INDIAN WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 167, 16 July 1936, Page 13

INDIAN WOMEN.

INTEREST IN HOME SCIENCE,

VIEWS OF AUCKLAND VISITOR,

Miss Mary Graham, now of Wellington, who has been staying in Auckland for a short visit, has much of interest to women to relate about her life in India, where until recently she was inspector of schools in the Punjab. Miss Graham worked under the British Government in India, and was concerned with both European and Indian women teachers, specialising in home science, in j which subject she is an English graduate. She found a very keen interest taken throughout India in home science, which, of course, has to be adapted slightly to the needs of Indian home life as regards equipment and dietary. Many Indian women teachers came to her for training, the Government granting them maintenance and leave for three months in order to take a concentrated course in the science. The trouble was, said Miss Graham, that so little money was available for equipment and materials. Economic troubles, Miss Graham considered, were at the root of practically all Indian problems. Even the so-called religious rivalry of Maliommedan and Hindu had its basis in the acute struggle for living. Not long ago a vacancy was

advertised in a bank in Calcutta; there were ten thousand applications for the post, which carried with it a salary of about £.") a month, yet upon this sum ten thousand men apparently were anxious to live and bring up their families. The stranglehold of capital upon the Indian farmer was the same whether it be from a moneylender or an English or Indian bank, said Miss Graham. The bounds of the Indian village could not be extended, since they extended to the boundaries of the next village. Upon a man's death his holding was divided among his sons, and a position had been reached where holdings would no longer support families, especially with primitive tools and farming methods. Miss Graham considered that the vast hydro-electric schemes in construction would not benefit the great mass of the people unless some way was found to enable them to increase their purchasing power and get the current at a feasible rate, and some employment was found for those who were displaced by the coming of electrically-driven machinery. Naturally electricity in the homes would bring about a revolution in the home life of the Indian women. So also would the, more widespread benefits of schooling, with a knowledge of the English language which would enable them to read women's publications from Britain and America. The Indian women, she said, were delicate and refined in type, and everywhere Miss Graham found a keen desire to learn western ways. In instancing a fact from her personal observation, Miss Graham said the year she commenced work in India it was not considered respectable for an Indian lady even to be seen driving in public with her husband; the year of her departure she saw Indian ladies driving their own cars, with husband seated beside them! Miss Graham has a great faith in the future of the Women's Institute movement, which she regards as one of the greatest world movements for the benefiting of women and the home, giving as it does a common platform irrespective of race, creed and colour. It was a great regret to her that she and her sister left the Punjab shortly after the Women's Institute movement arrived, so that they were obliged to decline a request to organise it throughout the province. Miss Graham considers that New Zealand could with advantage purchase more of the home handicraft articles of the Indian workers. The handwoven materials, hand-printed in immemorial designs, are ever beautiful and suitable. The spirit of beauty which is inherent in Indian life is reflected in Indian art forms and designs.