Transcriber's Note:
In the text, italic is denoted by _underscores_ around the letter, word
or phrase. Small capitals in the printed works have been transcribed as
ALL CAPITALS.
More Transcriber's Notes may be found at the end of this text.
THE QUEEN'S DAUGHTERS
IN INDIA.
BY
ELIZABETH W. ANDREW and KATHARINE C. BUSHNELL.
WITH PREFATORY LETTERS BY
Mrs. JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER and Mr. HENRY J. WILSON, M.P.
"_Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them._"
LONDON. MORGAN AND SCOTT,
12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.
_To be obtained from the_
_British Committee of the Federation for the Abolition of State
Regulation of Vice, 17, Tothill Street, Westminster, S.W.;_
_And from the American Purity Alliance, United Charities' Building,
New York, U.S.A._
1899.
Entered, in the year 1898, by
ELIZABETH W. ANDREW and KATHARINE C. BUSHNELL,
At Stationers' Hall, London.
DEDICATED
TO
JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER,
PROPHETESS OF THE TRUTH IN CHRIST JESUS; LOVER OF HOLY JUSTICE;
FRIEND OF OUTCAST WOMEN; LEADER OF "THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS";
WHOM GOD HATH ANOINTED WITH HIS OWN PECULIAR JOY.
BECAUSE, IN THE SPIRIT OF HER MASTER, SHE HATH
"LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED INIQUITY."
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
THIS little book is written under a deep sense of obligation to the
womanhood of the world, but more especially under a sense of duty to
God. A group of women of the British aristocracy have lifted their
voices in advocacy of licensed vice; and their sycophants and admirers
in England and America are either re-echoing their plea or excusing
their conduct. The plea is made primarily for India, but incidentally
for all Christendom, and every effort is being put forth, openly or
covertly, to contaminate public sentiment on this point.
In five States of America, in a little over a year, the attempt
has been made to secure legislation for the compulsory periodical
examination of women; and a strong organization exists on both sides
of the water to promote this infamous object. Under these conditions
it is a matter of grave moment that certain secular, temperance, and
religious periodicals which would have sounded a clear note of warning
six months ago, are today being deceived. They print the outrageous
falsehoods that represent India as having become a menace to the health
of England because of the abolition of brothel slavery in that country.
Excuses are made for the shallow-brained sophistry of those who pretend
that the compulsory periodical examination of women can be divorced
from the moral debasement of women, and as though such compulsory
examination were something quite unlike the notorious Contagious
Diseases Acts. High titles and famous names are quoted as a warrant for
advocating the iniquity; and certain men are being exalted as though
famous temperance advocates, who are not themselves total abstainers,
and who are well-known public advocates of licensed fornication. Thus
is introduced into philanthropic movements of the present day an
element of fatal moral confusion, as though a person who boldly defies
the principles of ordinary decency in one direction could be received
as a trusted and efficient promoter of decency along another line;
as though a man could be relied upon as an advocate and apostle of
that of which he is not an example. We do not doubt that some of the
persons who do these things are well-intentioned; but they expend their
benevolence on the wolf and forget the lamb. They would win others to
play with them on the asp's nest.
We have determined on our knees before God that those who advocate the
compulsory periodical examination of women shall do so knowing what it
means, and knowing also that their friends and neighbours understand
what is being advocated.
We offer no apology for our plainness of speech; to employ smooth
language and obscure phrases in the present crisis would be to trifle
with a deadly enemy--to toy with the Indian cobra.
_September, 1897._
FROM MRS. JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.
I wish that every woman in the United Kingdom could read this little
book. It tells the truth, the terrible truth, concerning the treatment
of certain Indian women, our fellow-citizens and sisters, by the
British Government. I believe if that truth were known throughout the
length and breadth of our land, it would become impossible for our
rulers to continue to maintain the cruel and wicked Regulations by
which these Indian women are enslaved and destroyed.
I am a loyal Englishwoman; I love my country. It is because of my great
love for her that I mourn so deeply over her dishonour in the promotion
of such legislation and practices as this book exposes, and that I will
not cease to denounce the crimes committed in her name so long as I
have life and breath.
I thank God that the writers of this book have been raised up to plead
the sacred cause of Justice and of Womanhood; and I rejoice to know
that God has bestowed on them a measure of the fearless spirit of the
faithful prophets and prophetesses of old, to rebuke national sin and
to preach repentance to the people.
JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.
_Feb., 1898._
FROM MR. HENRY J. WILSON, M.P.
DEAR FRIENDS,
I am glad you intend to reprint "The Queen's Daughters in India."
It brings home to many who will never read Blue Books the terrible
facts about officially-authorized vice; and it shows the moral aspects
of the "Regulation" system, which Blue Books never show.
I remember very clearly how your first Report, in 1892, of what you
had seen, impressed us all as a very careful record of a very careful
investigation.
