Chapter II: Historical Survey

“We have now before us in that vast congeries of people we call India, a long slow march in uneven stages through all the centuries from the fifth to the twentieth.”

The history of the education of women in India must keep in view the three conflicting ideals of womanhood which have dominated Indian society at different epochs. These are the Vedic, the Moslem, and the Christian or Western. While our main concern is with the last, a brief glance into the early ages is necessary for a full comprehension of the conflicting currents found in the modern epoch. In the early Vedic times women apparently enjoyed an equal status with men. There was no child-marriage, no seclusion in the zenana, no _sati_, no prohibition of the re-marriage of widows. Ladies of culture composed hymns and performed sacrifices as men did. Some even remained unmarried and had their share of the paternal property. There are many passages in the Brāhmanas which show the high esteem in which women were held. Gārgā Vāchaknavi, a learned lady, is mentioned as taking active part in a great assembly of learned men summoned by Janaka, King of the Videhas, to decide which of them would prove the wisest. There is a celebrated conversation between Yajnavalkya and his learned wife Maitreyi on the possible comprehension of the infinite by the finite.[18] “One poem, the Bhagwan Manu, prescribes a positive punishment for parents who keep away from school their boys after five and their girls after ten years of their respective ages.”[19] It would appear, in fact, that girls had some share in whatever education was available.

From about the fifth century +B.C.+ in successive Hindu codes we find limiting laws, many of which were embodied about +A.D.+ 200 in the Code of Manu. Their stringency is only weakened by a general recommendation that men “who seek their own welfare should always honour women on holidays and festivals with gifts of ornaments, clothes, and dainty food.” The possibility of education was closed by the exclusion of girls from the initiatory caste rites, which served as a prelude to the education of boys.

“The nuptial ceremony is stated to be the Vedic sacrament for women and to be equal to the initiation, serving the husband equivalent to the residence in the house of the teacher, and the household duties the same as the daily worship of the sacred fire.”[20]

“For women no sacramental rite is performed with sacred texts, thus the law is settled; women who are destitute of strength and destitute of the knowledge of Vedic texts are as impure as falsehood itself, that is a fixed rule.”[21]

Fixed rules and settled laws do not always remain so where women are concerned, and there is considerable evidence that the women of the upper classes could often read and write, and, though the perusal of the sacred literature was denied, they certainly read and memorized the great popular epics, the Rāmāyana and the Mahābharāta, which embody many Indian traditions and ideals. In the Ajanta caves, which cover a period from the second to the seventh century +A.D.+, women are represented as engaged in study with books of palm leaves. Elsewhere they are referred to as musicians and artists. In the dramas of Kālidāsa about the fifth century the inevitable jest at the expense of learned women is current coin. The comic character says he must always laugh when he hears a woman read Sanskrit or a man sing a song.[22] Amongst the Rajputs, where status was determined by courage not literacy, the women held a high position. In the early days of the nineteenth century the records of these early periods were carefully searched by Indian enthusiasts to produce evidence of former literary achievements as an argument for the introduction of Western education. A lecture by Pyari Chand Mittra, a Government schoolmaster, offers an interesting list headed by the famous Lilavati, after whom a mathematical treatise of the ninth century is named. Either she was the authoress thereof,[23] or it was specially composed for her perusal. “Besides Lilavati there were many females of literary and scientific attainments. The Tamils boast of having possessed four female philosophers: viz. Avyar and her three sisters. Avyar was the daughter of one Bhaguvan, a Brahman, and outshone all her brothers and sisters in learning. ‘She was contemporary with Kumbur, the author of the Tamil Rāmāyana, and she employed her eloquent pen on various subjects, such as astronomy, medicine, and geography; her works of the latter description are much admired. Avyar remained a virgin all her life, and died much admired for her talents in poetry, arts, and sciences.’ I am given to understand by an intelligent Hindu gentleman, that he knew of one Hātta Vidyalancar, a female scholar at Benares, who was versed in Smriti[24] and Nyaya. We also hear of the literary proficiency of the wives of Kālidāsa and Kornut, Raja of Khona, the latter was conversant with astronomy and is well known by the sayings she has left behind; of Gargu, the wife of Yagnya Valkya, who is said to have possessed a good knowledge of Yog[25] Shastra.”[26]

