The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 43

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

43

the ceremonies to bring good luck on the house.
She pointed to a canopy of mats in the front yard,
where the priestly brother-in-law offered cocoanuts,
rice, and limes to the gods each day —later to be
eaten by the crows!

Then she asked the Brahmin brother-in-law (she
spoke humbly), “May I show the white lady the
house?” He grunted his consent. I wondered why
she, the mistress of the house, should do this. As we
walked from one of the plain, bare rooms to the
other, we came near the kitchen-door.

Instantly there came a cry out of that room,
“Stay out! Don’t bring her in here!” Noticing
my surprise, Golden explained that the Brahmin
sister-in-law was cooking. “Both you and I would
pollute their food if we went near,” she said.

As we left the house, she showed me a temporary
shed, built of bamboo poles and covered with palm-
leaves, hardly high enough to stand upright in.
“While the Brahmins are here,’ Golden went on,
“my children and I live in this little lean-to. They
hand out our food to us after they have finished.
They are of a higher caste than we.” And then,
with an expressive gesture, she added with a smile,
“Tt is our custom.”

Within three hundred yards of Golden’s house
there is one of our mission-chapels. But she cannot
enter there. She is a Sudra. She would be defiled
by the low-caste women who come there. Caste and
custom have her tied, body and soul. But we women
can visit her and millions of other Goldens and tell
them. the story that will free their souls.

* * *

‘What is wrong with Hinduism? What is the
matter with the Hindu gods? Nothing. We have
plenty of them, thirty scores of them. We have no
lack when it comes to gods. Our gods are wonderful
gods. We can put them in a box and put them in
our pockets, and they'll not say a word against it.
We lock them up and throw away the key, and
they'll not get angry and growl because they did not
get a bath or food. And whether we pray to our
gods or whether we do not, they do not interfere.
No, we can do anything we like. Hinduism is
& wonderful religion !” ee

The speaker was a young Earava leader. The
assembly of three thousand nominally Hindus in
which he spoke, cheered and applauded him as he
scoffed at their religion. It happened in Aleppey,
Travancore, two years ago. Two of our missionaries
were present. This meeting of representatives of
thé Harava caste was being held to discuss the ques-

tion of leaving Hinduism in a body. It is still being
discussed.

The Earava caste numbers about one million, all
along the Malabar coast. As a class they are thrifty,
intelligent, and comparatively well educated. But
they are outcastes. In public the old rule is that
they keep a prescribed number of feet away from
high-caste people. Any dog can walk through the
street where a temple stands, but an Earava cannot,
much less enter there. They had to erect their own
temples and worship the inferior gods and the
devils. ‘They have seen through this sham. They
have organized themselves into strong associations
to better their lot. Many are turning to Christianity.

Now, of what special interest is this to us
women? In this meeting of three thousand people
we could have counted the women on our two hands.
One reason for that is that Indian women do not
attend meetings as often as we do. Another reason
is that many of them will cling to their old beliefs
long after the men have given them up. For genera-
tions, for centuries, they have been born and bred in
the superstitious fears that surround idol- and devil-
worship. It is a strange fact that with all the op-
pression and suffering heathenism has inflicted upon
the women of the East, they themselves cling des-
perately to their old customs. We need woman
workers who can go into the homes of these splendid
Earava women and help open their prison-doors.

Some progressive men among the Haravas are
sending their daughters to high schools and even to
colleges. A number of them are in the College for
Women in Trivandrum. As I write, I have a letter
before me saying that some of these. girls want to
come to us for guidance and-help. Indian women
have proved themselves capable helpers as Bible
women and teachers. In these Earava girls we have
wonderful material for pushing our work among
women. Shall we deny their plea?

* * *

For fifteen years we have been sending woman
workers to India, eleven woman teachers and nurses,
of whom seven are now in the field, four in full-time
service. Bspecially since Dr. Brand became General
Secretary, in 1920, has this work been emphasized.
The work of our women there has been above praise.
Yet there is such a wealth of opportunities in all
fields that it might be said we have hardly made —
a beginning, especially in personal work among
women, where men have no access. :

“We need women, well educated and especially
trained to teach the Bible, who can spend their