Then, in 1893, I was a member of the Departmental Committee
appointed to hear your evidence, when your clear testimony, which no
cross-examination could shake, gave abundant evidence of your close
observation and the accuracy of your records.
The impression this made on me was only deepened when, in India,
in 1894 (on the Opium Commission), I saw one of the places you had
described with such remarkable closeness of detail.
It is deplorable that we should have to fight this battle again. But
so it is. Princesses and Titled Ladies have added their influence
to that of the panic-mongering materialists, in the endeavour to
"make the practice of prostitution, if not absolutely innocuous, at
least, much less dangerous"--for that is, in the language of the Royal
Commissioners of 1871, the object in view.
I thank God, therefore, that you are able to visit this country again,
to help us both by voice and pen in the renewed agitation which is
forced upon us.
Yours faithfully,
HENRY J. WILSON.
_Feb., 1898._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
DEDICATION iii
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION v
FROM MRS. JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER vii
FROM MR. HENRY J. WILSON, M.P. ix
I. CANTONMENT LIFE IN INDIA 13
II. SEEKING THE OUTCAST 32
III. THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY 45
IV. THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACTS 64
V. PLEADING FOR THE OPPRESSED 86
VI. SOME ANGLO-INDIAN MORAL SENTIMENTS 99
APPENDICES 113
THE QUEEN'S DAUGHTERS IN INDIA.
I.
Cantonment Life in India.
A GENTLEMAN in India, who had spent many years in military service,
told us the following tradition:--
"In the year 1856, before the Mutiny, Lady ---- was one evening riding
out on horseback at Umballa, unattended, when the bridle of her horse
was suddenly seized by a British soldier who was possessed of evil
designs against her. Most earnestly she protested against his violence,
and remonstrated with him that, besides the wrong to her, to injure one
of her social rank would utterly ruin his entire future, as he would
be flogged and dismissed from the army in disgrace. Thereupon ensued
a conversation in which he pleaded extenuation for such a crime so
successfully that she readily accepted his false statement that there
was excuse for vice when soldiers were not allowed to marry. After
that experience she sought opportunity to talk with high military
officials concerning the necessity of protecting high-born ladies from
such risks, by furnishing opportunities for sensual indulgence to the
British soldiers, and the result was the elaboration and extension
of a system for the apportionment of native women to regiments." We
have never been able to verify the exact truth of this incident, but
it probably has a basis in fact. Yet it has had its counterpart in a
recent movement among the aristocratic women of England to re-introduce
the same wicked legislation. It is on this account that the authors
have considered it necessary to print a more extended account of the
work in behalf of the women of India, in which they have had a large
share. If the exceedingly simple style in which they give their story
seems to some readers almost an insult to their intelligence, and
lacking in the delicacy of touch that could be desired, it must not
be forgotten for one moment that they are writing with special regard
for those in the humblest ranks of life, who have often had scant
opportunities for education; for it is upon the daughters of such that
the oppressive laws for the licensing of prostitution fall; and in
large part the supposed advantages of licensed prostitution accrue to
the upper social classes, which are, in fact, the lower moral classes.
The crusade against licensed fornication is a war between respectable
daughters of the poor and rich and powerful men and women.
Whether the narrative given above be wholly true or not, the fact
remains that when so-called "Christian England" took control of
"heathen India," and plots of ground called Cantonments were staked
off for the residence of the British soldiers and their officers,
full provision was made for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
A Cantonment is a considerable section of land, sometimes comprising
several square miles; and within these Cantonments much more arbitrary
law prevails than the civil law by which the rest of the country is
governed. There are about one hundred military Cantonments in India.
Sometimes these Cantonments have few inhabitants besides the soldiers
and a few traders in groceries, etc., for the soldiers; and again in
some places a whole city has grown up within the Cantonment, and many
Europeans reside therein, feeling more safe in case of threatened
trouble from an uprising of the people against the Government, than
outside under civil law only. All the land of a Cantonment belongs to
the Government, and in case of war the military officials may seize,
for residence, all the houses within the Cantonment without regard to
the actual owners of the buildings, and the commanding officer has the
power of expelling any one he pleases from the Cantonment, without
assigning any reason for so doing.
The system devised for furnishing sensual indulgence to the British
soldier, and for protecting him from diseases consequent on such
indulgence, was commonly called the Contagious Diseases Acts, but was
carried out under Cantonment Regulations, and was as follows in its
main features:--
There were placed with each regiment (of about a thousand soldiers)
from twelve to fifteen native women, who dwelt in appointed houses or
tents, as the case might be, called "chaklas." These women were allowed
to consort with British soldiers only, and were registered by the
Cantonment magistrate, and tickets of license were given them.
