Chapter XI
MATERIAL PROGRESS AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT
"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."—2 Cor. vi. lo. TESTS and trials came both to Ramabai and her
helpers during the time of her absence inAmer-
ica. When she started from Mukti, the foun-
dations were rising for a large new building, erected
in the form of a square, providing dormitories for these
three hundred girls and women, with rooms at each
corner for officers and matrons. There was some mon-
ey in hand, but not sufficient to maintain the establishment and complete the building during the expected
months of Ramabai's absence. The stone was quarried on the premises, and the whole work was under the care
of a qualified Bengali Christian overseer. Miss Abrams undertook to be treasurer; and Ramabai left the work in faith that God would provide means as needed.
Miss Abrams was instructed to pay all bills as money came in, but to stop the work if funds ran low, and on no account to go into debt. For a considerable time funds did run low, and on two occasions building was
I30 PANDITA RAMABAI
stopped for a week or two ; but there was always food.
Still, it was a time of trial to Miss Abrams and to
Soonderbai ; and the latter experienced added difficulties
on account of the recrudescence of the plague in Poona.
This condition of affairs was reported to Ramabai;
and reaching her at a time when she was quite worn out
with the fatigue of travel, and the strain of re-arrange-
ment of the American Association, it tried her far
more than if she had been at home to face the difficulty
herself. For two years without respite her mind and
body had borne the continuous effort of caring for these
needy ones, sustained only by her brave spirit and firm
faith in God. There was no rest for her when she got
to America. It was her earnest desire to meet the
wishes of her friends for her to speak here, there, and
everywhere ; the distances being often so great as to re-
quire travelling by night, followed, at times, by two ad-
dresses during the day. To this was added her intense
anxiety about her poor children at home. She bore it
bravely between herself and God.
" But at last there came a day," says a friend in
America, " when all this was too much for the over-
taxed body and mind ; and she lay upon her bed, crying
to God in her anguish, and feeling that she must go
home to suffer and to die, if need be, with her dear ones
there. During that day of pain and terrible fear she
poured out her heart to one who loved her. The story
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 131
was told to two of her best and most generous friends
and on her return to Boston, a few evenings afterward,
the entire sum necessary to relieve, for a time, the needs
of her children and her own anxiety, was placed in her
hands. When she realized the meaning of it all, her
weary, anxious face became illumined with joy and
with grateful love, as she exclaimed : * Thank God and
those dear friends! Oh, I shall sleep to-night as I
have not slept for weeks thinking of my poor hungry
children!'"
Ramabai's longing for home deepened. The times
for successful work in America grew more unfavor-
able. The receipt of a telegram from London, request-
ing her immediate presence, decided her. She sailed
from New York early in July, with the hope that an
English Association might be formed to work in harmony with the American Association. In this she was
disappointed. No plans had been formed, and none
could be formed during the summer. She hastened her
departure from England, after visiting the Keswick
Convention. In August she was with her own again, and none too soon. For able, and faithful, and devoted
as were those having charge of the schools, they were
not Ramabai. On the farm hundreds of fruit-trees had
died through the neglect of the gardener, and Ramabai
found herself obliged to discharge him, and take up the management of the farm herself
132 PANDITA RAMABAI
In spite of delays the buildings were sufficiently near
to completion for a dedication service to be held in Sep-
tember; and again a large number of missionaries and
Christian friends from Poona, Bombay, and elsewhere,
gathered at Mukti, to unite with Ramabai in praising
God for progress in material blessings, and for spiritual
advancement in the pupils. Soonderbai and the whole
of the Poona establishment were present.
The picture of the building which we reproduce here
was taken at this time. The inscription over the large
gateway is " Praise the Lord," in Marathi, in pursuance
of Ramabai's determination to call her walls " Salva-
tion," and her gates " Praise."
After Ramabai came out into the fulness of spiritual
blessing, as related in Chapter VIL, her views as to the
power of God expanded. She translated the Scriptures
literally. She believed that as the Lord made the hu-
man body, it was His province to heal it; that the
Spirit would so "quicken" her "moral body" as to
remove ailments and keep it in health. Taking Him at
His word she commenced praying for the healing of an
internal disorder for which she had for years been con-
sulting physicians at home and abroad to no purpose.
