Neiv-Old Tale of Women's Gifts
Educated Men Realize Need of Educated Homemakers
TNDIAN young n
I want educated brides, according
-*■ to Miss Isabella T. McNair, president of Kinnaird College for Women
at Lahore, India. Miss McNair, who
is visiting the United States for the
first time, is the guest of the North
American Advisory Committee
from The Christian Science Monitoj'Bureau
New York families have continued to dired
a of the Punjab their own life and the life of th<
home in accordance with the lonj
traditions of Hinduism and Islam.'
Contrasting South India with thi
Punjab, Miss McNair says that thi
people of the northern province an
more westernized and essentiall;
more like Europeans. While th'
southerners go barefoot, sleep 01
the Christian Colleges in India, 156] 'mats, and throw shawls across their
Fifth Avenue, New York. shoulders, the inhabitants of the
Parents of Moslem, Hindu, Sikh Punjab wear shoes, sleep on beds,
and Christian faiths, she says, en- spread thick rugs on the floor, hang
courage their daughters to earn col- curtains, and wear warm coats. The
lege degrees for diplomas prove a gj- gjgr- the -rib seems
social asset. "If my daughter doesn't ences m habits,
pass the examinations," they sigh, "Hinduism dominates the South,
"no one will marry her." So the Its conservative influence and the
girls of the Punjab are stepping into pressure of old customs, undisturbed
^Suir^11^^ °f ^ ^ SBSrt ZTTre^e^S
secluded mothers.
things as they are," Miss McNair
points out. "In the Punjab r
community has so great a majority.
Islam claims 55 per cent of the 25,-
000,000 population; the rest are Hindus, Sikhs, or Christians. The influence of the Moslem seclusion
penetrated into minor corn-
Miss McNair says that the
movement in India owes much toi
Christian influence. Although the
Government and other agencies as
well as Christian missions are help-|
ing women to become educated, only „„„„,„ uw.k» im» »««
3 per cent of India's women are: mun7t"esTThou$h they were never
literate. . overcome by it the freedom of their
Education, Great Need women was inevitably limited.
"Education is the great need of Allows Freedom
India's women," declares Miss Mc- "As a college teaching Christian
Nair. "An Indian social reformer has principles, Kinnaird allows the stu-
said, 'the education of a single girl dents the maximum amount of free-
™„o„„ ti,» h«m ~r „v.„i dom possible in the circumstances.
means the uplifting of a whole s^gj^ choose to observe purdah
family m a larger sense than the and otners do not. Purdah ' "
"' ' " Moslem custom restricting wc
the male companionship of their im-
education of a single man.' Woman
is the priestess of the home.
"Since many reforms urged in
India have failed because of the
women's disapproval, women's education is the solution of India's
problems. Men can never do what
they want to without women's support.
mediate family.
"Although the Punjab is a province where communal feeling is
sometimes bitter, there is hardly a
trace of this bitterness within the
college. Even yet in men's colleges
separate dining rooms are maintained for Hindus, Muhammadans,
and Christians. At Kinnaird the
"For a century or more men in girls eat m a common dining room
India have been studying the litera- as well as sit together at the daily
ture, political philosophy, and sci- chapel. United effort has character-
ences of the West; while for the I ized the history of the women s
most cart the women of thei-; movement.