+----------------+------------------------------+-----------_The education of the women of India

| | +UNDER | +UNDER |

| | PUBLIC | PRIVATE |

| | MANAGEMENT.+ | MANAGEMENT.+ |

+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+

+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+

|High Schools | 2 | .. | .. | 9 | 2 |

| | | | | | |

| English | .. | 1 | 2 | 30 | 4 |

| Vernacular | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |

| | | | | | |

|Primary[115] | 6 | 573 | 249 | 257 | 19 |

| | | | | | |

|Training Schools| 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 |

+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+

| | 12 | 575 | 252 | 301 | 27 |

+----------------+-----------+-----------+------+---------+---------+

This Table has been formed by the subtraction of the Anglo-Indian

schools from Statistical Table III., _Public Instruction Report,

Bombay Presidency_, 1910.

+TABLE SHOWING RACE OR CREED+[116]

+---------+-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+

+------- +-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+

|Primary | 4 | 2,905 |15,329| 42,185 | 10,077 | 3,934 | 492 |

| | | | | | | | |

|Middle | 636 | 1,656 | 74| 447 | 15 | 252 | 31 |

| | | | | | | | |

|High | 1,492 | 151 | 107| 77 | 42 | 1,095 | 86 |

| | | | | | | | |

| Colleges| 16 | 83 | 97| 115 | 21 | 2 | 11 |

+---------+-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+

| | 2,148 | 4,795 |15,607| 42,824 | 10,155 | 5,283 | 620 |

+---------+-------+--------+------+--------+--------+-------+-------+

Of the Hindu effort first:--the Scientific and Literary Society, after

its initial private efforts, proceeded with a definite educational

policy in the founding of schools, and, though at present only one

school in Bombay is directly under its auspices, its influence in

combating prejudice is considerable. This school is exceedingly

popular, as the girls are passed quickly into the higher stages, thus

earning a certain matrimonial prestige, though it is unfortunately true

that a girl from the Matriculation class on transference to a mission

school had to be placed three classes lower to find her proper level.

In consequence of the amateur staff of voluntary teachers who supply

the upper forms, this school does not rank as one of the eleven High

schools. This feature is interesting, as it shows the earnestness of

purpose in the members of the Society, but from an educational point

of view the system does not seem very effective. As a whole the school

presents no specially Indian features, except that French is excluded

and Sanskrit is compulsory as a Matriculation subject. Religion is

taught by a special teacher, and there are daily prayers. One Hindu

school in Poona ranks as a genuine High school, and one other in Bombay

hopes shortly to be classed as such. This Chanda Ramji School owes its

foundation to a legacy left for the building of a huge gilded idol.

The idol was indeed built, but the times have advanced, and only

some 10% of the funds were thus utilized. The school is excellently

staffed with fourteen mistresses, four of whom are graduates, and with

additional pandits for Sanskrit and mathematics for some two hundred

girls; there is a splendid hall for drill and games, a well-stocked

science museum, and practically every modern apparatus. Religion

is taught from a book of Hindu Moral Maxims by a special teacher.

The Gujerati Stri Mandal, mentioned above, has its own functions in

endeavouring to secure the attendance at its afternoon classes of

young married girls and others from the _parda_-keeping sections.

Educationally, their influence is probably important rather in the

direction of making the next generation accessible to proper education

than in much actual attainment on the part of the present pupils.

They also organize regular lectures on such subjects as “The Aim of

Life,” “The Advantages of a Spiritual Temperament,” and “The Duties of

Motherhood,” from which may be seen the close connexion in the mind

of the Indian woman between religion and education. The Prārthanā

Samāj, though they have a weekly women’s meeting for the discussion of

ethical subjects, and a “Sunday School,” do not organize any separate

secular education, and their girls are to be found wherever the best

education seems obtainable. In Hyderabad there are five large girls’

Primary schools, managed by the Hindu Reform Association, which the

Government Report notes as doing useful work. It will thus be seen

that the actual Hindu contribution to organized education is not an

extensive one, nor has it, as in Bengal, any special characteristic;

but it should be borne in mind that the Hindus take good advantage of

the mission and Government schools, and are even found in some of the

Parsi High schools. Though their percentage of girls in the High school

stage is small in comparison with their overwhelming majority in the

community, it is probably true that every orthodox girl venturing to

continue her school career beyond the Primary classes, does so in spite

of the opposition, if not of her own immediate family, at least of her

grandmother and cousins.