Besides the "chakla," _i.e._, the Government brothel, there was in
each Cantonment a prison hospital, in which the patients were confined
against their will. To these Lock Hospitals the women were obliged to
go periodically (generally once a week) for an indecent examination, to
see whether every part of the body was free from any trace of diseases
likely to spread from them to the soldiers, as the result of immoral
relations. The compulsory examination is in itself a surgical rape.
When a woman was found diseased, she was detained in the hospital until
cured; when found healthy she was given a ticket of license to practise
fornication and was returned to the chakla for that purpose.
In case a woman tried to escape from the chakla, or from the Lock
Hospital, and was apprehended, she would be taken to the Cantonment
magistrate, who would punish her with fine or imprisonment.
Even the price of the visits of soldiers to the chakla was fixed by
military usage, and was so low that the soldier would scarcely miss
what he expended in vicious indulgence. We have frequently heard in
England that the officers sent out in the English towns to secure
recruits for the army hold out, as an inducement to young men to
enlist, the fact that a licentious life in India is so cheap, and that
the Government will see to it that no disease will follow the soldiers'
profligacy. But this last promise is altogether false, for statistics
show that with all their efforts diseases increase with the increase of
licentiousness, with small regard to the military surgeons' efforts to
make it physically safe.
When a regiment came into a large Cantonment where there were barracks,
there was generally a large Government brothel to which all the women
were sent for residence, and a guard in uniform looked after them.
When the soldiers were camped out in the open field, tents were set up
for the women at the back part of the encampment. When the soldiers
marched, the women were carried in carts, with British soldiers to
guard them, or sent by train to the destination of the regiment. In
charge of the women was placed a superintendent or brothel-keeper,
called the "mahaldarni." She also was expected to procure women as
desired; and we have ourselves read the official permits granted these
women to go out to procure more women when needed.
On June 17, 1886, a military order, known among the opponents of State
regulation as the "Infamous Circular Memorandum," was sent to all the
Cantonments of India by Quartermaster-General Chapman, in the name
of the Commander-in-Chief of the army in India (Lord Roberts). But
during the course of the enquiry of the Departmental Committee of 1893,
its real author was discovered to be Lord Roberts himself, not his
Quartermaster-General.
This Memorandum (Parliamentary Paper No. 197, of 1888) is a lengthy
document, every part of which has painful interest; but we can only
give a faint outline. It specified certain measures to be instituted as
means for looking more carefully after the health of British soldiers,
and the observations therein were to be heeded by the "military and
medical authorities in every command" throughout India. (See Appendix
A.)
This order said (and military orders are well-nigh inexorable): "In the
regimental bazaars[1] it is necessary to have a sufficient number of
women, to take care that they are sufficiently attractive, to provide
them with proper houses, and, above all, to insist upon means of
ablution being always available." It proceeds: "If young soldiers are
carefully advised in regard to the advantage of ablution, and recognise
that convenient arrangements exist in the regimental bazaar [that is,
in the chakla], they may be expected to avoid the risks involved in
association with women who are not recognised [that is, licensed] by
the regimental authorities." In other words, young soldiers are not
expected to be moral, but only to be instructed as to the safest way of
practising immorality. This remarkable document goes on to suggest that
young soldiers should be taught to consider it a "point of honour" to
save each other from contagion by pointing out to their officers women
with whom there was risk of disease. The document calls attention to
the need of more women, and the necessity of making the free quarters
"houses that will meet the wishes of the women"--in order, it is
implied, that they may be the more easily lured to live in them.
The official record of what followed, as a result of effort on
the part of under-officials to carry out the instructions of the
Commander-in-Chief (Lord Roberts) is truly shocking, as might be
expected. The officer in command of the 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment
sent the following application to the magistrate of Umballa Cantonment:
"Requisition for extra attractive women for regimental bazaar, in
accordance with Circular Memorandum 21a." "These women's fares," it
continues, "by one-horse conveyances, from Umballa to Solon, will
be paid by the Cheshire Regiment on arrival. Please send young and
attractive women, as laid down in Quartermaster-General's Circular, No.
21a." Then he added a note to the effect that some of the women already
at hand were not very attractive, adding: "Application has been made
to the Cantonment magistrate of Umballa for others, but up to date
none have arrived; therefore, it is presumed a great difficulty exists
in procuring the class of young women asked for." Evidently it was an
amazing thing to these self-styled Christian military officials that
heathen women would not flock to their slave pens!
Another commanding officer writes: "There are not enough women; they
are not attractive enough. More and younger women are required, and
their houses should be improved." Yet another commanding officer
writes: "I have ordered the number of prostitutes to be increased to
twelve, and have given special instructions as to the four additional
women being young and of attractive appearance."
