OUR INDIAN SISTERS.

White Ribbon, Volume 27, Issue 313, 18 July 1921, Page 1

OUR INDIAN SISTERS.

India strange languaged, mystic, and mysterious -our Indian Empire. How proud we are of it! How little we understand it! A history reaching back to the dim shades of antiquity. Sacred books, the most ancient of literature. A continent, not a country. What diversities of language, of customs, of characters, of religions within its boilers. Barbaric gems, and wealth of eastern goods attract the greedy eyes of a Trading Fompany. All its wealth, its trade, eagerly desired by them, but no responsibility of government wanted. The men on the spot, Clive and Hustings, know that to trade successfully they must rule. Then the people rise because their rulers who show such an utter lack of understanding of their point of view. Rebellion is crushed with a strong hand, but rale is taken from a Company and vested in a Nation. Western education. West* < n progress are confronting 1 ,e co c.ervatism and g.lm fatalism of the Hast, nd they are acting and reacting upon uh other. What the issue? Who dare prophesy? Devoted missionaries have told us much about our Indian sisters, but like their Master of old. their work is chiefly with the poor and needy. There is another India, embracing the women, almost untouched by European influences, and the following paper upon the Purdah women of In (Pa, by one who has lived among them and visited their homes, should prove highly interesting to our readers.

THE LIFE OF THE IT’RDAH WOMAN OF INDIA. Much has been said and written from time to time with regard to the conditions of life of the Indian woman; but there stiff seems to be a good deal of misunderstanding. It is not easy for one nation to understand the social conditions of another whose ideals and ustoms differ from their own. In order to gain a true understanding of them, the matter should Im* looked at from the point of view of national i<!i<a|d, rather than from the actual facts as from outside, for it is these ideals >vhieh show forth the genius of the nation. It is true that they are very often not lived up to. but how many do live up to their ideals? Yet it is the ideals that show the real man. and not his failure to live up to them. We have heard a great deal übcut the miserable lives of Indian women, mostly from those who have taken up missionary work in India, and there is doubtless much truth 1n what they tell its of the hardships and the cruel treatment they receive, and the way they are looked down upon and neglected. But this is only one side of the question; the class with which the missionary worker mostly comes in contact is the poorest and most uncared for. and to take these as representing the Indian nation would lx* much the same as judging the family life of England by that of the slums in her great cities a most unfair judgment. The women of India may be divided into three classes: the poorest and mast uneducated, which have just been mentioned, unfortunately

a very numerous class; those who have escaped from or have never been bound b> the restrictions of Hindu social life, who have been educated in English schools and universities, and are for the most part living the life ol an ordinary European; and there is the third class, composed of those who are living under the purdah system. It is this latter class with whom we are here dealing, as most nearly representing the Hindu ideal of womanhood. A vast amount of pity has been bestowed upon these so-called unfortunate women, who are supposed to Ik* entirely without education, condemned to a life of rigid seclusion, cut off from the life of the* world, and having no resources within themselves wherewith to pass away their time, and no sympathy with or knowledge of the more public life of their husbands, who regard them as inferior lM*ings, of no account except as they conduce to their own comfort and pleasure. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Very little is generally known of the* real life of a Hindu middle-class family, partly on account of the purdah system, and also from the failure of European women to enter into the lives of their Indian sisters, some of *bem having hardly ever spoken to an Indian, except to their own servants. Not that they are necessarily to blame for this; it is not an easy matter to penetrate into the seclusion of a Hindu home, especially taking into account the fact that very few of the women know a word of English. The position of the Hindu woman in tier home will be better understood if

we remember what Is the Hindu Ideal of womanhood. This may perhaps be best expressed as self-surrender or selfabnegation. The aim of a true Hindu woman is not “to live her own life,” but to sacrifice her personal desires and subordinate her will to the welfare and the needs of her family. This ideal will not, perhaps, aopeai altogether to the Western mind, though it will surely find some response In the heart of every true woman; but it is strictly in keeping with the traditions and customs of the Hindu, and with the special conditions gf the family life. A word with regard to thus, which may be described as the community life of the family, may not lx* out of place. It is the custom for the young men, when married, to bring their wives to the father’s house, instead of setting up an establishment of their own. Here they have their own rooms, but the life is a common life, under the management of one head, under whom the rest all fill their appointed places. So in one household we find the mother, or it may be the grandmother, the sons with their wives and families, ami as the grandsons in their turn reach the marriageable age. the first members of yet another generation. In this little com inunity there is scope for the individual to follow to a certain extent his or her own particular bent, especially in the case of any special talent, but individual life and interests are at their lowest point, the welfare of each om* being dependent upon and wholly subordinated to that of the whole. The fathei, if living, or if not, the eldest son, is responsible for all financial and other matters outside the home, but within the precincts of that home the mother is the undisputed head. Her chief thought will indeed be to carry out the wishes of her husband; at the same time her position us one of far greater influence than might be imagined, and her sons will do nothing which she would not approve of, consulting her wishes in every way. This community life of the family is a feature of Hindu social conditions. There may lx, and doubtless are, objections to be brought against it, but it must be taken into account in any attempt to understand or improve these conditions with regard to the women, and it has without doubt its good points. No one privileged to become acquainted with an