With the Moslem conquests came the _parda_ system with its withering influence. Devised by Mohammed, according to modern Moslem historians, for the protection of women in wild and lawless times, it has inculcated distrust of their character and capacities. In spite of the fact that many Indian women to-day look upon the _parda_ as a sign of prestige and of their value in their husbands’ eyes, the thoughtful observer must reckon it, in its ultimate social influence, as a symbol of distrust. “A man both night and day must keep his wife so much in subjection that she by no means be mistress of her own actions; if the wife have her own free-will, notwithstanding she be sprung of a superior caste, she will yet behave amiss” runs a later Hindu code, coupling this statement with minute regulations as to doors and windows. Isolated Indian women, both Hindu, and Moslem are prominent in later times, but they by no means represent the common life. Their chronicle is written because in some way or other they have been exceptional. In the thirteenth century it is said of Razia Begum, the only woman ruler in her own right of Moslem India, that the severest scrutiny of her actions could reveal no fault save that she was a woman.[27]

The Calcutta School Society ascertained in 1818 that no provision of any kind existed for the education of women, and an attempted estimate of their general literacy places the figure at one in a hundred thousand. The old ideal had so utterly vanished, that it needed the touch of Western civilization to revive even the conception of its former existence. This existence, shadowy and faint though it may appear in our eyes, is an enormous asset to the new movement in a country where everything Aryan and Vedic counts for much in the endeavour to create a national consciousness.

The modern epoch is thus in part a Renaissance, in part the introduction once more of the ideal of another faith. It will occupy our attention in detail and falls naturally into three periods. The first dates from 1819, when the Baptist Mission in Calcutta started its first school for girls[28] till 1854, during which time the influence was almost entirely that of the women missionaries; the second, from the famous Educational Despatch of 1854 till 1884, is characterized by the Government policy of “grants-in-aid” to voluntary associations, by the first tentative beginnings of direct Government effort, and by the expansion of Secondary education under missionary auspices; in the modern period dating from the presentation of the report of Sir William Hunter’s Commission in 1884, the Government share in girls’ education is much more direct, the spontaneous Indian element enters more strongly, and for the first time the question of a differentiation in the curriculum arises.

The first period is essentially the day of small things. The Danish missionaries of the eighteenth century had included girls in their schools but there is little record of their doings, and the schools organized by Miss Cook in Calcutta (1821) and Mrs Wilson in Bombay (1829) were in every sense pioneer work. Elsewhere is to be found the full story of opposition, of fluctuating desire, of tactful consideration and of careful enlistment of enlightened Hindu men, who had been touched by Dr Duff’s educational work, as advocates of the cause. The same discrepancy between theory and practice which marks the advocacy of some of the Indian social reformers of to-day existed then, and the movement was by no means an extensive one. By 1840, Miss Cook (now Mrs Wilson) records about 500 girls at school in Bengal of whom half were in her own school. Dr Duff in outlining a missionary and educational policy for India, points to the need of a great development of the education of men before that of women could possibly follow. “The education” of the latter “on any great national scale must, from the very nature of their position, which those only who have been in India can at all adequately comprehend, follow in the wake of the enlightened education” of the former.[29] Events have justified this prediction and in many senses it is true that the present state of women’s education in India corresponds to that of the men in 1854. The education given by the women missionaries consisted of such mere rudiments as were possible under the conditions and for the short period during which their pupils were available. Simple instruction in the Scriptures was also given. Madras and other centres followed slowly on the same lines. The work was in part linked with the ordinary mission work of the Churches and in part carried on through separate women’s societies founded for the purpose in Germany and in Scotland. At first the Government attitude was distinctly negative, except for the cordial personal assistance given by Lady Hastings to Miss Cook, and the more nominal support of her successor Lady Amherst. In 1849, however, Lord Dalhousie informed the Bengal Council of Education that henceforth its functions were to include female education, and the Bethune School which had been privately founded by a legal member of Council, the Hon. Drinkwater Bethune, was brought under the control of the Government. In the Bombay Presidency things developed more rapidly and the Parsi influence asserted itself in independent effort. The first municipal schools for girls were probably started in 1850 at Ahmedabad. In 1852 a second stage of missionary education was reached by the establishment in Calcutta of a Normal School for the training of Christian female teachers under the auspices of the society known later as the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. The special method adapted to Indian conditions was not discovered till 1854, when the system of zenana-visiting, combined with educational instruction, was inaugurated in Calcutta by the Scottish Mission with the help of a clever Eurasian lady, Miss Toogood.