Soonderbai joined with her in prayer for half-an-hour
daily, and in the course of two months she was able to
tell of her own complete healing, and that of two of her
pupils from serious maladies. She thus tested God
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 133
and proved that the prayer of faith did heal the sick.
Continuous miracles of this sort have been wrought
since in connection with this work of faith and love.
There is so much scepticism on this subject, even among Christians, that I do not feel called upon to re-
late details here; but if Ramabai would write her own
experiences on the line of Divine healing, I believe it
would be a more remarkable story than any I have told
in these pages. I must, however, relate one circum-
stance here of the continuous overruling of God's power
with regard to the pupils at the Sharada Sadan at the
time of the plague in Poona. I referred in Chapter IX.
to the arbitrary action of the magistrate in carrying off
to the Plague Observation Camp eighteen girls suffer-
ing from various complaints left by the famine. These
were all returned to the Sharada Sadan in the course of
a few days, except one who was reported to have
plague. When Ramabai inquired for her, she was told
she had died. A few weeks later a party of girls was
being brought into Poona by rail, when a little one who
was suffering with slight fever was taken at the railway inspection office and sent off to this Observation
Camp. Ramabai insisted on accompanying the child,
a mere baby, and spent some days there with her, until
she was released.
While there Ramabai began to make particular en-
quiries about the girl who was reported dead. She never
134 PANDITA RAMABAI
had been able to believe that the girl had the plague ; and now discovered that she had not, and that she was not
dead, but had been detained by one of the native of-
ficials of this camp, and was living with him in sin. The poor girl's joy on seeing Ramabai proved that she
had not been a willing partner in the transaction. She
was again rescued, and sent to a kind missionary friend,
but died after a few months.
This experience proved to Ramabai what unsafe
places these plague observation camps were for young
girls, and yet to these places families suspected of hav-
ing cases of plague were constantly being sent by the
authorities. Should a case of plague occur at the
Sharada Sadan, there would be no appeal against the
removal of all; and fever cases would also be taken
there singly if any were found. Ramabai and Soonder-
bai made it a matter of earnest prayer that they might
be protected from plague, and from any mistakes on the
part of the plague inspection parties who visited the
house several times a week. It was a generally un-
healthy season, and cases of slight fever were common.
Soonderbai has told me of the way in which they would
all gather and pray when a case of fever occurred ; and
of how, even when five or six had appeared unwell at
once at night, the temperature of each would be normal
when the inspection party came round the next day.
Thus God protected them, and no further cases of re-
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 135
moval occurred. But it will explain the strain upon
those in charge of the work at Poona during Ramabai's
absence. Writing of Mukti after her return from
America, Ramabai said:
" There are neither doctors nor medicines found in
this village; those girls who wish to resort to medical
help in sickness are in no way hindered from it. They
are taken to Poona, and proper medical treatment is
given them. Yet it must be said to the glory of God
that the large majority of girls seek God's help in their
sickness. The Lord has wonderfully protected us from
the dreadful plague and other sickness. The sun, so
terribly hot, has not hurt us, nor the cold and rains.
The girls realize that divine help is better than human
means. So when any one among them is sick, they get
around her and begin to pray, and God answers their
prayer beyond their hope and expectation."
From the time of the 1897 famine there had been
scarcity in the country district around Khedgaon,
though not actual famine. Ramabai's building oper-
ations, therefore, were a great boon to the workpeople who came from the neighbouring villages. It has also
been a golden opportunity for giving them the Gospel. When the building work had to be stopped for want of
funds—and this happened after Ramabai^s return, as
well as while she was absent in America—the workmen
were told that work would be started again when God
136 PANDITA RAMABAI
sent the means. Not an opportunity was missed to
thank and glorify God for His bounteous help, and to
show how absolutely dependent we are • upon Him.
