INDIA’S VEILED WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 18

INDIA’S VEILED WOMEN

Invisible, But Powerful

THEY ACT BEHIND THRONES

A car with blue-tinted windows drove through the congested traffic of London. Seated in the back, heavily veiled, was a woman. Her kohl-tinted eyes gazed curiously upon the hurrying crowds. "One of th* richest women in the world.” my friend explained. "She is the Maharanee of Jodhpur. Iler husband rules 2,500,000 people. She can command anything she wants. "Except the privilege of walking unveiled on this pavement like any ordinary typist,” I remarked (the writer is w‘. J.' Makin). The outstretched arm of a policeman held up the car. We stared at the tinted windows curiously. Be could see very little, but those inside could see us. With a sudden gesture the blind was drawn down. After the car bad disappeared into the maze of traffic my friend, who was from India, told me something of the Maharanee of Jodhpur. Although in purdah, this wealthy queen came to London for the Coronation festivities. She is 34, small and slender. Women who have gazed upon her face unveiled, describe it. as round and o£ great beauty. She has a perfect olive complexion. All the languor of the Orient is in her attitudes. She prefers to lie on a couch rather than sit stiffly on a chair.

The only males permitted to gaze upon her beauty are her relatives and the Maharajah. Her presence in London caused many complications. She could not enter the lounge or any other public room at Claridge’s Hotel, where she stayed. She had to hurry along corridors that had previously been cleared of hotel servants. She left her suite by tr back staircase, and, on her return to the hotel, had to sit in her motor-car until the way to her boudoir was cleared. Unless it could be arranged that the box at the theatre was heavily curtained, she could not go to a stage performance. She shopped from her room at the hotel, and no male salesman was permitted to enter her room. She saw the Coronation from a flat overlooking the processional route. The windows were smothered with gauze. It seems a very unnecessary complication of life to Westerners. I admit that it seemed fantastic to me even during my first months in India. It suggested that women were the slaves of the harem, or the zenana, as it is called in IndiaThe Hidden Power.

Actually, however, I soon discovered that these veiled and hidden women of India have more power than their white sisters who openly bare their faces to all men. From the zenana they direct all their husband's activities. Many a time, with a law officer, I have had occasion to discuss business with some Indian potentate.

“You will have my answer in three days’ time,” the potentate would say. “Which means that he’s going into the zenana to discuss it with his wife,” the law officer would explain to me. Because of the all-powerful purdah, one has to tread wearily in India. The one great sin in t'he East is to approach an Indian of consequence and say, jovially: “How is your wife?” Etiquette demands that neither the wife nor any other woman be mentioned in conversation. A white woman may enter the zenana and talk with the wife, but never a, male.

At the same time, during these conversations with famous Indians, I have always bad the suspicion that the woman was present. Looking round the audience chamber you discover a lattice-work screen. Somewhere behind that screen eyes are flashing and ears are open. Everything you say is being heard by the woman. Maybe she has already decided what her husband will say in reply. I know there is a widespread impression that Indian women are less than the dust, Katherine Mayo’s book, "Mother India,” added to this impression. But some day a discerning writer will show that women in purdah are the real, powerful rulers of India today. The practice of purdah is reserved only to high-caste women. It is, one might say, an aristocratic privilege. Even so, I noticed on my rides through the Indian countryside that even the lowest-caste woman sweeping the road or grovelling for fuel, would cover her face with rags at the approach of a stranger.

Although many modern, democratic princes of India now permit their wives to go forth in Europe unveiled, there are still many Indian husbands who believe fervently in veiling their wives. I was once with an English doctor who wished to operate on a wealthy Punjab’s wife. She was suffering from appendicitis. The husband bustled us out of the house.

"I would cut into small pieces the man who would uncover my wife to perform an operation,’’ he exclaimed. It so happened there was no woman doctor in the village. The patient died of peritonitis. But these purdah women know that they still retain the great love of their husbands, the same undying love which induced Shah Johan to build the Taj Mahal tomb for the woman who was the queen of his life. And should these purdah women discover that their husbands do not love them, it is easy eonugh to cause the death of the man from the veiled secrecy of the zenana. Many Indian princes have decreed that the purdah shall no longer exist in their dominions. They set the example by allowing their own wives to go forth unveiled. It is a daring innovation for India, and so far has not met with great success. It is not easy to overthrow the Oriental tradition of centuries.

A few Indian princes have married women of pther races. One or two have been known to marry white women. In such cases, the woman probably insists upon going unveiled. Some of them decide to go unveiled only when they are away from India. During Die Coronation festivities in London, for example, some of us gazed upon the face of the beautiful Maharanee of Jaipur. She appeared on ceremonial occasions decked out. in £200,000 worth of jewels. The Maharanee of Jaipur broke even further with tradition by arriving in London before her husband. AA’hen I saw her she was wearing a magnificent strri of costly silk, and her jet-black hair was covered with a gorgeous scarf. She is a princess from the desert plains of liajpiitana. a niece of the great Indian sportsman “Ran.ji,” and has given her husband three beautiful young children. Actually, her husband is shyer than herself, probably the shyest millionaire in tile world. The twcnty-six-yenr-old Maharajah of Jaipur was educated at AVoolwicli, and ma.de a great name for himself at polo. Ho irnd his wife stayed at a certain hotel in Stirivy, because it has a well in the garden. The ruling house of Jaipur must never drink water which has passed through a metal pipe!