By the great educational charter of 1854, the Government adopted the policy of fostering and encouraging private effort by a system of grants-in-aid to all institutions which could comply with certain stipulations as to buildings, number of teachers, text-books and type of instruction given. Religious instruction might be given but did not come within the purview of the Government officials. Departments of Public Instruction were formed, Inspectors appointed, and the well known scheme of examinations inaugurated. It is stated in the Despatch that female education shall be given “frank and cordial support.” “The importance of female education in India cannot be over-rated, and we have observed with pleasure the evidence which is now afforded of an increased desire on the part of many of the natives of India to give a good education to their daughters. By these means a far greater proportional impulse is imparted to the educational and moral tone of the people than by the education of men.” In the main the Government adhered to this principle, yet considered it prudent to withhold its hand from direct interference with so delicate a matter. Whereas, in order to improve the school system as a whole, Government erected boys’ schools in many places, to serve as models in management and efficiency, very few girls’ schools were founded. The Circular order of 1868, issued under Lord Lawrence, states that “unless female schools are really and materially supported by voluntary aid, they had better not be established at all.” In pursuance of this policy the Bengal Administration Report for 1881 notes only two Government Primary schools for girls, 719 aided, and 107 unaided voluntary schools. The women’s missionary agencies in Calcutta were drawing a monthly grant of two thousand rupees for educational work. An Inspectress[30] was at this time in the service of the local education authority for the inspection of _parda_ schools. Her note that “every day brings signs that the demand for female education in Bengal is slowly advancing and extending” marks the rising tide. Two exceptions may be noted to this policy; the exceptional activity in the district of the North Western Provinces (as they were then called) round Agra, and the movement of the Central Government under the influence of Miss Carpenter.

The Agra experiment was, however, the response of Government to spontaneous Indian effort, and as the work of the Hindu pioneer who was its originator is little known, the following account may be quoted.[31]

“Even in our Asiatic Provinces, before the breaking out of the troubles, a desire had sprung up among the natives to extend the blessings of education to women. Gopal Singh, a Hindu gentleman, holding under Government the post of district Inspector of native schools, had succeeded, through his own exertions, in establishing upwards of two hundred seminaries for young ladies in the Province of Agra which were attended by 3800 girls of the best families. By many of our countrymen in India, this is regarded rather as a social revolution than as an educational movement. As a rule, the natives look with suspicion on everything which comes from a foreigner, for which reason the great efforts made by the English have not produced corresponding results. ‘The establishment of a little school,’ observes the Pandit, ‘which my own daughters and those of my immediate friends and relations attended at first like a charm, dispelled in a great measure the prejudices of my neighbours, and induced many to send their girls also. This example and my constant persuasion and reasoning have at last succeeded in inducing many respectable inhabitants of other villages to yield.’ And so the movement bids fair to become national. The pupils are nearly all Hindus belonging to the more respectable classes. The teachers are all men.”

