The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-04-19
Once Thrown to Be Prev
OF Tigers She Now Works
For Indian Child Widows
Woman Of India Tells Westinghouse Of the
Torment and Indignity Suffered by Husbandess Young
Girls at the Hands of the Priests in Her Native Land

Brought up within the high walls
of a seraglio in India Mrs. Suhkoda
Banerjee had never seen the world
beyond those walls till she was IL
years old and the mother of two
children. And her first experience of
! that great world outside was gained
in the wilderness where she had
been cast with her youngest babe to
be devoured by the tigers, snakes and
wild beasts. This was her just pun
ishment for she had had no sons and
to a high caste Hindoo this is a dis
grace for which he can rid himself of
his first wife and take another.
AS it turned out this experience in
the wilderness was the great oppor-
tunity of Mrs. Banerjee's life, for had
1t not been for that she would still
be spending her, days within the
seraglio walls as tightly sealed from
the outside world as the most strictly
clustered nun, and she would never
been outcast and she would never
have taken up her remarkable work
pie outcasts of India in behalf of
which she is now working in Wash
ington.
When the representative of the
Woman's Herald saw Mrs. Suhkoda
Banerjee at the home of Mrs. Thomas
Holmes, a 423 Sixth street northeast,
it was hard to believe that this
little swarthy-skinned, brght-eyed
lady in her flowing Indian cos
tune and veil was actually old enough
to be grandmother. And as she
talked of the days when the fortune
teller predicted that she would never
have any sons. of her journey carried
in a chair on the shoulders of six
men out into the wilderness where.
as she said, "she was SO much afraid
by the great fear of it that she lost
her mind for the night" she seemed
to recreate about her the people and
atmosphere of ancient India.
Rescued from the wilderness by a
lower caste woman. Mrs. Banerjee at
least found shelter, but she dared not
eat for three days. for to eat with
woman of lower caste would be to
lose ones rank. Then still fasting
she joined a company of pilgrims go
ing to wash in the waters of the
sacred river Ganges and it was at
the great temple there that she saw
friend of her fathers who made
steps to restore her to parents. But
in the meantime she had broken her
caste by eating and abiding with
lower caste people and her return to
her own people was impossible. A
life of adventures followed. the turn
ing point of which was her CONVEX
sion to Christianity. Outcast she
was her interest was aroused in that
most unfortunte class of Indian wom-
en-, the widows. of whom there are
100000.
They are loked upon as a curse"
Mrs. Bauerjee explains" for il is
their sins that have killed their hus-
bands. So since they are so bad it
is thought to be a good act to do
them injury. They may never re-
marry. Their hair is shaved and they
are given the very plainest clothes
so that they may never look at all
pretty, and they must suffer so much.
Perhaps only one meal a day. and
there is no sin in molesting Them
Mrs. Banerjee has given a large
part of her time since she became an
outcast to the work for these poor
widows and through her efforts 500
of them have already found a haven.
Her ambition is to rescue 1000 more