Lighted to Lighten: The Hope of India | Page 8

but freed from ancient bonds by this reflex
action of Christian thought, perhaps the most eminent example is Mrs.
Sarojini Naidu. Of Brahman birth, but English education, she dared to
resist the will of her family and the tradition of her caste and marry a
man of less than Brahman extraction. Now as a writer of distinction
second only to Tagore she is known to Europe as well as to India. In

her own country she is perhaps loved best for her intense patriotism,
and is the best known woman connected with the National Movement.
Chiefly, however, it is among the Christian community that woman's
freedom has become a fact. Women such as Mrs. Naidu exist, but they
are few. Now and then one reads of a case of widow-remarriage
successfully achieved. Too often, however, the Hindu reformer,
however well-meaning and sincere, talks out his reformation in words
rather than deeds. He lacks the support of Christian public opinion; he
lacks also the vitalizing power of a personal Christian experience. It is
easy to speak in public on the evils of early marriage; he speaks and the
audience applauds. He knows too well that in the applauding audience
there is not a man whose son will marry his daughter if she passes the
age of twelve. So the ardent reformer talks on, with the abandon of the
darky preacher who exhorted his audience "Do as I say and not as I do";
and hopes that in some future incarnation life will be kinder, and he
may be able to carry out the excellent practices he really desires.
A Hindu girl of high family was allowed to go to college. There being
then no women's college in her part of India, she entered a Government
University in a large city, where there were a few other women students.
Western standards of freedom prevailed and were accepted by men and
women. Rukkubai shared in social as well as academic life. With a
strong arm and a steady eye, she distinguished herself at tennis and
badminton, and came even to play in mixed doubles, a mark of the
most "advanced" social views to be found in India.
After college came marriage to a man connected with the family of a
well known rajah. The husband was not only the holder of a University
degree similar to her own, but a zealous social reformer, eloquent in his
advocacy of women's freedom. Life promised well for Rukkubai. A
year or two later a friend visited her behind the purdah, with the doors
of the world shut in her face. The zeal of the reforming husband could
not stand against the petty persecutions of the older women of the
family. "I wish," said Rukkubai, "that I had never known freedom.
Now I have known--and lost."
[Illustration: WILL LIFE BE KIND TO HER?]

Yet not all reformers are such. There are an increasing number whose
deeds keep pace with their words. Such may be found among the
members of The Servants of India Society, who spend part of the year
in social studies; the remainder in carrying to ignorant people the
message they have learned.
Such is the heritage of the Hindu woman of ancient freedom; centuries
when traditions of repression have gripped with ever-tightening hold;
to-day a new ferment in the blood, a new striving toward purposes half
realized.
Of to-morrow, who can say? The future is hidden, but the chapters that
follow may perhaps serve to bring us into touch with a few of the many
forces that are helping to shape the day that shall be.
[Footnote 1: History of India, E.W. Thompson. Christian Literature
Society, London and Madras, pp. 11-12.]
[Footnote 2: Outline of History, H.G. Wells. Vol. I, pp. 146-8.]
[Footnote 3: Outline of History, H.G. Wells, Vol. I, pp. 196-199.]
[Footnote 4: Outline of History, H.G. Wells, Vol. I, pp. 189-190.]
[Footnote 5: Ancient Times, Breasted, pp. 658-9.]
[Footnote 6: Code of Manu, Book 9, quoted Lux Christi, Mason, p. 14.]
[Footnote 7: India through the Ages, Florence Annie Steele, Routledge,
pp. 95-104, 116-18.]
[Footnote 8: India through the Ages, pp. 190-200]

CHAPTER TWO
AT SCHOOL

Hindu or Christian.
In the last chapter we have spoken of the Hindu girl as yet untouched
by Christianity, save as such influence may have filtered through into
the general life of the nation. We have had vague glimpses of her social
inheritance, with its traditions of an ancient and honorable estate of
womanhood; of the limitations of her life to-day; of her half-formed
aspirations for the future.
Of education as such nothing has been said. As we turn now from home
to school life, we shall turn also from the Hindu community to the
Christian. This does not mean that none but Christian girls go to