“‘Want of female teachers,’ says Gopal Singh, ‘was one great obstacle in the way; but the guardians of the girls composing the respective schools pointed out men of an approved character, in whom they have full confidence, and I have appointed such persons only as teachers; the result is very satisfactory.’”[32] The Government official note on the experiment is that the lack of the humanizing influence of trained school mistresses, and the impossibility of supervising the elderly Pandits were the real causes of the failure of the schools and not the Mutiny, which hindered the general development of education in the province but little. Accordingly the attempt was renewed in 1858 by one of the masters of the Agra College, a Jat[33] of good family, in co-operation with Government. He succeeded in securing “school mistresses of high-caste and relatives of rich and influential zemindars,”[34] and by 1863, when he was appointed special Inspector of female schools, their number had increased to 144. The curriculum seems to have been somewhat different from that of the boys’ schools, and the Pandit notes with satisfaction: “Girls are possessed of better memories and less selfishness than boys.” The success and extent of the movement seems however to have been due to the personal influence of this one man, and with the passing of his generation the schools degenerated in type. The rapid extension of this work under Government into other districts necessitated the employment once more of men teachers. Four female Normal schools were established which appear to have been such only in name. Two British Inspectresses were appointed whose reports indicate the same problems as those of a more modern date. “The villagers are not opposed to the schools but they value them chiefly as a means of support for Brahmans and relatives.”[35] They could not believe that the Government were in earnest on the subject, when the girls’ school was accommodated in a place not more attractive than a cow-shed and the boys’ in a handsome building. In 1876, a drastic reduction of 212 schools took place and the question of female education dropped into abeyance for a period. The official comment thereon was that the State had incurred much expense in founding and maintaining these schools and that the results had been painfully disappointing. Historically, the experiment indicates the danger of extending girls’ schools beyond the desire of the community and beyond the possibility of constant supervision on the part of British Inspectresses. The solution of the ever-present problem of a supply of teachers was only a temporary one, and the failure of the Normal schools was attributed largely to the lack of a British superintendent.

The influence exerted for the education of women in India by Mary Carpenter, is a curious episode in a life whose main work in England was to lead the way to a national system of moral rescue and preventive discipline for juvenile criminals. During the last decade of her life (1867-1877), she visited India four times, and by her personal influence and enthusiasm she greatly affected the Government attitude and turned the rising conviction of the Indian Theistic movements into the right channels. Her position at home secured her a direct hearing in Government circles and the rapidity with which she adapted her pre-conceived notion of taking some Indian girls home for training to the wiser one of female Normal schools in India, proved once more her extraordinary power of vision in social problems. Herself of an intensely religious temperament, the revolt from the crudity of much of the orthodox religious teaching of the time led her sympathies largely in the direction of Unitarianism, and believing, like Mountstewart Elphinstone and many other Christian Indian statesmen of the period, that secular education for India was ultimately the more religious policy, she threw her whole influence into the establishment of schools which would not in any way interfere with the religious beliefs of the people. Yet her attitude to the mission schools was warmly sympathetic and she notes her indebtedness to the accumulated experience there.[36] Some further provision, however, seemed necessary in the case of girls, as the boys of the country had larger opportunities and the social system was in danger of one-sided development.[37] Her whole energy went towards the foundation of female Normal schools and in 1867 she secured a grant from the Central Government of £1500 per annum for five years for the establishment of these schools in Bombay and Ahmedabad on condition that an equal amount was provided by the native community. This stipulation was in accord with the previous policy that Government action should not in so delicate a matter be in advance of native opinion. Mr Dadabhai Nauraji, in a letter to the Secretary of State for India, following on a memorial from Indians in London, gives a general survey of the income derived from the native endowments for female education in different parts of India at this time.

Bombay Rupees 40,000
Punjāb ” 4,321
Madras ” 234
Bengal ” 132
North Western Provinces ” ..

It will thus be seen that a certain response existed even if only amongst a few advanced sections of the population. Further direct contributions were not immediately forthcoming, but after various memorials a Government grant of £1200 for five years to each of the capitals of the three Presidencies was ultimately given without this special stipulation. Miss Carpenter’s scheme for the Normal schools laid special emphasis on the need of experienced English supervision and instruction as the only means whereby the proper training could be secured and the dignity of the teaching profession for women raised. The failure of the so-called Normal schools in the North Western Provinces and the success of the mission training schools in Calcutta proves the wisdom of this policy. The new schools passed through various vicissitudes, but ultimately, Miss Carpenter had the pleasure of seeing substantial fruit of her labours at Ahmedabad, Poona and Madras. Much of the interest she had aroused amongst the Indian community was doubtless sporadic, and many of the schools started were short-lived, but in the main her influence on the development of women’s education in India has counted as a dominant factor in the Government policy, in the establishment of the National Indian Association and in the permanence of certain institutions.

