Preface

It has been well said that no Western should attempt to make any general statement about inscrutable India; the most he can venture to say is, that “in certain places certain things which he saw may possibly have been what he thought they really were.” The present volume is therefore based upon appearances which may or may not have represented reality, upon conversations with Government officials, missionaries and Indian friends, who kindly gave of their leisure to a stranger, and upon the study of Government Reports. Where any generalization has been made, the writer trusts it will be taken with the reservations which a very brief residence in the East renders needful. If the book help the women of the West to realize how critical is the present evolutionary period in the education of the women of India, especially in its relation to constructive Christianity, it will not have failed of its purpose.

My thanks are specially due to Miss Richardson and Miss M’Dougall of Westfield College for aid in revision, to many friends for their unstinted help, and to the Faculty of Advocates for the use of their Library.

M. G. C.

Edinburgh, July 1912.

To the G. A.