MISSIONARIES RETURN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22346, 18 February 1936, Page 3

MISSIONARIES RETURN

CONDITIONS IN INDIA CASTE SYSTEM BETTER "We are glad to be back in Auckland again," said Miss D. J. Dannefaerd, who returned yesterday on the Monowai from a five months' tour of India. Miss Dannefaerd is the secretary of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. She was accompanied by Miss Hazel Fountain, organising secretary. "We found that conditions for women in India are slowly improving." Miss Fountain said. "This is more apparent in the cities than in the villages. Women are not as secluded, and the caste system is not as bad in the south as in the north. In the south we rarely saw a veiled purdah woman in the streets, but in tho north we saw them in great numbers, especially in tho United Provinces."

Miss Dannefaerd and Miss Fountain travelled over 6000 miles in India, from the south to the north as far as Lucknow. In the sacred city of Benares they saw pilgrims from all parts

of the country drinking water from the holy river, while dead bodies were piled up alongside, waiting for cremation. They saw the remains of the mutiny at Lueknow, and they visited the Residency, where the British flag flies day and night. Wherever they went they found that people were interested in them, the natives often coming to gaze at white faces which were so seldom seen.

"We really saw the country better than the average tourist does," Miss Dannefaerd said. "The missionaries penetrate where tourists cannot go. We saw native life as it really is, and talked with the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant." Many people tried to generalise about India, but it could not be done, she continued. India was like a continent, with its teeming population, its different languages and dialects, and its different races. Generalisations were superficial. As far as the work of the mission was concerned, the missionaries seemed to be the best friends the villagers had, teaching them hygiene and helping them in every way possible.

As a result of their visit, Miss Fountain said, the work in part of the Punjab was being taken over by New Zealand. She spent longer there than in most centres, living in an isolated

village which had the worst crime record in India. The majority of the people there were Sikhs, very likeable people, in spite of their love of fighting. They were of huge physique, and had a great deal of character. Taking it on the whole, they found travelling in India fairly comfortable, Miss Dannefaerd said. The trains were as clean as one could expect, and in the north, where it was not too hot, they enjoyed their travels. It was interesting to meet people of all kinds, races and castes in the trains, and being in close contact with them for so long it was possible to get an insight into their lives that could not otherwise be obtained. Altogether.they spent two weeks in trains, circling a country so vast that, unless one had been through it, it was not easy to get a dear picture of it.