New-York tribune., 1905-08-09
CHAMPIONS OF INDIA.
Exception Taken to Pieces of Mrs.
EakinS and american Woman."
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

ana national intelligence such as must have
oeen forced upon the many natives of India here
! oy the singular letters upon India appearing in
your issue of July so? 1 refer to the letters
spectively signed Il. c. D Eakins' and Amer
-0AR Woman''-etters that overflow with
Imperative vulgarty, merely because a Hindoo
eeHlehan presumed" to write a temperate
'Housh sarcastic refutation of an unprovokeG
SANDER against the women and customs of his
native lahd. Pray grant me space to assure all
natives OF foreign countries that (judgng by
III ener letters) neither Mrs. Eakins nor American
"0iiah can De regarded as fair types of
genuine American women; nor are their ex-
pressed views" at all consonant with the opin-
ions OF our intelligent men. They are Mrs.
Eakins and an anonymous newspaper letter
writer-and that is all
Unlike american Woman" I have been in
India and therefore can speak of that land and
its peoples at first hand, without needing to
| quote from book Unlike Mrs. O. NJ Eakins, or
Whatever member Of her family may have signed
Il. c. D. Eakins' to the letter which otherwise
purports to come from her pen. have spent
not merely a two years stay in Calcutta" which
is seaport town in which English manners and
customs are very evident, but seven years
among educated natives of the country. My
| tour. which commenced at Bombay took me
through Hyderabad. to Madras by water to Cal
rutta, and thence through Darjeeling Benares
Alahabad, Jeypore, Delhi and Mecroot to Ul-
| mora; whence after stay at a neighboring
! village returned home" by the overland route
| Il have not mentioned the names of several
| small places at which 1 stopped, as they do not
appear upon ordinary maps) I think therefore,
/ that may be allowed know a little more
about India and her peoples and customs than
/ can be known personally by woman who has
not even visited the country; or even by one
who, as DR.. Eakins's wife q myself am retired
! physician). has spent year or two in the Euro
! pean society Of a seaport town there.
/ My own experience of native India, a social
investigator and a student of Htndoo history
| and philosophy, compels me to say that both
! Mrs. Eakins and American Woman" have dis
! played a prejudiced ignorance OF truth in con-
nection with native customs and manners that
can tend only TO reflect serious discredit upon
the intelligence and justice of their sex. So far
as Herbert Compton's book is concerned its
! true bearing upon the question may be defined
| in few words
a short time ago a book published here
which professed to deal with American women
and institutions, from the point of view of a
| highly educated Chinese official If it's contents
be at all credible then America and her women
are in need Of radical reform far more than are
! India and her women-onIy, no American can
! be persuaded by foreigners that such can be
are in the best position from which to judge Of
and regulate own affairs" is the Americans
reply to the Chinaman's book. Now, since
| Indignantly refuse to credit the educated China
mans statements concerning the horrible con-
ditions'' of Western women why should we af-
feet to credit the Britishers statements con-
! corning the alleged horrible conditions" of
Hindoo women?
So far es "Pundita" Ramabai is concerned
! American Woman's" views of her case should
serve US as notable warning. In no country OF
| the western world given so much
/ personal freedom or accorded so many educa-
| tional and business advantages as in the United
/ States of America Tho advanc position Of
! our women is almost unique in history. Yet
strangely enough. no country in the world pro-
/ duces so many female 'womans rights orators
| and writers does America; nor can those of
| any other nation vie with ours in their descrip-
| tions of the degrading slavery" and need for
! emancipation Of American women. A for
eigner. after hearing Mrs. Cady Stanton's views
on the social and sexual status of women in
! the free United States of America would carry
away even worse opinions Of our "savagery"
| and degradation" than those which American
| Woman seems to have formed from the very
! similar holdings forth of Ramabai about India.
! Can we not take the palpabic lesson home to
| ourselves? Furthermore, "Pundita" Ramabai
| is well known in India as renegade from
! the faith of her forefathers; and. having for
feited all social and national distinction by what
| every Htndoo regards as her apostasy, she has
| no condemnation abuse that is too bad
| whercwith to attack the national religion and
| the customs and traditions that integral
| parts of II. (1fsop, you know, wrote
! fable or allegory about the fox who, having
| lost his own tail, tried to persuade all the other
| foxes that tails were most incOnvenient dam
gerous ard degrading appendages)
American Woman" presumably is profess
| would
| that the Tenth Commandment, which forms
integral part of the church services of the West
classes wives (after real estate) with their hus
bands oxen and other cattle, just does the
| old Law of Man! A peruSal of the Book of Ec-
clesiasticus, and the various writings attributed
| TO St Paul, in the Christian Bible will furnish
! almost word for word parallels TO every
| statement regarding woman) that American
! Woman" has quoted from translations of the
! old Hndoo sacred writings and catechism-even
! to the command that a wife shall regard her
| husband standing to her in the place and
position OF God (see Ephesians V, 22, %, "a and
| 33).
1t is true that there are not many protesting
| Christians in Inda-under three millions-even
including all the British officers and men of the
army, civil and police services. with all their
| wives and families (see British government cen
| returns India). Yet our Western Bible
! by means is unread or unknown in the
! Orient; and it is unfortunate that it should have
! been a presumably Christian woman or the
| missionary sending West who has undertaken
! TO discuss with an educated Oriental. the status
! OF woman from a Scriptural standpoint.
/ The mere government census returns of India
! compute the population of that country at
! (roughly) 300.O00,OO0. out of which 2Ol ,oOoOoO
| profess Hindoosm and 60,OO0,O00 profess Ma
| hometanisn. This seems to 'impute wilful pre-
! varication to the Lady of Higher Caste" who
! has declared the authentic number TO be I'll
! odd millions" which is most unchivalrous: but
| it renders american Womans" statement Of
! Ramabafs assertion that there are 23OoOOoO
| widows India" somewhat prepOSterOuS-