Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-25

made films with the high-caste Hindus.
The recent introduction Of Indian talkies
has served also to create interest in
native music and dancing, which had
fallen into disrepute in recent years
and were looked upon as synonymous
with carnality and vice.
Studies in Schools.
Since these arts, revived in their
purer and less sensuouS forms, have
been brought to the sound picture by
young actresses like Zubeidat, Rekaya
Khatoun, Gohur (who manages her
own studio and Enakshi Ramakhan,
public opinion has altered. A number
of schools now offer studies in the
singing and dancing which in former
times were necessary part Of the edu-
cation of cultured Indian women.
But politics and social work attract
more talented Hindu and Moslem
women than anything else. do not
know why; perhaps it is because they
offer greater opportunities for service
to India, perhaps because they offer
greater opportunities for personal ex-
preston. The women engaged in these
fields form an intensely interesting
group Many of them have been
educated abroad, and in the process
of assimilating Western ideas they have
the more stupid, unscientific beliefs
foisted upon them in childhood. Some
who have never been out Of India but
come from erudite parentage have an
excellent understanding of the economic
problems at the root of both the social
and political evils in India.
Here think of the Chattopadhyayas,
the most clearly emancipated from old
superstitionS and surely the most in
teresting family have known any
where. A study Of them exhibits q
India during the present generation
Their place is somewhat like that of
the RooseveltS in America, the Soongs
in China or the TokugawaS in Japan.
They differ from other romantic fam
lilies in this respect, no two Chattopad-
hyayaS have ever been known to agree
on politics, religion. love-or an opinion
on the family Chattopadhyaya.
Four Daughters Differ.
There are four daughters. One of
them is India'S beSt-known woman
poet, Speechmaker, matchmaker bour-
geoiS politician, meat-eating Brahmin
and delegate to the round table confer
ence. One Is an atheist, a Communist,
the most beautiful Indian woman I
have ever met and has a vibrant sing
ing voice which she refuses to develop
because she devotes all her time to the
cause of a proletarian revolution in
India. Another is a modern educator,
spinster, philosopher. editor and lead
ing TheoSophiSt. The fourth Is a fore
most authority on Indian art in all its
tangentS, but specializes in music and
dancing and is also famous as a
dramatist
1t is true that such families as this
are small minority of midas millions
But leadership necessarily rests with a
few. The encouraging thing is that
educated women see their task and are
taking it up with energy and a will
If they do nothing else, these women
furnish example; and 1t Is example
that the masses require. Victimized by
their own religion and archaic social
structure, a system of government that
has kept them in dark ignorance and
illiteracy and philosophy based on
one of the most fundamentally cor
rupting of all SuperStitions-that the
suffering one endures in this life is the
result Of sin in previous existence