lilavati there were many females of literary and scientific
attainments. The Tamils boast of having possessed four female
philosophers: viz. Avyar and her three sisters. Avyar was the daughter
of one Bhaguvan, a Brahman, and outshone all her brothers and sisters
in learning. ‘She was contemporary with Kumbur, the author of the
Tamil Rāmāyana, and she employed her eloquent pen on various subjects,
such as astronomy, medicine, and geography; her works of the latter
description are much admired. Avyar remained a virgin all her life, and
died much admired for her talents in poetry, arts, and sciences.’ I am
given to understand by an intelligent Hindu gentleman, that he knew of
one Hātta Vidyalancar, a female scholar at Benares, who was versed in
Smriti[24] and Nyaya. We also hear of the literary proficiency of the
wives of Kālidāsa and Kornut, Raja of Khona, the latter was conversant
with astronomy and is well known by the sayings she has left behind;
of Gargu, the wife of Yagnya Valkya, who is said to have possessed a
good knowledge of Yog[25] Shastra.”[26]
With the Moslem conquests came the _parda_ system with its
withering influence. Devised by Mohammed, according to modern Moslem
historians, for the protection of women in wild and lawless times, it
has inculcated distrust of their character and capacities. In spite
of the fact that many Indian women to-day look upon the _parda_
as a sign of prestige and of their value in their husbands’ eyes, the
thoughtful observer must reckon it, in its ultimate social influence,
as a symbol of distrust. “A man both night and day must keep his wife
so much in subjection that she by no means be mistress of her own
actions; if the wife have her own free-will, notwithstanding she be
sprung of a superior caste, she will yet behave amiss” runs a later
Hindu code, coupling this statement with minute regulations as to
doors and windows. Isolated Indian women, both Hindu, and Moslem are
prominent in later times, but they by no means represent the common
life. Their chronicle is written because in some way or other they
have been exceptional. In the thirteenth century it is said of Razia
Begum, the only woman ruler in her own right of Moslem India, that the
severest scrutiny of her actions could reveal no fault save that she
was a woman.[27]
The Calcutta School Society ascertained in 1818 that no provision
of any kind existed for the education of women, and an attempted
estimate of their general literacy places the figure at one in a
hundred thousand. The old ideal had so utterly vanished, that it
needed the touch of Western civilization to revive even the conception
of its former existence. This existence, shadowy and faint though it
may appear in our eyes, is an enormous asset to the new movement in
a country where everything Aryan and Vedic counts for much in the
endeavour to create a national consciousness.
The modern epoch is thus in part a Renaissance, in part the
introduction once more of the ideal of another faith. It will occupy
our attention in detail and falls naturally into three periods. The
first dates from 1819, when the Baptist Mission in Calcutta started its
first school for girls[28] till 1854, during which time the influence
was almost entirely that of the women missionaries; the second, from
the famous Educational Despatch of 1854 till 1884, is characterized by
the Government policy of “grants-in-aid” to voluntary associations,
by the first tentative beginnings of direct Government effort, and by
the expansion of Secondary education under missionary auspices; in the
modern period dating from the presentation of the report of Sir William
Hunter’s Commission in 1884, the Government share in girls’ education
is much more direct, the spontaneous Indian element enters more
strongly, and for the first time the question of a differentiation in
the curriculum arises.
The first period is essentially the day of small things. The Danish
missionaries of the eighteenth century had included girls in their
schools but there is little record of their doings, and the schools
organized by Miss Cook in Calcutta (1821) and Mrs Wilson in Bombay
(1829) were in every sense pioneer work. Elsewhere is to be found
the full story of opposition, of fluctuating desire, of tactful
consideration and of careful enlistment of enlightened Hindu men, who
had been touched by Dr Duff’s educational work, as advocates of the
cause. The same discrepancy between theory and practice which marks
the advocacy of some of the Indian social reformers of to-day existed
then, and the movement was by no means an extensive one. By 1840, Miss
Cook (now Mrs Wilson) records about 500 girls at school in Bengal of
whom half were in her own school. Dr Duff in outlining a missionary and
educational policy for India, points to the need of a great development
of the education of men before that of women could possibly follow.
“The education” of the latter “on any great national scale must, from
the very nature of their position, which those only who have been in
India can at all adequately comprehend, follow in the wake of the
enlightened education” of the former.[29] Events have justified this
prediction and in many senses it is true that the present state of
women’s education in India corresponds to that of the men in 1854.
The education given by the women missionaries consisted of such mere
rudiments as were possible under the conditions and for the short
period during which their pupils were available. Simple instruction
in the Scriptures was also given. Madras and other centres followed
slowly on the same lines. The work was in part linked with the ordinary
mission work of the Churches and in part carried on through separate
women’s societies founded for the purpose in Germany and in Scotland.
