whose schools conform to the Government Code and regulations, and
neo-Hinduism,[98] which has produced Mrs Besant’s school for Indian
girls at Benares. The Ārya Samāj have a good training school for
teachers at Dehra Dun, students from which may be found teaching in
their schools in other parts of India. A High school department has
recently been added to it, and every effort is being put forth to make
it a strong educational centre. The school at Benares is in connexion
with the Hindu Central College, and poses as a definite revolt from
the anglicizing tendency of Government and mission schools. It
receives no grant, and as yet has not even applied for inspection. The
Government is considered to “favour Christian and mission schools,” and
therefore, though there is the same lack of funds here as elsewhere,
the promoters will have none of it or its money! Freedom to shape
their own curriculum is also a dominant motive. To enter the school
and see over a hundred beautifully dressed Indian girls, almost all
of the Brahman caste, sitting in groups of six or seven, on bright
carpets, the class-rooms well separated in the spacious airy building,
was certainly to feel that here one might find a solution of the
curriculum problem and a constructive theory of Indian education. “A
training in conduct and religion is what Indians, as a rule, value
most for their women--the work for those going beyond the rudiments is
too bookish in character.”[99] Here the teachers are free to saturate
the instruction throughout with the ethical elements of a religion
acceptable to the parents, to edit their own text-books, to emphasize
the study of the vernaculars and Indian classics without the strain
of examinations. The pupils stay longer than in other schools: many
“married” girls of fifteen and sixteen years are in the upper forms.
One particularly bright child of fourteen told us she was to be there
for four years while her husband studied in England. Thus there is
time really to influence the character and mind of the girls. Yet, on
analysis, from the purely educational point of view the school was
distinctly disappointing. As regards the staff, the Head-mistress, an
English lady, claimed no knowledge of the vernacular, and though her
intercourse with the girls seemed most cordial and sympathetic, it
was necessarily limited, and still more limited was her knowledge of
their studies. An American with the degree of B.Sc., a Brahman, wife
of one of the College professors, who had been educated in a convent,
three mission-taught girls, and sundry other teachers of a nondescript
character, completed the number. English was taught throughout, from
class III. upwards, and used as a medium of instruction in classes VI.
and VII., but the degree of fluency of the girls therein seemed hardly
to justify this method. Many of the ordinary text-books were in use,
and except for the moral catechisms and some stress laid on Indian art
and Hinduism in the drawing lessons, the difference of the curriculum
seemed more theoretical than actual. The theories are, however,
suggestive, and when traced to the basal thought that education must
be founded on the hereditary instinct and natural environment of the
child they are not in reality revolutionary but compatible with the
constructive system and ideals of the Christian religion.
[Illustration: The Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow]
The Crosthwaite High School at Allahabad shows possibilities of a
different nature. It was started privately in Lucknow city some
eighteen years ago by a committee of Indian gentlemen and Government
officials, and was afterwards removed for the sake of a larger site
and fresher air. A long, low, roomy building, with deep verandahs,
forms the central school, with two hostels attached to it, in one of
which twenty Moslem girls were residing, in the other six Hindus. A
considerable number of day pupils, without restriction as to creed,
are drawn from Allahabad. Tuition and conveyance for day pupils are
given free, but the charge for boarders meets the cost. The Government
Code is followed throughout, and the knowledge of English, tested by
recitation and questioning on subject-matter, seemed of a thorough
quality. The school illustrated in miniature most of the usual
problems. It was marvellous that Moslem girls of really good family
should have been allowed to come to a boarding-school, some from far
distant States, and there was a certain pathos in the sight of them
being taught by any kind of woman who had “learnt to read and write
at home,” and who in some cases might almost have been their ayah.
This description applies only to the lower forms, but in these classes
girls are at the most formative age, and many would not stay for the
whole course. One teacher of this type was actually engaged in nursing
her baby while giving an arithmetic lesson, and one wondered which of
the two suffered more--the lesson or the baby! The Head-mistress was
a young Indian Christian graduate from the Isabella Thoburn College,
full of energy and enthusiasm for what seemed so difficult a task. She
herself had to take three lessons a day, which left little leisure for
the superintendence of the lower school with its double vernacular
(Hindi and Urdu) standards throughout. A similar position in a school
at home would have been occupied by a much older woman with many years’
experience of life. A question as to the religious teaching given
elicited the following reply: “The Mohammedan teacher has her own
girls; I teach the few Christians, and the Hindus look after their own
bathings!” There is no question here of Indianizing the curriculum.