The Mohammedan factor is numerically a small one; the girls belonging

to families of the better class are educated at home or in one of the

mission “English-teaching”[117] schools, and it is interesting to note

one Mohammedan lady of good social position guiding a school for poor

Moslem girls in her own house. Two Mohammedan schools are also on the

Government list of Primary schools, but the pupils are mostly in the

lower Primary stage.

The Parsi contribution is, as has already been indicated, a very

considerable one, and in its extent, thoroughness, and modern

character, it is quite what one might have expected of the “French

of the East.” A few notes on their general position are needed to

show their attitude towards education. The Parsis are one of the most

adaptable races of the world, and in Bombay, where 46,000 of them

reside, they have been the leaders in women’s education. Lady Frere

speaks of a time in her remembrance when not a single Parsi lady

could speak English, whereas to-day it is almost as much a common

tongue among the wealthy families as Gujerati, which they adopted

on their original immigration to India. In 1842 Lady Arthur opened

Government House for the first time to Indian ladies, and the Parsis

were naturally the first to respond. To-day all the larger social

functions in Bombay are attended by Indian ladies, the large majority

of whom are Parsi.[118] They are to be seen daily at the Princess Mary

Gymkhana, a ladies’ club, playing Badminton and croquet, and discussing

matters of interest with their friends, some wearing the orthodox

_sari_ and sacred shirt symbolic of their ancient faith, others

in modern European dress. Socially they have been much affected by

the hedonism of the West. Religiously their evolution has been rather

negative than positive. Zoroastrianism as a cult had survived only in

curious forms and ceremonies, and the sacred language of its books was

unknown even to the priests; the educated Parsi inclined to agnosticism

or theosophy while retaining his ceremonial adherence to a religion

which was the binding tie of his community. Under the influence of the

modern Renaissance and general revival of the ethnic faiths, the sacred

books have been translated; brief extracts published in dainty vellum

volumes, together with the Lord’s Prayer and Christian hymns (with

significant omissions), are used as manuals of devotion. When the Parsi

girls’ schools were first started no religious instruction was given,

but now a special Zoroastrian committee exists for preparing literature

and sending an instructor to each. Quick to perceive the general

bearing of British rule and modern education on their position as a

wealthy minority in an alien land, the Parsi leaders adopted, in 1857,

a definite educational policy for their women. They separated from the

Scientific and Literary Society and formed one of their own, the Parsi

School Association, to which they gave most liberally both in money and

personal service. Other leading Parsis founded special schools, and

it is difficult when looking down the Government list to know which

to select for description. Two perhaps may be taken as typical, one

of the three Association schools and the Alexandra Native Girls’ High

School. The former owes its special characteristics to the Honorary

Secretary of the Association, Khan Bahadur Chichgar, who visited the

best schools in Europe in order to study the Herbartian principles

of education in actual practice. He was the first to introduce this

method in the Bombay Presidency, and has done so without imitation

of detail, and with the most wonderful adaptation to the environment

of Parsi children. The school is kept continually supplied with the

latest appliances and the newest books, and Mr Chichgar has for many

years visited the school on Saturday afternoons to train the teachers

in the use of them. The result is that, though the teachers may hold no

Normal certificates, the school is alert and keen, from the youngest

baby rejoicing in plaiting its neighbour’s hair, to the girls of the

fifth form, whose curriculum is varied by ambulance work, cooking, and

dress-cutting. On the occasion of the writer’s visit every child had

some practical handwork of its own to exhibit; the action songs were

definitely related to the subsequent lesson on weights and measures,

while the mud modelling of the Bombay water-system done by one of

the higher forms showed a thorough sense of neatness and proportion,

with an intelligent knowledge of the principle involved. The shadow

of an examination never falls upon this school; it aims at providing

a thorough training for life for middle-class Parsi girls, and its

success in doing so in entirely due to the unsparing devotion and

labour given to it by its founder--a man engaged in ordinary business.