At first the Government attitude was distinctly negative, except for
the cordial personal assistance given by Lady Hastings to Miss Cook,
and the more nominal support of her successor Lady Amherst. In 1849,
however, Lord Dalhousie informed the Bengal Council of Education that
henceforth its functions were to include female education, and the
Bethune School which had been privately founded by a legal member of
Council, the Hon. Drinkwater Bethune, was brought under the control of
the Government. In the Bombay Presidency things developed more rapidly
and the Parsi influence asserted itself in independent effort. The
first municipal schools for girls were probably started in 1850 at
Ahmedabad. In 1852 a second stage of missionary education was reached
by the establishment in Calcutta of a Normal School for the training
of Christian female teachers under the auspices of the society known
later as the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. The special method
adapted to Indian conditions was not discovered till 1854, when the
system of zenana-visiting, combined with educational instruction, was
inaugurated in Calcutta by the Scottish Mission with the help of a
clever Eurasian lady, Miss Toogood.
By the great educational charter of 1854, the Government adopted the
policy of fostering and encouraging private effort by a system of
grants-in-aid to all institutions which could comply with certain
stipulations as to buildings, number of teachers, text-books and type
of instruction given. Religious instruction might be given but did
not come within the purview of the Government officials. Departments
of Public Instruction were formed, Inspectors appointed, and the well
known scheme of examinations inaugurated. It is stated in the Despatch
that female education shall be given “frank and cordial support.” “The
importance of female education in India cannot be over-rated, and we
have observed with pleasure the evidence which is now afforded of an
increased desire on the part of many of the natives of India to give
a good education to their daughters. By these means a far greater
proportional impulse is imparted to the educational and moral tone of
the people than by the education of men.” In the main the Government
adhered to this principle, yet considered it prudent to withhold its
hand from direct interference with so delicate a matter. Whereas,
in order to improve the school system as a whole, Government erected
boys’ schools in many places, to serve as models in management and
efficiency, very few girls’ schools were founded. The Circular order of
1868, issued under Lord Lawrence, states that “unless female schools
are really and materially supported by voluntary aid, they had better
not be established at all.” In pursuance of this policy the Bengal
Administration Report for 1881 notes only two Government Primary
schools for girls, 719 aided, and 107 unaided voluntary schools. The
women’s missionary agencies in Calcutta were drawing a monthly grant
of two thousand rupees for educational work. An Inspectress[30] was
at this time in the service of the local education authority for
the inspection of _parda_ schools. Her note that “every day
brings signs that the demand for female education in Bengal is slowly
advancing and extending” marks the rising tide. Two exceptions may be
noted to this policy; the exceptional activity in the district of the
North Western Provinces (as they were then called) round Agra, and
the movement of the Central Government under the influence of Miss
Carpenter.
The Agra experiment was, however, the response of Government to
spontaneous Indian effort, and as the work of the Hindu pioneer who
was its originator is little known, the following account may be
quoted.[31]
“Even in our Asiatic Provinces, before the breaking out of the
troubles, a desire had sprung up among the natives to extend the
blessings of education to women. Gopal Singh, a Hindu gentleman,
holding under Government the post of district Inspector of native
schools, had succeeded, through his own exertions, in establishing
upwards of two hundred seminaries for young ladies in the Province of
Agra which were attended by 3800 girls of the best families. By many of
our countrymen in India, this is regarded rather as a social revolution
than as an educational movement. As a rule, the natives look with
suspicion on everything which comes from a foreigner, for which reason
the great efforts made by the English have not produced corresponding
results. ‘The establishment of a little school,’ observes the Pandit,
‘which my own daughters and those of my immediate friends and relations
attended at first like a charm, dispelled in a great measure the
prejudices of my neighbours, and induced many to send their girls also.
This example and my constant persuasion and reasoning have at last
succeeded in inducing many respectable inhabitants of other villages to
yield.’ And so the movement bids fair to become national. The pupils
are nearly all Hindus belonging to the more respectable classes. The
teachers are all men.”