The activity of Christian missions during this period seems extraordinary, when the difficulties which hampered Government efforts are considered. Moreover, all their educational work was handicapped, so far as numbers were concerned, by the frank and open avowal of the desire to win their pupils ultimately for Christianity. The missionaries had, however, at their command the one essential asset--Western women who were willing to give themselves heart and soul to the work. Eight new women’s societies, both British and American, entered India between 1860 and 1870, and educational work both in zenanas and in schools was their most effective means of contact with the people. Their pupils in the Primary stages were drawn both from the non-Christian population and from the orphans and converts in connection with the missions. As it was possible to retain the Christian girls, and even some of the others for longer than the usual period, owing to the exclusion of men teachers from the mission schools, a Secondary system on identical lines with that for boys began to be slowly built up.

The Inspectress in the North Western Provinces notes that almost the only really prosperous Middle girls’ schools are those in large stations superintended by ladies of the missionary societies.[38] Miss Carpenter’s testimony to the schools in Madras and Calcutta is in similar terms. Where village schools were attempted they seem to have suffered from lack of constant supervision. In 1870, the Isabella Thoburn School, Lucknow, was founded, and in 1880, the Sarah Tucker School, in Palamcottah. In 1881, the Free Church Mission School in Calcutta had the satisfaction of passing a successful candidate for the First Arts examination. This girl, and a pupil from the Bethune School who passed in the same year, were the first in all India[39] to accomplish this feat.

The third period, from 1884 to the present date, is marked by a definite change in the attitude of Government. The Educational Commission of 1882 under Sir William Hunter revealed many abuses which had grown up in connection with the system in vogue for boys, and also showed how little had really been done for girls. The recommendation is that girls’ schools should now receive “special encouragement and liberality.” The further recommendation of the Educational Commission of 1900 is that girls’ schools should receive liberal grants and that the fees should be less rigidly enforced. The standards of instruction in the Primary schools should be different and have special reference to the requirements of home life and to the occupations open to women. This policy, emphatically reiterated in the Despatch of 1904, has worked out differently in the different provinces, as is indicated elsewhere. Its main features in the last two decades may be said to be the appointment from home of experienced educators as Inspectresses of Schools in the Indian Educational Service, the establishment of model schools for girls like those formerly created for boys, in districts where the aided schools had not reached the required standard or did not satisfy the wants of the neighbourhood, and a considerably increased financial outlay both in grants and direct educational work. In 1907 the total expenditure amounted to over forty-four lakhs. There is no desire in any way to supersede the aided schools, on the contrary, it is recognized that the more their work is extended, so long as it is really efficient, the better for a country which like many others groans under its taxation, and where also the limit of desire for female education is still easily reached. To efficiency and adequate supply, the Government directs its attention. The proportion of the schools directly managed by the Public Authority to private or aided schools may be seen in the accompanying table, being slightly over 20.41 per cent. of the whole.

Of the aided schools there is no separate official classification to show what proportion are managed by Indian committees, and what by missionary agencies.[40] Where possible this has been indicated from local information in the chapters on the separate provinces. The Indian spontaneous element has become however much stronger during this modern period, not only in Bombay, where it has grown steadily since 1847, but also in connection with the various Samājes in the Punjāb, United Provinces and Bengal. The orthodox Hindu element is seen in the system of the Mahakali Pathshalas[41] started in Bengal in 1893, while probably the most remarkable feature in the Indian movement is the establishment of girls’ schools under committees of Indian gentlemen representing different faiths. This indigenous movement is due in part to a desire to provide a good education without direct interference with the religion of the pupils, and in part to a reaction from the extreme secularism and the Westernizing influences of the Government schools.