Such was the zeal for increasing the facilities for safe vice, provoked
by such military methods as described by this Memorandum, that the
unwillingness of the native women to plunge into a life of shame at the
behest of their conquerors, received scant consideration. A retired
soldier, living at Lucknow, told us of his own observations a few
years before: that, if a native policeman saw a young girl talking
indiscreetly, though innocently, with a man, he would denounce her as
a suspected prostitute; she would be brought before the Cantonment
magistrate, and be registered to live among the soldiers. He said
the police made large sums of money by threatening to thus hand over
girls to the magistrate, and demanding bribes as the alternative of
such a horrible fate. A Christian Englishman, holding a responsible
position under the Government, vouched for by the Editor of the
_Bombay Guardian_, relates what he saw in four Cantonments, where the
instructions of the "Infamous Memorandum" were carried out, in the
following language:--
"The orders specified were faithfully carried out, under the
supervision of commanding officers, and were to this effect. The
commanding officer gave orders to his quartermaster to arrange with
the regimental _Kutwal_ [an under-official, native] to take two
policemen (without uniform), and go into the villages and take from
the homes of these poor people their daughters from fourteen years and
upwards, about twelve or fifteen girls at a time. They were to select
the best-looking. Next morning, these were all put in front of the
Colonel and Quartermaster. The former made his selection of the number
required. They were then presented with a pass or license, and then
made over to the old woman in charge of this house of vice under the
Government. The women already there, who were examined by the doctor,
and found diseased, had their passes taken away from them, and were
then removed by the police out of the Cantonment, and these fresh,
innocent girls put in their places."
There is a whole volume of misery expressed in that last sentence, both
for the fresh, innocent girls, and for the diseased ones turned out of
the Cantonment. It has been repeatedly asserted that this system of
regulating vice was so merciful, even to the girls; for their diseases,
it has been claimed, were never allowed to go beyond the initial stage.
But what this witness states is strictly in accordance with what we
found to be the case. When we visited some of these Lock Hospitals and
examined the records kept there, we noted that in the annual reports
no cases of secondary stages of disease were mentioned; but when we
questioned the native physicians in charge as to whether these ever
arose, they answered that frequently such cases occurred, but when a
woman became unfit to practise prostitution, because of that fact, she
was turned out of the Cantonment.
The British officials of India have not shown the slightest concern
as to the spread of disease, even when introduced by their own race
among the natives, but have actually sent these women abroad to scatter
disease wherever they go. And what can a poor Army slave-woman do
when thus turned out? Her caste is broken, because she has lived with
foreigners, and her friends will seldom receive her back; she has been
compelled to follow the soldiers on the march; and when dismissed may
be hundreds of miles away from any human being who ever saw her face
before. Practically almost every industrial door in India is closed
to women, the nurse-girl to foreign children being so exceptional as
not worthy of mention among the hundreds of millions of people. The
Cantonment sometimes includes all there is of city life in the whole
region, and the woman has no choice but the open fields or the jungle.
God alone knows the fate of these helpless creatures, and few beside
care to know.
This was the exact state of things, with details too infamous to
commit to paper, until 1886, when the Contagious Diseases Acts which
had prevailed in the military stations of England were repealed as the
result of a remarkable crusade led by Mrs. Josephine Butler. As the
dependencies of Great Britain are all supposed to be governed by the
same policy as that of England the repeal of the Contagious Diseases
Acts there virtually repealed them in India. But it was not until 1888
that a despatch was sent to India by the Secretary of State for India,
whose duty it is to attend to such matters, declaring that the system
was "indefensible, and must be condemned."
A copy of Lord Roberts' "Infamous Memorandum" fell into the hands of a
Christian gentleman who sent it to England. It was there reprinted and
distributed to every member of the House of Commons, and created a
great sensation, meeting with almost universal condemnation. Following
upon the popular indignation created thereby, the House of Commons on
June 5, 1888, passed a unanimous resolution that "Any mere suspension
of measures for the compulsory examination of women, and for licensing
and regulating prostitution in India, is insufficient; and the
legislation which enjoins, authorizes, or permits such measures ought
to be repealed."
The publication of the "Infamous Memorandum" in England had shown that
the existing Indian Cantonment Acts must be condemned, and they were
superseded by rules made under a new law, the "Cantonments Act of
1889." This was a very specious document, which avoided the issue by
merely placing unlimited powers in the hands of the Governor-General
in Council to "make rules consistent with this Act, for the prevention
of the spread of infectious and contagious disorders within the
Cantonment."
It was so recognised and pronounced upon by the newspapers of India,
which favoured licensed vice. Commenting on the new Cantonments Act
one newspaper said: "The religious fanatics who howled until a weak
Government gave way to their clamour ... will probably howl again now
at the way the old order of things will be enforced under another
name, but with very little difference in manner." Another said: "Their
phraseology is the work of a master in the art of making a thing
look as unlike itself as it well can be." Many others spoke in the
same strain. Immediately the advocates of the abolition of licensed
prostitution took alarm, and began a vigorous remonstrance; for they
saw great danger in any law which put large discretionary power into
the hands of officials. The late Rt. Hon. Sir James Stansfeld, M.P.,
and Professor Stuart, M.P., addressed a letter to the Secretary of
State for India concerning this new Act, in which they said, among
other things: "If our interpretation of the new proposed regulations
is correct, they may be used to set up again a system of compulsory
examination of prostitutes, and to regulate and license, within the
Cantonment, the calling of those prostitutes who submit to periodical
examination, and to certify and license those who are pronounced
physically fit."
