The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 28

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28

Indian women.* An interesting and significant
side-light on the question was furnished by the Indian
Social Reformer, a weekly published by K. Natara-
jan, a wide-awake Hindu reformer. In his paper
he was most impatient with the government because
of the length of time taken to study the question
(the committee has been at work for over a year),
and he insisted on speedy reforms.

Last February, in Madras, Dr. Muthulakshmi
Reddi, a woman member of the Madras Legislative
Council and an ardent social reformer, piloted the
Devadasi Bill through the Council. The devadasis,
also called nautch-girls,— literally, handmaids of
the gods, — are attached to the temples. Originally
meant to dance before the idols and carry flowers,
they have become public prostitutes of priests and
worshipers. They are often dedicated to the temples
by their parents as penance while babies, and genera-
tions of them have been born in the temples. The
bill introduced by this courageous woman in Madras
will cut at the root of this vicious custom. And now
hear what a native journal has to say on the subject.
The Servant of India says: “Practically, therefore,
all the dedicated girls will be free and independent
citizens, who will have complete liberty to follow any
calling according to the bent of their minds or to
educate themselves and be useful to society in other
ways than the one marked out by their status... .
The institution was a lingering vestige of medieval
serfdom, and it-ill accorded with modern notions of
freedom and voluntary regulation of life. On the
ethical side the institution laid itself open.to all
the abuses of compulsory asceticism and was one of
the weakest spots of unregenerate Hinduism.”

There are other signs of the awakening. Early
this year our American papers recorded the fact
that the Junior Maharance, mother of the Prince of
Travancore, speaking in Calcutta before the thou-
sand women attending the Indian Women’s Social
Conference, had made an urgent appeal for the
education of women and the removal of purdah.
We read of an organization whose object is to remove
the old Hindu curse from the widow and to foster
the remarriage of the child widows, especially, issu-
ing a paper called The Widow's Cause. Their zeal
for the widow is so great that other considerations
are sometimes overlooked. One issue contains ad-
vertisements for marriage of widows aged thirteen,
fourteen, and eight and a half!

All these reforms are in their infancy and can

_ * Since this article was written, a law to this effect

—has been passed.

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

hardly be said to have much effect on the country as
a whole as yet. But the fact that they are being
pushed by the Indians themselves shows which way
the wind is blowing. They are realizing that, if
India is to take its place beside other civilized na-
tions of the globe, the status of her women must
be raised.

Of course, they are starting at the wrong end.
The freedom and advantage that Western women
enjoy are due to the teachings of Christ. By removy-
ing the wrongs of Indian womanhood, they are try-
ing to raise a fruit without a tree. And it is as im-
possible to acquire eternal happiness through mere
outward reforms as it is to graft a living branch
onto a dead tree.

However, recent movements such as that among
the Pariahs in the Tinnevelly District and among
the Earavas in Travancore and Cochin, frequently
referred to in the Lutheran Witness, indicate that
the leaven of the Gospel, which has been at work
in India for two hundred years, is bringing also
social blessings to India as it has to other countries.
The Indian people are ready for great changes.

This is as great a challenge to us women as it is
to the whole Church. In India there is a special
field for the work for women by women; for there
are large numbers cut off from hearing the Gospel
altogether unless it is brought to them by women,
and others are handicaped when the messengers are
men. How shall we meet this challenge?

Mrs. F. R. Zucker,

in Lutheran Women’s Missionary
Endeavor Quarterly.

Items of Missionary Interest.
(By the Eprror.)

A Bequest for Our Missions. — The sainted
mother of Pastor Emil Zapf, one of our city mis-
sionaries in Chicago, bequeathed the sum of $100
to our Colored Missions. The deceased was not rich
in this world’s goods, but could not forego the op-
portunity of showing her interest in our Negro
Mission in this way. During her life she, upon
a number of occasions, remembered our Colored
Missions with her gifts. May her example be an
encouragement to others!

Professor Installed. — Rev. Paul Scherf, for-
merly pastor in France and in Germany, who has
been called as president of our Luther Preparatory
School in New Orleans and as professor, was
solemnly inducted into his office on New Year’s Day