+MANAGEMENT OF GIRLS’ SCHOOLS+[42]

+------------+---------------------------+-----------------+------+
| |+UNDER PUBLIC MANAGEMENT.+ | +UNDER PRIVATE+ | |
| | | +MANAGEMENT.+ | |
+------------+-------+----------+--------+--------+--------+Total.|
| |Govern-| Municipal| Native | Aided. |Unaided.| |
| | ment. | Board. | States.| | | |
+------------+-------+----------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|Training | | | | | | |
| Schools | 12 | 2 | 1 | 44 | 4 | 63|
|High | 7 | -- | -- | 98 | 7 | 112|
|Middle | | | | | | |
| English | 3 | 1 | 2 | 179 | 6 | 191|
|Middle | | | | | | |
| Vernacular| 56 | 10 | 185 | 11 | -- | 262|
|Primaries | 365 | 1,274 | 250 | 7,041 | 1,053 | 9,983|
+------------+----- +----------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|Total | 443 | 1,287 | 438 | 7,373 | 1,070 |10,611|
+------------+-------+----------+--------+--------+--------+------+

+GIRLS UNDER INSTRUCTION CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO RACE OR CREED+[43]

+-----------+------+------+-------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+
| |Euro- |Native|Hindus.|Moham-|Par- |Buddh-| Oth-| |
| |pean. Chris-| |medans. sis.|ists. | ers.|Total. |
| | tians.| | | | | | |
+-----------+------+------+-------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+
|+SECONDARY | | | | | | | | |
| SCHOOLS+ | | | | | | | | |
| (High and | | | | | | | | |
| Middle | | | | | | | | |
| English) |11,502|10,725| 4,316| 140|1,402| 757| 552| 29,394|
| | | | | | | | | |
|+MIDDLE | | | | | | | | |
|SCHOOLS+ | | | | | | | | |
|(Verna- | | | | | | | | |
| cular) | 11| 6,896| 17,561| 1,104| 5| 6,246| 20| 31,843|
| | | | | | | | | |
|+PRIMARY | | | | | | | | |
| SCHOOLS+ | | | | | | | | |
|(For Boys | | | | | | | | |
|and Girls) | 564|22,776|133,341|27,832| 820|31,379|2,431|219,143|
| | | | | | | | | |
|(For Girls | | | | | | | | |
| only) | 1,547|16,063|214,092|46,876|3,626|10,382|1,519|294,105|
| | | | | | | | | |
|+TRAINING | | | | | | | | |
| SCHOOLS+ | 173| 844| 292| 70| --| 32| 9| 1,420|
+-----------+------+------+-------+------+-----+------+-----+-------+

Missionary work in education during the modern period is marked by continued expansion. The former success of mission agencies in taking a proportion of their pupils beyond the elementary stages is redoubled. Of the forty three High Schools for Indian girls, only five in 1907 were under Government management. “The bulk of female Secondary education is provided by missionaries.”[44] A glance at the religious classification table will show that out of some 17,000 Indian girls in the High and Middle Schools more than 10,000 are Indian Christians, while a large proportion of non-Christian pupils are also studying in mission schools and colleges. The Christian Primary schools in the villages have also greatly improved in type through the introduction in some places of modern educational methods under the careful and regular supervision of trained English managers.

As we survey the situation as a whole, certain problems stand out as common to all India and as indicating how critical is the present period in relation to the ultimate development of her women. These are the extension of Primary education, the retaining of pupils in the higher stages, the nationalizing of the curriculum, the supply of teachers, and finally the place of the religious element in education.

In spite of the recent rapid increase and the steady progress of the last twenty years, the percentage of girls of school age attending school is only 4.6,[45] and though the next Quinquennial Returns will probably show a marked increase, the desire for education has still in many places to be created. The proportion of girls in the Secondary stages is not shown by the number of those studying in High and Middle English schools,[46] as many of these are in the Primary classes. Only 1208 girls were actually in the High School departments in 1907. In that year 178 girls passed the Matriculation examination.[47] This small proportion indicates, apart from the social and religious customs which cause it, a lack of balance in the whole system. Are the circumstances under which higher education is given not such as commend themselves to the Indian mind? Or is the course of studies pursued not of sufficiently practical and educational value to prove attractive to Indian women? Is there any foundation for the popular belief that the physique of Indian girls is not strong enough for a prolonged school course? These questions underlie much of the discussion in the following chapters.