The official reply from the Secretary of State for India was to the
effect that the Home Government was unwilling to believe, without
positive proof, that this new Cantonments Act would be used to foster
licensed prostitution.
It should be explained here that Abolitionists have always recognised
that to establish the periodical examination is, in and of itself,
to license prostitution; for there can be no possible excuse for
the reiterated examination of healthy women, in anticipation of
possible contagion, without recognising a certain right to practise
prostitution, if the women be pronounced medically "fit" for such a
calling. The periodical examination of women, then, constitutes the
living heart of all those forms of legislation generally comprised
under the term, "The Contagious Diseases Acts," by whatever local name
such regulations may be known.
We came to England in the winter of 1890-91, it being the first country
visited by us on a round-the-world journey for the World's W.C.T.U.,
with which we were, at that time, officially connected.[2] During this
visit we frequently met and talked with Mrs. Josephine Butler, known
and revered by lovers of purity throughout the world for her heroic
service in the cause of the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice. She
expressed a strong desire that while in India in the course of our
journey we should make a careful investigation into the conditions
prevailing there, and learn, if possible, whether the resolution of the
House of Commons of June 5, 1888, was being obeyed. As already noted,
this resolution demanded the repeal of all measures that enjoined,
authorized, or permitted the compulsory examination of women and the
licensing and regulation of prostitution. It was desired also that
we should secure for the use of Parliamentary members of the British
Committee of the Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation
of Vice actual proof that the resolution was being disobeyed, such
as would meet the official demand for proof from the Secretary of
State, before he would be willing to believe that the new Cantonments
Act was being used to foster licensed prostitution. The mission was
pronounced by Mrs. Butler "one of the most difficult and even perilous
missions ever undertaken in the course of our great crusade." After due
consideration and prayer for guidance, we consented to undertake the
task.
The British Committee of the Federation furnished us with all necessary
official documents with which to make ourselves thoroughly conversant
with the history of the C. D. Acts throughout the British dependencies
in the Orient, and supplied us with a letter of introduction to a
staunch friend of the cause in India, with whom we were expected to
hold frequent consultations.
We took our departure from England in the month of July, 1891, going
first of all to South Africa and labouring in the interests of our
work there until the cold season set in and we could proceed to India.
Reaching India at the end of December, 1891, we conveyed our letter of
introduction to this confidential friend, who advised us to proceed
northward and consult with a friend of the cause who understood
thoroughly the interior life of the people, and, it was believed, would
give great aid to our mission. Travelling northward we arrived at the
station designated, and sought an interview with this gentleman.
We intimated to him what we hoped to accomplish in India, with a
view to obtaining an expression from him of his willingness to aid
us. With consternation and embarrassment he protested against our
undertaking anything so foolish and impracticable, declaring from
his long experience that it was utterly impossible for women to get
at the truth, and entreating us to abandon so wild a project. When
he saw that we did not yield the matter, he questioned us as to what
we were planning to do, how we should proceed to get information in
a country whose customs and language were so utterly unknown to us,
and concerning a military system with which, as Americans, we were
quite unacquainted. We withheld further confidence, simply saying with
earnestness, "Whether this is practicable or impracticable, women
have a right to this knowledge; and we do not think it foolish or
impracticable to trust God to give us all the information we need,
without human aid."
He felt the most kindly interest in us personally, and manifested this
by several practical expressions; but doubtless he reasoned that
he could not encourage us in what he believed to be an impossible
undertaking.
This experience drove us to God, our only helper. We were strangers in
a strange land, carrying the burden of a sacred secret which weighed us
to the earth. After much prayer and deliberation we called on the chief
military surgeon in charge of the station hospital of ---- Cantonment.
This official began almost immediately when we called upon him, and
entirely without suggestion from us, to deplore "the repeal of the
C. D. Acts," and, as he claimed, the consequent increase of specific
diseases. He showed us his daily report, which illustrated what he
said on this subject. These diseases, he said, were for the most part
contracted on the march or in the hills, especially at Ranikhet. This
interview took place on January 4, 1892.
The surgeon said he wondered that people did not, from the moral
and religious point of view, see the injury that the repeal of the
Contagious Diseases Acts was doing, not only to the soldiers but to
the whole country; "and," he added, "we can do nothing." We asked, "Is
there, then, no form of regulation now?" He answered emphatically,
"_None whatever._" He said, "We can do nothing about the women outside
the Cantonment, and there is the trouble." He added, "Those inside go
on as they used to, and go to the hospital for treatment when diseased.