The Alexandra Native Girls’ High School dates from the early days

of pioneer work and of unsympathetic criticism. Some 20 pupils were

registered for its first opening in 1863, and to-day there are about

120, practically as many as the staff of the institution is meant to

deal with. Its aim is to give Parsi girls of respectable families the

“blessings of an English education upon sound moral principles,” and

though the blessing may be a doubtful one, the school is certainly

thoroughly English in every way. Since 1890, Matriculation candidates

have been sent up with a good record of success. There is no higher

teaching of the vernaculars, and French is taken as the alternative

Matriculation subject. The Head-mistress is from England and is fully

qualified, but the rest of the staff are Parsis, only one of whom had

Normal qualifications. The school is managed by a committee of leading

Parsis, and though it is under Government inspection it receives no

grant, as the income from fees and the endowment is sufficient. This

school may be taken as fairly typical of a first-class Parsi High

school. Moreover, education has advanced so far in the community that

private enterprise is no longer an impossibility, and can even as in

the case of the Girton High school, be made financially successful

without the Government grant. The dividing line between business

and philanthropy may at times be difficult to draw, but the spirit

is much to be commended which keeps a school of this type alive and

efficient, when in some cases the net profit to the proprietress is

barely a living wage. Taken as a whole, the Parsis have provided most

thoroughly for the education of their girls, both rich and poor. Of the

eleven High schools under private management in the Presidency, seven

are Parsi; of the Middle schools four, and of the Primary schools,

whether separate or forming departments of the High schools, fifteen.

Of this provision ample advantage is taken, and the proportion of daily

attendance to the numbers on the roll is amazing in comparison with

Upper India.

Wherein, then, does the system fail, or is it perfect? Criticism seems

ungracious where so much energy and thought have been expended, but

in the main there are two things which strike a visitor--the lack in

the teachers of a sense of the dignity and responsibility of their

profession, with the consequent effect of such a lack on the outlook

of their pupils, and the deorientalizing curriculum. These problems

are, however, common to the whole educational situation, and one could

hardly expect even the Parsi community to be quite immune.

It is difficult to turn from the indigenous Indian element, which

has naturally something in it very spectacular and attractive to

the Western visitor, to the quiet record of the immense and steady

contribution of Christian missions to education in the Bombay

Presidency, and to realize that the main inspiration of the former

came from the gradual and unconscious infiltration of the Christian

ideal of womanhood. For more than twenty years the missionaries were

the sole pioneers in the face of much opposition. The pupils were

gained at first through the influence of Hindu and Parsi gentlemen

interested in the Scottish mission. Progress was naturally slow, there

was a lack of continuity in the British workers, and continuity is

essential in a country where personality counts for so much; but by

1827 three hundred girls, some of good caste, were attending school in

the Konkan district, where the Scottish pioneers first started. After

the transference of the mission Mrs Wilson had managed, by 1830, to

organize six little schools in Bombay with 120 pupils, the story of

the winning of each individual girl being almost a romance in itself.

For some time the children were given weekly _paisa_[119] as a

reward, and would demand their wage like weary labourers, a practice

still extant in some of the Native States, and a great contrast to

the sum of 407 rupees now received as fees in one of the mission

institutions which traces its origin to these very schools. The Parsis

in one street asked the mission to instruct all the children therein,

including sixteen girls. The Beni Israel also proved an accessible

community, and thus gradually the number of girls increased. The

second stage of missionary education was reached when boarding-schools

were created for Indian Christian girls who could be retained for a

reasonable time, and some of whom could be utilized as teachers. About

1885 the first systematic attempt at Normal training is noticed, a

line of work which is perhaps at present the most important missionary

contribution to the whole scheme, and capable of further development.