“‘Want of female teachers,’ says Gopal Singh, ‘was one great obstacle
in the way; but the guardians of the girls composing the respective
schools pointed out men of an approved character, in whom they have
full confidence, and I have appointed such persons only as teachers;
the result is very satisfactory.’”[32] The Government official note
on the experiment is that the lack of the humanizing influence of
trained school mistresses, and the impossibility of supervising the
elderly Pandits were the real causes of the failure of the schools and
not the Mutiny, which hindered the general development of education
in the province but little. Accordingly the attempt was renewed in
1858 by one of the masters of the Agra College, a Jat[33] of good
family, in co-operation with Government. He succeeded in securing
“school mistresses of high-caste and relatives of rich and influential
zemindars,”[34] and by 1863, when he was appointed special Inspector
of female schools, their number had increased to 144. The curriculum
seems to have been somewhat different from that of the boys’ schools,
and the Pandit notes with satisfaction: “Girls are possessed of better
memories and less selfishness than boys.” The success and extent of
the movement seems however to have been due to the personal influence
of this one man, and with the passing of his generation the schools
degenerated in type. The rapid extension of this work under Government
into other districts necessitated the employment once more of men
teachers. Four female Normal schools were established which appear to
have been such only in name. Two British Inspectresses were appointed
whose reports indicate the same problems as those of a more modern
date. “The villagers are not opposed to the schools but they value them
chiefly as a means of support for Brahmans and relatives.”[35] They
could not believe that the Government were in earnest on the subject,
when the girls’ school was accommodated in a place not more attractive
than a cow-shed and the boys’ in a handsome building. In 1876, a
drastic reduction of 212 schools took place and the question of female
education dropped into abeyance for a period. The official comment
thereon was that the State had incurred much expense in founding and
maintaining these schools and that the results had been painfully
disappointing. Historically, the experiment indicates the danger
of extending girls’ schools beyond the desire of the community and
beyond the possibility of constant supervision on the part of British
Inspectresses. The solution of the ever-present problem of a supply
of teachers was only a temporary one, and the failure of the Normal
schools was attributed largely to the lack of a British superintendent.
The influence exerted for the education of women in India by Mary
Carpenter, is a curious episode in a life whose main work in England
was to lead the way to a national system of moral rescue and preventive
discipline for juvenile criminals. During the last decade of her
life (1867-1877), she visited India four times, and by her personal
influence and enthusiasm she greatly affected the Government attitude
and turned the rising conviction of the Indian Theistic movements into
the right channels. Her position at home secured her a direct hearing
in Government circles and the rapidity with which she adapted her
pre-conceived notion of taking some Indian girls home for training
to the wiser one of female Normal schools in India, proved once more
her extraordinary power of vision in social problems. Herself of an
intensely religious temperament, the revolt from the crudity of much of
the orthodox religious teaching of the time led her sympathies largely
in the direction of Unitarianism, and believing, like Mountstewart
Elphinstone and many other Christian Indian statesmen of the period,
that secular education for India was ultimately the more religious
policy, she threw her whole influence into the establishment of schools
which would not in any way interfere with the religious beliefs of the
people. Yet her attitude to the mission schools was warmly sympathetic
and she notes her indebtedness to the accumulated experience there.[36]
Some further provision, however, seemed necessary in the case of
girls, as the boys of the country had larger opportunities and the
social system was in danger of one-sided development.[37] Her whole
energy went towards the foundation of female Normal schools and in 1867
she secured a grant from the Central Government of £1500 per annum
for five years for the establishment of these schools in Bombay and
Ahmedabad on condition that an equal amount was provided by the native
community. This stipulation was in accord with the previous policy that
Government action should not in so delicate a matter be in advance of
native opinion. Mr Dadabhai Nauraji, in a letter to the Secretary of
State for India, following on a memorial from Indians in London, gives
a general survey of the income derived from the native endowments for
female education in different parts of India at this time.
Bombay Rupees 40,000
Punjāb ” 4,321
Madras ” 234
Bengal ” 132
North Western Provinces ” ..
It will thus be seen that a certain response existed even if only
amongst a few advanced sections of the population. Further direct
contributions were not immediately forthcoming, but after various
memorials a Government grant of £1200 for five years to each of the
capitals of the three Presidencies was ultimately given without this
special stipulation. Miss Carpenter’s scheme for the Normal schools
laid special emphasis on the need of experienced English supervision
and instruction as the only means whereby the proper training could
be secured and the dignity of the teaching profession for women
raised. The failure of the so-called Normal schools in the North
Western Provinces and the success of the mission training schools in
Calcutta proves the wisdom of this policy. The new schools passed
through various vicissitudes, but ultimately, Miss Carpenter had the
pleasure of seeing substantial fruit of her labours at Ahmedabad, Poona
and Madras. Much of the interest she had aroused amongst the Indian
community was doubtless sporadic, and many of the schools started
were short-lived, but in the main her influence on the development
of women’s education in India has counted as a dominant factor in
the Government policy, in the establishment of the National Indian
Association and in the permanence of certain institutions.