But," he continued in an aggrieved tone, "this is absolutely voluntary;
we have no control."
He said there was a European physician in charge of the hospital, to
whom he had just been talking regarding the matter when we came in. We
said, "There is a European physician in charge, then, is there?" He
answered, "Yes; but the hospital is not for these diseases only, but
also for fevers, dysentery, cholera, and all diseases"; and that there
were men there as well as women. We asked, "Is the Lock Hospital, then,
entirely disused?" He replied, "Why, there is _no_ Lock Hospital."
He added that many good people were getting their eyes opened now
as to the condition of things, and that even some clergymen had the
courage of their moral convictions, and had come out in favour of the
Contagious Diseases Acts.
Previous to leaving England we had received information concerning
this Cantonment and its Lock Hospital. Our information, compared with
this official's inconsistent statements, convinced us that he was
endeavouring to mislead us. After other and many futile efforts to
reach the truth, we gave ourselves up wholly to prayer, remembering the
promise, "They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will
I lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a
straight way, wherein they shall not stumble." We felt sure that any
mistake at the outset of our work, such as giving confidence to the
wrong person, or any indiscreet action that might betray our object in
visiting India, would be fatal to our purpose; therefore we cried to
God to preserve us from impatience and to keep our feet from stumbling.
We went next to Agra and remained there several days, wandering about
the old fort and other places of interest. But surely never was
sadder sight-seeing! The way seemed utterly closed against us. The
work stretched, vast and difficult, before us, and those towering
thick walls that surround the fort, with a deep moat at their foot,
represented to our thoughts the pride, strength, and secrecy of the
system which we sought to penetrate, and at other times the barriers
that separated us from the enslaved women whom we had come to India in
the hope of helping.
Nearly five weeks had gone by; the winter season was rapidly passing,
and we were yet without a single clue to guide us in our investigations.
One Sunday we set apart for fasting and prayer--in the morning
instructing the native servants at the Rest House where we were staying
to leave us uninterrupted until the evening, as it was a sacred day
with us, and we wished to be alone. We locked our doors and waited on
the Father of spirits for guidance. Never shall we forget the hours
of that day. At the beginning our hearts seemed completely crushed
under a sense of our absolute helplessness and ignorance; but we know
now that we were in the very place of power--that it was only there
that God could reveal Himself to our waiting spirits. It was at the
first, however, inexpressibly dark. Still we held on, in faith that
light would come; and before night, light was fully given to us both,
as to our next step, which was that we were to go to a friend in a
neighbouring city and lay the whole case before her. We obeyed the
guidance; and although our friend was exceedingly hopeless as to our
undertaking, yet she was willing to give us the assistance of her
quick intelligence and long acquaintance with India. She proved of
invaluable service to us in teaching us many simple colloquial phrases,
and inducting us into a knowledge of the customs of the country, thus
making us much more independent in our work and travels.
At this time it became clear to us that we must approach the whole
question from the native side. We had gained nothing in seeking
information from European officials. Our hope now lay in interviewing
the native physicians and the women themselves. We did not at first
venture to ask the way to the Lock Hospital, taking it for granted that
this term had long before fallen into disuse, as the existence of this
hospital was officially denied. But after visiting various hospitals
within a Cantonment, and failing to find the "Cantonment Hospital" so
called, which term we were told was now applied to the place for which
we were searching, we asked for the Lock Hospital, and to our surprise
found that in common parlance it was still so named. Our cab-drivers
always understood instantly what we meant when we used either this term
or the native term, which means a hospital for degraded women. Our
first actual interview was held with the dhai, or nurse, and inmates of
a Lock Hospital. Besides much valuable information gained from them,
we learned the native name used to designate the quarters within the
military Cantonments for degraded women, viz., "The Chakla."
From this time forward, our way became much more plain, as in the ten
Cantonments visited[3] we found that we needed only to give directions
to our cabmen and they would take us without hesitation both to the
Lock Hospital and to the chakla, these places being perfectly well
known to the natives residing within the Cantonment.
These Cantonments are all under military rule. As our work lay only
within the Cantonments the military regulations, of course, applied
to us. One of these rules made it possible at any time for us to be
excluded, for it refers to "persons whom the Commanding Officer deems
it expedient to exclude from the Cantonment, with or without assigning
any reason for excluding them therefrom" (Cantonments Act, chap. 5,
sec. 26, clause 23). It was necessary, therefore, that we should not
attract attention to the fact that we were making investigations as
to whether the resolution of the House of Commons was being obeyed or
not by the military authorities. Had our errand been suspected, we
could have been sent out of the Cantonment at once, with no explanation
and no opportunity for redress. We therefore proceeded as quietly as
possible.