Two causes are apparently at work. In India as a whole 42% of the girl pupils are studying in boys’ schools. These naturally never proceed beyond the Primary stage, as co-education is not, except in the hill districts, in accordance with Indian ideas. There seems therefore a great need for increasing the number of Primary schools for girls only, whence the transition to the higher stages would be easy. In some districts there is practically an unlimited field for expansion in this way. Another cause may possibly be the difficulty of access to really first-class schools for non-Christian girls. The missionary societies which have done so much for the higher education of boys have, with certain exceptions, concentrated their attention on the provision of excellent boarding-schools for the girls of the Christian community rather than aiming at developing a parallel system for girls which would attract the non-Christian element, as it has on the men’s side. The new Middle and High schools which are springing up under Government and Indian auspices are an attempt to meet this need, but there is undoubtedly room for further development.

The problem of the curriculum is a very subtle one. In the early days of the reform of girls’ education in Great Britain, about 1862,[48] the greatest need seemed to be the adoption of an adequate test of knowledge, and that test one already recognized, so that there might seem to be no lower requirement to suit the supposed lower capacity of the feminine mind. The same principle worked in the early days of girls’ education in India and preparation for Matriculation[49] seemed the only means by which the standard could be raised. Whereas in Great Britain the leading girls’ High schools have developed a flexibility and variety of curriculum wherein many a “womanly woman” has found her training, even if she did not prefer to seek her education in one of the numerous excellent private schools, the girls’ curriculum for Indian girls has been stereotyped on masculine lines. If we assume that education should prepare for future life, it seems clearly wrong that the preparation for spheres so totally different as those of Indian men and women should be identical. A highly trained missionary educator sums up the problem of the Secondary school as follows:--“In spite of the fact that less than 1% go on to college, the whole plan of school education is made to lead up to Matriculation and instead of completing a school course, the aim is to prepare for a college course that is never entered upon.” The Inspectress in Bombay writes in this connection:--“Such a course is harmful, and girls leave these schools with weakened physique and very little in the way of real culture to compensate for it.” An Inspectress from Madras also writes:--“The examination shadow is to be seen in every room from the third form upwards, and it is only with the greatest difficulty that sufficient time can be snatched for the teaching of a little recitation, drawing and drill, in view of the annual inspection.” In the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay a departmental examination is offered as alternative to Matriculation for girls, and in this such subjects as botany, hygiene, drawing, dress-making, cooking, appear as substitutes for algebra and geometry, but the schools prefer to send up their girls for Matriculation. The further question arises not only of the differentiation of the girls’ curriculum from that of the boys’ but also from that of Western girls. How is Indian female education to be brought into close touch with Indian environment? The spontaneous Indian movement is in part an attempt to meet this problem, while on the other hand it inclines to view as a racial affront any suggestion to adapt the curriculum to the special needs of girls. The Government Inspectresses are closely considering the matter and are eager to welcome any constructive policy which will lessen the danger of creating the “female Babu.” Several missionaries are working hard against the denationalizing tendencies which in many cases were introduced before the reformed educational methods prevailed in the West. A conference of English educators and Indian missionaries was recently held in London to discuss Indian curricula and the relation of the educational problems of the East and West. It is true that the opinion of Indian missionaries is not yet unanimous on the need of any alteration, and as the bulk of Secondary education is in their hands their co-operation is essential. There is however good hope of a sound constructive theory being ultimately produced if women of sufficient courage, originality and ability can be found to plough for a while a lonely furrow. The curricula for the Primary schools is a different question. Some educators hold it to be the saner policy to accept the fact that the majority of the girls will only be at school for four years, and to adapt the whole course to this limitation. A correspondent of the Education Commission of the World Missionary Conference 1910, writes:--“Under such circumstances, therefore, the aim should be directed towards a sound elementary education in reading, writing and arithmetic, a knowledge of domestic economy and hygiene, and the formation of a strong moral character. The aim, that is, must be determined by the opportunities offered for education. It is better to reach a lower aim than to try for a higher aim and fail altogether. I believe the mistake that is made in regard to the education of Hindu girls is in attempting to do the impossible. There are many subjects which it is extremely desirable to teach, but the limited time during which the girls are teachable makes it imperative to concentrate on what is attainable. We should aim, therefore, at demonstrating to the people that the girls who have been to school become superior housewives and mothers; that what they learn is of real value to them in the home; and above all, that their moral character is improved and strengthened.”[50] The Primary curriculum has already been remodelled to a certain extent. In Bengal, Eastern Bengal, and the United Provinces separate schemes have been issued. In the two former the courses follow the method of the Kindergarten in the lower classes, and include much nature study, also hygiene, domestic economy and sewing. In the United Provinces and Bombay the reading-books in use for girls are different. These reading-books are often the only printed matter which a village girl may ever possess, and they are intended to impart a large amount of useful information. A reformed curriculum in the hands of untrained teachers becomes, however, a dead letter, perhaps hardly less injurious than the mere literacy of former days, and thus the interdependence of the various educational problems is once again illustrated. Is it advisable to increase the number of Primary schools, and to adapt their curriculum without an adequate supply of trained teachers?