In turning to the specifically Christian institutions, it has again to
be noted that the missionaries have been the pioneers of education,
that an overwhelming proportion of the aided schools are under their
management, and that a creditable proportion of Christian girls in the
High stages (552 out of 759 Indian girls) is maintained. No account of
women’s education in India would be complete without a full description
of the Isabella Thoburn College, or, as it is called throughout the
Northern provinces, the “Lal Bagh” (Rose Garden). From a tiny beginning
in 1870 as a bazaar school in Lucknow, with half a dozen Christian
girls, it has grown by successive stages to a splendidly equipped
collegiate institution, the portals of which may be entered by a
child as a tiny “rosebud” for the Kindergarten, and from whence the
full-blown B.A. may emerge some sixteen years later. The College and
its latest additions stand as a memorial to two strong personalities,
Isabella Thoburn, the founder, and Lilavati Singh, whose early death
in 1909, when Vice-Principal of the College, removed one of the Indian
leaders of women’s education. The ideals after which they strove and
the spirit of passionate sacrifice for others which dominated their
lives form a strong tradition in the school. The American sense of
community life which enters so markedly into their schools and colleges
has been transferred with wise adaptation to the Indian environment;
and the former pupils of the “Lal Bagh,” scattered throughout India,
are still under the glamour of their school days and are working
out its inspiration. Self-government in all that regards the common
interest is the rule of the College and Normal departments, and the
same principle is being slowly established in the High school in the
hope of developing the sense of responsibility so greatly needed in
the Indian character. The girls are practically all Christian, but
occasionally a non-Christian girl is found taking advantage of the
splendid education which she could obtain nowhere else. The Zenana
school, opened in 1909, is attended by some Hindu and Mohammedan girls
desirous of a simple course with domestic science, and it is expected
that this department will gradually increase. There is also a special
hostel for Hindu or Mohammedan girls which has not yet been much
utilized. The staff consists of seven or eight American graduates and
about fifteen Indian teachers, some of whom are graduates also. There
are no untrained teachers. This proportion in a school of some 200
pupils, and a College and Normal department of about 40, is refreshing
after other institutions, but it in no way satisfies the standard of
efficiency aimed at by the directors. The Normal department is of
special importance, as teachers are supplied from it to all parts of
Northern India. No student is admitted to the senior course who has not
passed the Matriculation or equivalent examination, and the Government
Report testifies to the thoroughness of the training given. A lower
qualification is accepted for the Kindergarten course. The Government
Code is followed throughout, and there is thus no question of an
experimental curriculum on Indian lines. The College is under a Board
of Directors which includes two prominent Indian gentlemen, and is in
connexion with the American Methodist Mission.
The Church Missionary Society has an excellent boarding-school for
Christian girls at Benares with about 100 pupils. The central schools
for the Christian community form a very important part of the work
of any mission, and it is entirely due to them that the creditable
percentage of Christian girls in the Secondary stages is maintained.
Where a Normal department can be added, their influence on the
non-Christian community and on the general educational situation
is very marked. Unfortunately some mission committees have still a
tendency to appoint a pupil to a post too soon, and the numbers are
not as large as they might be. The Benares class has at present nine
students who entered it with Middle Anglo-Vernacular qualifications;
its special feature, in addition to the ordinary subjects, is an
experimental attempt to give some conception of the Hindu environment
of religious thought to the students. The Indian Christian of the
second or third generation tends to be totally isolated in idea and
thought from other Indians, and this tendency is often accentuated
in mission schools. It is therefore exceedingly important that those
who are to influence Hindu life as teachers in mission or Government
schools should, in the course of their training, form some clear and
correct conception of the religious environment of their future pupils.
Experimental work of this type should prove most useful in any future
developments of Normal training which missionary societies may be
contemplating.
