WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
access had been gained. She was followed by Miss Isabella Marr, who had been trained in the Calcutta Normal School, and the work soon fell into the hands of the Normal School Society, and rapidly developed between the years 1859–1878. But in the early days of Zenana, teaching there were great difficulties in the way. Prejudice was still strong, and often when a Zenana had been thrown open to the teaching of the missionary it suddenly closed again, causing great sorrow and disappointment to the teachers, who yearned for the souls of their poor imprisoned pupils."[1]
The movement grew steadily. A number of low-caste Hindus were attracted to the new creed, which offered them an ideal of democracy and fraternity, and promised a material heaven beyond the grave. There are now nearly three millions of Christian converts in India, mainly in Bengal and Madras.
The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society has stations all over the Indian Empire from Peshawar to Hyderabad, from Calcutta to Madras and Ceylon. There is no doubt that the lady medical missioners have done good work in the zenanas, where formerly the methods of healing were crude and inefficient.
There is, however, a difference of view amongst Anglo-Indians as to the ethical results of missionary enterprise. Certainly, only a few of the educated classes of India profess Christianity. The Mohammedans, who are becoming more numerous than the Hindus, are not readily persuaded to abandon their faith.
- ↑ "India's Women," Vol. XII.
136