Towards the last our enquiries proceeded very rapidly, for we had
learned to accomplish as much in one day as would formerly have
occupied a week. The winter season was over, and we were now in
the month of March, with the heat of the advancing Indian summer
daily increasing in terrible force, and becoming oppressive to our
unaccustomed Anglo-Saxon constitutions. We travelled by night and
worked by day, hastening on to the completion of our task. At times,
arriving at our destination in the middle of the night, we rested,
exhausted, in the ladies' waiting-room at the railway station, where
there were cane-seated settees, on which we spread our travelling rugs
and remained until the morning. A native woman was always in charge,
and good refreshment-rooms were at hand, so that we saved much time and
avoided publicity in this way. We often travelled in what were known
as "intermediate compartments," knowing that we should attract less
attention than as first or second-class passengers. We simply asked
for guidance at every step of the way through these months of anxiety
and toil; and we knew that our prayers were answered.
We had various interpreters. One of these was a specially gifted
woman. She had a sweet, plaintive voice, and sang the native songs
with touching effect on the poor women whom we visited; one we always
recall as having been a wonderful instrument through God of moving
their hearts. It was a pilgrim hymn with a recurring strain of warning
against the love of the world, dress, jewellery, and sinful pleasures;
and reminding us all that this life is swiftly passing, and that death
may soon overtake us. Often before the refrain was finished the poor
women would be seen sobbing as they listened, joining in the sorrowful
strain that recurred again and again; and as soon as the song was ended
pouring out their pitiful histories and their protests against the
degradation into which they had been thrust by the infamous system of
legalised vice under which they were slaves.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Trading-posts for the supply of necessaries to the soldiers; but
the author means, in explicit terms, the chakla or brothel.
[2] We resigned June 15, 1896.
[3] The Cantonments we visited were Bareilly, Lucknow, Meerut, Lahore
(Cantonment Station, Meean Meer), Rawal Pindi, Peshawar, Amritzar,
Umballa, Sitapur, and Benares. Five of these we visited a second time.
II.
Seeking the Outcast.
A VIVID scene comes before us: We are sitting on a mortar bench, built
in a circular form around the trunk of an old tree, in the open court
of a Government chakla in one of the Cantonments of India. Some thirty
or forty girls come trooping around us, either sitting down on the
ground, native style, or bringing their cot-beds with them for seats.
Our sweet-voiced interpreter sings a plaintive song--native words
and native tune--and when she has finished there is scarcely a dry
eye to be seen. Then follows a simple Gospel message to which all
give respectful heed, and at its close we ask, "Why are you in such
a place as this?" Several answer in brief monosyllables, accompanied
by a gesture as though drawing a line transversely across the brow.
"It is our fate! It is our fate!" are the words used in reply; and
our interpreter explains to us that these believe, in accordance with
their religious instructions, that while they were yet babes, in an
unfortunate moment, when left alone by the mother, the messenger of
fate entered the room and wrote the word "prostitute" in invisible
characters across the brow, and that from that moment to struggle
against the lot that awaited them would have been useless.
No wonder that such poor slaves, when once taken and placed with the
British soldiers by some wicked mahaldarni, never dream of trying
to get away; and small wonder if others who had hoped that a better
fate might await them, and who make one ignorant, feeble attempt
to escape (and the women of a people whose customs keep them in
perpetual seclusion are extremely ignorant of the outside world) and
are recaptured by the police, will never be induced to try again, but
quickly become convinced that their fate has been also inexorably fixed
from the cradle.
"But," we say, "God is too good; He would not have it so." And they
reply hopelessly, "But what can we do? We cannot starve; we cannot cut
our own throats. Oh, that we might die!"
Then they begin to clamour for a chance to tell their individual
stories. One is a girl who was left an orphan at the age of six years.
At the tender age of eleven she says she was taken by an Englishman and
kept three years as his mistress. When he deserted her, there was no
door open to receive her but the chakla. One pretty girl said she had
been deceived by a bad woman, under promise of employment.
Another, with face partly covered by her hands for very shame, said her
husband had sold her to the mahaldarni for money. By graphic gesture
and with the help of the few English words she knew, another told of
the agonies of slow starvation until at last her courage gave way, and
she came to the British soldiers, who were willing to feed her starving
body for the sake of its worth as an instrument of self-indulgence.
This is the only right to existence accorded to many women, even in
so-called Christian countries, where labour is hard to obtain.
A little girl of ten, gaudily arrayed in the style of the others, thus
publishing her candidature for a life of vice before she knew its
meaning in the least, played about among the older ones. A little boy
of two, with beautiful forehead, and other features that betrayed his
English blood, had been forsaken by his father, who had, the girls
said, "gone home to England." We recall having seen other children of
Saxon type at Lucknow, Meerut, and at Peshawar, left in the same way
by fathers who were officers of the British army in India. While the
attempt is being made to create sentiment in favour of protecting the
"innocent wives and children" of British soldiers, it might be well to
inquire which wives and which children--those that already exist in
India, or those that have not yet materialised in England. God knows
which are the real wives and the real children of soldiers who have, in
many cases in the past, entered into a contract with unsophisticated
native women who never dreamed that it was anything less than lawful
marriage!