ideal Hindu home could fail to l>e impressed with the atmosphere of peace and content which seems to prevail, the sweet faces and charming manners of the ladies, the happy relation.*- which seem to exist between the different members of the community, and the bright fades of the little children, all speak of a happy home, and it may be that such a visitor might even have a glimpse of the unity of thought and interests which mark the more intimate relations bet we n husband and wife. With regard to education, these Hindu women have not as a rule received much as it is understood in the Western world, and very few have any knowledge of English, but they are not therefore uneducated; many are well versed in their own literature, and especially in the study of their sacred writings, and are fully able to take an intelligent interest in things outside their homes, though they have not the opportunity of taking part in them; while in all housekeeping matters, cooking, sewing, etc., they may well bear comparison with their Western sisters, and they are very apt at learning fresh accomplishments, and eager to do so. It is in this community life that we must look in part ’or the explanation of the custom of eariy marriage. It would be difficult for girls of 18 or 20, brought into a strange family, and in a subordinate position, to accustom themselves to the restrictions of their new surroundings, and would inevitably lead to friction. Coming into ine family us a child, and growing up within it, the young wife is better able to find her own place there, and grows into it almost unconsciously without the feeling of rebellion, which might otherwise arise. To our Western minds there Is indeed much that is undesirable in this early wifehood and motherhood, even taking into .account the much earlier development of the girl; but any great change in this respect would probably mean a subversion of the whole social life of the Hindu, and how fur one nation is justified in trying to impose its own customs upon another with widely differing ideals and traditions is certainly an open question. The child widow is without doubt the most pathetic figure in a Hindu household. One cannot but feel unlimited pity for the poor little girl thus deprived of the natural expectations and

hopes of her young girlhood, and it Is difficult to understand the reason of this restriction. The only thing that seems to offer any explanation is tlkat the supreme virtue of Indian womanhood is chastity, which thus finds its extreme limit in this fidelity to an ideal. There is indeed a certain pathetic beauty in the ideal life of the widow, which is supposed to be one of self-abnegation and abstinence, devoted to the care of the children and the service of the household generally, the one to whom any one in need of help may turn; but it is difficult to associate this with the building life of a young girl. There are, however, signs of the breaking down of the prejudice against remarriage, several cases of which have been known of late. There is also a tendency to raise the marriage age, and it may be that the time is at hand when there will Ik* some vital change in the life of the Hindu woman. It is difficult to say what may Ik* the effect upon those gentle ladies of the enfranchisement of the women of Madras. The life of the two. and the type of woman are so different, that what is the natural development of the one may lx entii \‘y foreign to the other, and it is difficult to associate the idea of a political life with the purdah woman of North India. Vet it is inevitable that changes should come in the evolution of national life, and that old customs anil prejudices should in time give place to newer developments. Whenever such change should come in the lives of these women. it should come from within, in the growing desire of the girls themselves for greater freedom and a wider life, rather than ficm outside influence. A large proportion of the young girls of the purdah families are now attending schools, where they come under the influence of Western ideas, and in sonic of these, where due care has not been taken to keep before them their own religious traditions and ideals, the seeds of discontent and rebellion against existing conditions and the life that lies before them, are already to be found. The present time is a time of transition, and it may be that before any great Change can take piace, there will be, as is so ofter the case, a period of ditfl culty and unrest and with this in view, it is needful that those who have charge of the education of these young minds should thoroughly understand and sym

pathise with those ideals and traditions, in order that they may be able to help ihem to enter upon the new life that may lie before them, without losing the # peculiar grace and charm which characterise the girls of the purdah homes of Northern India.