There is throughout a pleasant spirit of co-operation between the
various educational missionaries, and between them and the Government
authorities. There is a Missionary Educational Union for the Province
which the Inspectresses attend officially. An annual Teachers’
Conference is held in February, and it is probable that in the future
co-operation may pass from theory to actual fact in the development of
further work. A striking lack in the missionary contribution is the
absence of any school of really first-class character for non-Christian
girls, such as exist in Bombay and Calcutta. The educational work
for boys has been fully developed, but the parallel opportunity for
girls which the changing times have created has yet to be seized. It
may be argued that the Isabella Thoburn school has arrangements for
non-Christian girls, but even in these changing times there are few
non-Christians who would be willing to risk their daughters in a
boarding-school among such an overwhelming number of Christian girls,
whereas first-class schools starting fresh with no tradition would be
sufficiently in touch with the new movement to attract pupils by their
sheer efficiency. In this direction and in the training of teachers the
standard must be set by the missionary authorities if their reputation
as pioneers is to be maintained.
The situation in the Panjāb differs again only in degree. While there
has been no ebb in the increasing tide of pupils--an increase of 1328
in 1909, and of 3732 in 1910, making a present total of over 42,000
girls under instruction--the problem of administration and inspection
in a strictly _parda_ country is as difficult as elsewhere, and there
are stories of the inefficiency of the teachers which surpass even
those told of other provinces. The municipalities vary greatly in
their enthusiasm for the education of girls--Amritsar, for instance,
being well supplied with thirty-five girls’ schools, whereas Lahore
has only one of this type. The missions have as elsewhere the system
of boarding-schools for Christian girls, and carry on extensive work,
chiefly of a Primary nature, among non-Christians of all races and
creeds. Occasionally a non-Christian girl is found in a Christian
boarding-school. Some of these schools are specially commended by the
Inspectress for their teaching in domestic economy and sewing. “The
Sialkot boarding-school divides the children into families of twelve
girls who each do their own cooking, washing, and housework, even the
little ones helping.”[100] St. Stephen’s Girls’ School (S. P. G.) has
a special lace department where any girl who wishes to learn English
may earn the money to pay the requisite fee. The lace produced is of
a marketable quality, and not of the type which passes from bazaar
to bazaar in Great Britain. The work of the Kinnaird Girls’ High
School, Lahore, is similar to that of the Bombay school[101] under the
auspices of the same society (Z. B. M. M.). It is intended mainly for
Indian Christian girls, but contains a certain proportion of others.
The average age of leaving is about sixteen. Its training class is of
special interest. Women students in the Panjāb are allowed to take the
Junior Anglo-Vernacular training after matriculation, though, in the
case of men the same examination is open only to graduates. In spite of
this the girls generally stand fairly high in the lists, one of them
recently taking the second place. The class, however, averages only
some five students, though the school has over 160 girls. There is
another excellent High school for Indian non-Christian girls in Lahore
under the superintendence of an Indian Christian lady.
[Illustration: Church Missionary Society, Middle School,
Amritsar.--Hoop Drill]
Here, too, slowly but surely, the voice of Young India is making itself
heard in a new desire and a new effort. Lawyers, doctors, Government
servants, are seeking for their wives and daughters an education
which, if not equal to their own, will a least be a sufficient
compromise between the old status and the new ideas to which they give
utterance from public platforms and in the press. The reform sects,
notably the Ārya Samāj, are ready with a definite educational policy
of their own. They have a special orphanage at Ferozepore, and a
considerable number of schools; the Dev Samāj, a new rallying-point,
has two or more schools; there is a Sikh boarding-school near Amritsar;
and, “in opposition to these reforming Hindu societies, at least one
orthodox Hindu girls’ school has been opened lately. Whether the
activity of the reformers will force the orthodox Hindus to take
an interest in girls’ education and to start a network of schools
in opposition remains to be seen.”[102] The Maharani of Burdwar is
noted for her efforts in this direction, and her schools, the Vedic
Putri Pathshala and the Khatri Girls’ School at Lahore, both aim at
having High departments. Absolutely unique in its aim, management,
and curriculum is the Victoria May Girls’ High School, Lahore, now
known as Queen Mary College. The idea of establishing a High school
for Indian girls of good family was put forward by certain Indian
ladies at the _parda_ party held in honour of the visit of the then
Princess of Wales in November 1905, and the possibility of putting
this proposal into effect was attained by the munificence of certain
leading Native States in the Panjāb. The school is under the management
of five leading Indian gentlemen representing different creeds, and
of two of the highest officials in the Province. Its curriculum is,
so far as the writer’s experience extends, the only one in which a
definite constructive theory has been put forth for the education of
Indian girls on such lines as combine excellent modern education with
training suitable to their future environment.[103] Its ideals are
defined in the following extract from the prospectus. “The proposed
education is to be first and foremost womanly, therefore pupils will
not be prepared for Matriculation until alternative courses of study
suitable for girls be framed by the Education Department. The Indian
ideals of self-sacrificing motherhood and simplicity of life will be
held sacred, and the education given, while conducted on the best
modern methods, seeks in every way to guard the ideal of the Indian
wife in her home. For this reason the curriculum includes lessons on
the care of children’s health, simple remedies for ordinary illnesses,
‘first aid,’ invalid cookery, and science as applied to the home, in
the shape of the elementary laws of sanitation, ventilation, etc.”