The problem of the teacher can be traced since the first beginnings in 1820, recurring with the same baffling insistency. The modern situation shows little advance, except that the absolute necessity of having all teachers to some extent trained is gradually being recognized, and grants are influenced by the degree in which this ideal is kept in view. The sources of supply for teachers in Indian schools of all grades are women from English-speaking countries, Anglo-Indians or “country born” English girls from the Hill schools, members of the Brāhma and Ārya Samāj, Indian Christians, Parsis, married women of some education from the Hindu non-Brahman community and lastly “women who have learnt to read and write at home.” This last class is still astonishingly prevalent. Teachers from other sources are sometimes procured but, except in the case of married women, they are few in number. There are also a good many elderly pandits teaching in village schools. The trouble is that the demand enormously exceeds the supply. Here is a dilemma familiar to missions. A village school has no teacher; there is at hand a mission pupil, who has finished her Vernacular Middle Examination, but has not been trained; too often it ends in the appointment of the girl to the school, as the committee knows that the interval before she marries will be only too brief. This illustration applies throughout the mission field. The difficulties, moreover, attending proper chaperonage of village mistresses are enormous. The employment of widows, where such are forthcoming, is subject to the same difficulty, but ultimately they may with proper training and care become a main source of supply. The hopes which early theorists have built upon the widows of India are to a certain extent already justified and may still be confidently cherished. As regards the opportunities for training, a special circular, issued by the Central Government, in 1901, has provided a needed stimulus to both official and private effort. It is difficult to distinguish absolutely between Secondary and Primary training,[51] as some institutions have a few students doing more advanced work than the others. On the whole there is a distinct lack of provision for the separate Secondary training of women teachers; very few women graduates have taken it and the creation of the opportunity might create the demand. The students in training are mostly Anglo-Indian. The provision for Primary training is more adequate, though there is still in some instances a lack of that co-operation between missionary societies which would lead to more efficient work. The details of management and religious classification of pupils are given on pages 48 and 49. The great difficulty in all the Primary training work is the lack of preliminary knowledge; in some of the institutes for widows, indeed, this is a long forgotten minimum. The influence of the previous curriculum upon those who pass on to the proper Vernacular Course after the Middle Examination is also felt. An experienced teacher comments:--“The shadow of prescribed examination which hangs over the school course before training tends to leave the girls quite unacquainted with the newer subjects, and they are not able to acquire these during their training course with sufficient thoroughness to teach them satisfactorily afterwards.”

The inter-relation of these problems needs to be borne in mind throughout. It seems in many ways as if the whole reform in women’s education in India must begin from above downwards, namely in the High School and College stages combined with Secondary training, till the impulse imparted thence is felt throughout every grade. This subject is specially treated in the chapter on the University Education of women. Reform further can only come through closer co-operation, the need and opportunity for this will be apparent in the course of our study of conditions in the different provinces.