Mission schools, as might be expected, form an overwhelming majority

in the list of aided schools. Of the 11 High schools they have 2, of

the 34 Middle schools 14, and of the 276 Primary schools, practically

all except those indicated above and a few others. Certain societies

educate, as yet, mainly the children of their own communities;

others, such as the American Board for Foreign Missions, the United

Free Church of Scotland, and the Irish Presbyterian Mission, have a

considerable number of schools, both in the cities and in the villages,

for non-Christian children. The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission makes

work of this kind a special feature.[120] The small proportion of High

schools is partly accounted for by the fact that the Victoria High

School at Poona, founded by Mrs Sorabji, and still carried on most

effectively by her daughter as a Christian school, is classed as a

boys’ school. It is attended by the children of many of the leading

Parsi families, and is a curious example of successful co-education

up to an advanced stage. Also both in Bombay and Poona there is a

considerable number of good European schools in connection with Roman

Catholic and Episcopal sister-hoods, to which 15% of Indian girls may

be admitted on payment of double fees. These places are always eagerly

sought. The Girgaum High School, under the auspices of the Z.B.M.M.,

may be taken as typical of a first-class “English-teaching” mission

High school. About 150 girls can be seen gathered together at morning

prayer, two-thirds of whom are non-Christian (Parsis, Moslems, Beni

Israel, and a few Hindus); some have come in their motor-cars, others

from quite poor homes. The curriculum extends from three Kindergarten

classes to the seventh English standard, in which the girls go up for

Matriculation. English is used as a medium throughout, which makes the

school popular with Indians who desire purely English education, but

it is naturally very difficult for the pupils in the early stages, in

spite of the Government regulation that the teacher must be able to

translate into Marathi. There are four English mistresses and several

well-qualified Anglo-Indians. A new department has recently been added

for the training of English Kindergarten students for the Froebel

examination, but this is not yet sufficiently staffed to ensure good

success. Two-thirds of the income are derived from fees and one-third

from the Government grant.

The Ambroli School of the United Free Church Mission is Hindu

throughout, and at present takes its pupils only as far as the fifth

Anglo-Vernacular standard. All the instruction in the lower forms is

in Marathi, and it is a stiff battle that Marathi babies have to fight

with their letters. There are three scripts to learn--one printed,

one cursive, and one abbreviated--and it is no wonder that, with this

task to master, Indian parents tend to look on Kindergarten expedients

for “time wasting” as a diversion from the royal road to knowledge.

The teachers here, with the exception of one Anglo-Indian for English

in the upper forms, are all Indian, and some are non-Christians, but

the school is continually visited by a fully trained Scottish lady,

who divides her time between this and another school. Fees are paid

regularly, and there is a good municipal grant. An interesting feature

of the American Mission is the stress laid at their orphanage and

boarding-school upon independence in character. Each pupil must do two

hours’ industrial work, and may in addition work longer for payment,

which is credited to her account for payment of fees. Thus some of

the pupils in the Matriculation class were beyond the usual age, but

had contributed considerably to their own maintenance. The industrial

training of this mission is very highly developed, both in Bombay and

at Ahmednagar. The Primary schools in the villages have the usual

characteristics which we have studied elsewhere, and it has only to be

noted that this work is capable of practically unlimited extension.

No account of women’s education in the Presidency would be complete

without reference to the work of Pandita Ramabai,[121] which stands

outside all mission control, and is the unique contribution of an

Indian woman to the future victory of the Christian ideal among her

own people. Since the _Sharada Sadan_ (the abode of wisdom) near

Poona was started in 1892, thousands of Indian widows have been given

the opportunity of a self-supporting, self-respecting life, and a

vision of what self-sacrifice may mean. The education given on strictly

intellectual lines is naturally not carried to a High stage, but is

thorough in type. The Pandita dreads the Westernization of her girls,

and stands for all that is good in simple Indian life.

Though mission education bulks so largely in the statistics of

voluntary schools, and has been the pioneer, it must be realized

that it does _not_ hold the same position in this as in other

provinces, nor influence the districts as a whole. A brief glance at

the figures of Primary schools (Table, page 168) supported by other

public bodies, both in British territory and in the Native States, will

prove the contrary to those who imagine the mission factor still to be

the dominant one.

+----------------+------------------------------+-------------------+