Great attention is paid to the vernaculars and to the beautiful
Oriental scripts. Advanced pupils may study Persian or Sanskrit. A
speciality is made of colloquial English, but there is no study of it
as advanced literature. Moral instruction is given from the beautiful
stories and poems of all religions, no sacred book being excluded, and
is as effective as can be in an institution necessarily limited in
its religious life and instruction. A great effort is being made to
attract pupils from the families whose sons attend the Chiefs’ College
in Lahore; six or eight special suites of rooms are being reserved for
rajahs’ daughters and their necessary attendants, in new buildings
attached to the Principal’s house, and such facilities may do much to
break down the barrier which has hitherto separated these classes from
modern education. This school may serve not only as an inspiration
to its actual pupils, but may have a reflex influence on the whole
scheme of education. For instance, a course of lectures has recently
been started in connection with it to demonstrate to Indian ladies the
real needs of local girls’ schools, and to induce them to act where
possible as helpers and advisers. To turn what has hitherto proved an
obstructive force into a definitely constructive one would surely be an
excellent policy.
The Land of the Five Rivers has ever been a land of romance and of
stirring life, and the modern movement for the enlightenment of its
woman-kind has still the same elements, and is full of the promise of
the future.
VII
SIDELIGHTS ON SOME NATIVE STATES
“Vulgarity is unknown in India. This alone is education and of the
highest order. Reading and writing are minor to it.”
From the _Indian Ladies’ Magazine_.
To the student of Indian problems the Native States present in many
cases a survival of former conditions which elsewhere have been swept
away under the more direct influence of British rule; in others freedom
from the criticism to which an alien rule is liable has allowed
advanced rulers to experiment on the most modern lines. The term
“Native State” is itself capable of very diverse interpretation.[104]
There are in all about seven hundred districts so-called, with a total
population of over 62 million, and varying in size from the great
southern State of Hyderabad, with an area of over 82,000 square miles,
to parcels of land about the size of an average country estate in
England. The British Government takes direct cognizance of some hundred
of these in varying degrees of relationship. Some States are entirely
responsible for their own internal government with a British Resident
tactfully fulfilling his difficult office; in others the control
is more direct, under an officer appointed as administrator by the
Government till such time as the State finances or internal order may
justify once more the revival of relative independence under an heir
of the dynastic family. There is thus every variety of ruler, from the
rajah who holds the time-honoured doctrine of “L’état c’est moi,” and
whose State recalls the prejudices, barbarities, and general practices
of the Europe of the Middle Ages, to the virtuous chiefs who strive
to rule on modern principles of order and justice for the welfare of
their people. There are rajahs whose women-folk are the strictest of
_parda-nashin_ and others whose daughters may disport themselves
in English society at home to their hearts’ content, a curious
bye-product being the rani who is _parda-nashin_ in her own State
but not when she comes out into the world abroad.
It is natural that only amongst the more progressive States is any
opportunity found of studying the question of female education; in
others even the first beginnings are totally absent. The present
chapter is in no sense a complete survey, and only offers a few notes
which may indicate the general trend. It is difficult in many cases to
obtain exact information, as the British Government are wisely chary
of giving too much. The official reports, as M. Chailley puts it, wrap
up blame in velvet and distribute praise with a liberal hand, and a
letter to a native diwan[105] will not always procure an educational
report with the same promptitude as it would in British territory.
There is also the never-to-be-forgotten fact that “All the world’s
a stage,” and at times the temptation to play a part, to produce a
semblance of things which speak of progress and yet lack reality, is
too strong for the Oriental mind. Thus a school housed in a magnificent
building with four hundred girls on its roll may prove to have less
than two hundred in daily attendance, though each child is in receipt
of a monthly “stipend” from the State for the honour of her attendance;
and “God save the Queen” may be cheerily sung in honour of the beloved
Empress of whose death all India has not yet heard!