"These bad women promise us everything and then betray us into this
life," said several of the girls, referring to the treachery of the
mahaldarnis. They told us of a girl who had recently been set on fire
by an angry soldier, and had been burned to death, and related the
story of cruelties practised upon them by drunken soldiers. A native
guard in uniform drew near to listen. These military guards were there
all the time, and were changed every few hours, the girls told us. As
the mahaldarnis who own the girls are always at hand to watch against
the escape of the discontented, the work of the guard seems to be
chiefly to keep order and to prevent the entrance of native men, as the
latter are strictly forbidden to associate with women kept for the
English soldiers.
Two women of mature years now approached, and we were informed that
they were the mahaldarnis. One lived there all the time, and the other
was there with her girls for the time being. They said they had each
a salary of ten rupees a month from the Government. They also took a
share of the girls' earnings. Another time we went to the hut, close to
the chakla, where one of them lived, and she proudly displayed to us
some of the recommendations she held from British officers. They were
grim and horrid reading; we will give but a single illustration:--
"Ameer has supplied the 2nd Derby Regiment with prostitutes for the
past three years, and I recommend her to any other regiment requiring
her for a similar capacity.
"S. G. M----,
_"Quartermaster 2nd Derby Regiment."_
As to the methods to which these mahaldarnis resort to procure girls,
it has been touched upon in the personal stories of girls already
given, and will be emphasized necessarily more and more as our story
continues. Mahaldarni Rahiman, met in another Cantonment, told us a
story closely resembling the methods described in a former chapter
(page 20), by a Government official. She said in substance: "If a girl
is not sufficiently attractive to earn a living, I send her away and
get another in her place. I get the women from the bazaar when more are
needed. I go to the Cantonment magistrate, and he gives me five, ten,
twenty, or fifty rupees, as the case may demand. To buy a very young,
attractive girl I will be furnished with fifty rupees. There is always
plenty of money to get them with."
When opportunity afforded, we called upon the other mahaldarni, and
she likewise showed us her recommendations in the handwriting of
British military officials, and other interesting papers which she had
carefully preserved. There was an original copy of her appointment as
mahaldarni to a certain regiment, closing with permission for her to
go to Ferozepore to attend to "certain business of her bazaar." This
was signed by the Colonel of the regiment. There was a letter written
to her by the Staff-Surgeon of the same regiment, a few days later,
saying:--
"Mahaldarni, Seventh Lancers,--You have not brought your women from
Meerut and Ferozepore. You will have to do it or the Colonel will
think you have broken faith, as it is now fifteen days since you
received your appointment."
The Staff-Surgeon evidently thought it an easy task to buy or entrap
twelve or fifteen girls in as many days. Then there was a copy of a
letter addressed by herself to the Cantonment magistrate, which she
had employed some one to write in English for her. This letter stated
that she had brought four new girls with her who had several thousand
rupees' worth of jewelry with them (probably a lie by way of excuse),
but their brothers had accompanied them (to effect their rescue?) and
she asked the magistrate to require the girls to remain in the chakla,
and then their brothers could not get near them. Native men not being
allowed about the chakla, brothers and husbands who might be bent upon
the rescue of female members of their families, who had been enticed
away or stolen by the mahaldarnis, could be kept at a safe distance.
At other times we had opportunities to revisit this large chakla.
There were about one hundred inmates, and accommodations for many
more. The building was scarcely less than a huge fortification. High
blank walls--excepting tiny well-barred windows high up, surrounded
an open space of ground, or court; and the inner side of the wall was
lined with small numbered rooms for the accommodation of the inmates.
Most of the girls, here as elsewhere, because of constant association
with British men, had learned to speak a little English, while a few
spoke quite fluently. Although we always were accompanied by a good
interpreter, yet often we were able to converse quite freely ourselves
with the girls.
Our interpreter recognised one girl on our first visit, whom we shall
call by her nickname, which was "Katy," and asked her if she was not
the girl who had run after her carriage two or three times, begging
the interpreter to take her away. Katy said she had done so, and with
streaming tears reiterated her desire to escape from a life of which
she was so ashamed, and pleaded with us to take her. When we consented
to take her that very day, she faltered, and then decided that she did
not dare try to go until after the following day, which was the day of
the bi-weekly examination, but she said that if we would give her our
address she would come herself on the day following. As we drove away
in our cab, and the girls waved farewell, poor Katy, with pitiful and
despairing countenance, burst into tears. Her face haunted us for days,
and as she did not come of her own accord to us, in a few days we went
after her again.