Thus the heathen workmen employed on the buildings
came to know that there is a living God who hears and
answers prayer, who does not desert His people, and
who is so different from the lifeless gods and devils whom they serve. The number of workmen employed
on the buildings has averaged from eighty to one hun-
dred and twenty. Their usual time of labour is nine
hours every day ; but they were allowed to work only for
eight hours, and in the last hour are called together to
hear the Gospel preached by Miss Abrams and other
missionaries. A number attended Sunday School in
connection with the Mukti Church, and the Gospel is
finding its way into some of their hearts.
Ramabai's desire that the rescued girls should be
trained to work in these villages was granted almost
sooner than she expected. At Christmas, 1898, Miss
Abrams gave several addresses on the spiritual needs
of India, in the endeavour to incite a missionary spirit
in the minds of these young disciples, themselves so
recently won from heathendom. She then told them
of the Student Volunteer Movement in the American
and English colleges, and of the numbers of students
who had pledged their lives to mission work, as God
should open the way. When Miss Abrams suggested
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 137
the formation of such a mission band at Mukti, thirty-
five volunteered to be ready for training for evangelistic
work. They agreed to meet daily at noon for an hour's
extra Bible teaching. In a few months from that time
several were regularly employed with the other Bible-
women in visiting the villages.
When the Collector of the district (the British magis-
trate) visited Khedgaon, he was astonished to find how
strong was Ramabai's influence for good among the
villagers. Beside the amount of work provided for
them in needy times, Ramabai proved their benefactor
in another sense. The ground on the opposite side of
the road to the Mukti buildings was owned by a liquor-
dealer. This ground came close to the buildings.
There were rumors that some one intended to open a
liquor-shop close by her property. Ramabai went to
the Collector of the district and secured a promise from
him that no license to sell liquor in Khedgaon should be
granted to any one. But to make herself secure from
any possible annoyance of the kind she purchased the
liquor-dealer's farm containing seventeen acres. She
then invited the people in the surrounding country to
establish a weekly bazaar on this roadside. They were
thankful for the opportunity to do so, as the nearest
bazaar was eight miles away. This new bazaar is a
boon to the people; Ramabai and her employees buy a
good deal of the produce brought for sale, and it tends
138 PANDITA RAMABAI
to cheapen some kinds of goods. It also brings the
people within sound of the Gospel, which is proclaimed,
both by voice and the printed page, every bazaar day.
In January, 1899, my husband and I paid a farewell
visit to Khedgaon before leaving India. We found
the work going on most satisfactorily, and a number of
industries in full swing.
These industries were chiefly of an agricultural na-
ture, preparing food-stuffs for consumption at Mukti
and the Sharada Sadan, and thus reducing materially
the expenditure of both establishments.
The dairy department provided all the milk, butter,
ghee, and dhye, for both institutions. A gift of fifty
pounds sent to Ramabai by a lady in England, instead
of a legacy, had then recently enabled her to enlarge
this department of the work by the purchase of more
cows ; and while in America the previous year a wealthy
American friend had given her some American chums
and other improved dairy appliances, including some
very nicely contrived cans in which milk was daily sent
by rail to Poona. We went to see the cows, a number of
which had young calves. Ramabai was then anticipating
the increase of this department into a regular business of
supplying dairy produce to customers in Poona; but
the subsequent famine made it very difficult to main-
tain the cattle, and all the milk and ghee obtainable
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 139
were needed to sustain and succour the famine vic-
tims.
The deaf and dumb woman was in charge of the
churning department, and eagerly displayed to us the
superiority of the new churns over the previously em-
ployed native methods. This old method consisted of
a pole about the size of a broom-handle, with short
cross-way bars fixed on the lower end, not unlike a
" dolly " used in some parts of England for washing
clothes. The pole is swiftly whirled in the pot of milk
till the cream comes. Both kinds of churn are shown
in our illustration.
" Ghee " is clarified butter ; and " dhye
'* is a kind
of curd-cheese much used. Both are important ele-
ments in the daily food of non-meat-eaters in India. When sufficient butter and ghee cannot be obtained,
a good substitute is found in a sort of vegetable oil.
This is made from a grain called Kardi (or " Tilly "
in the Central Provinces). The grain for making this
oil was grown on the farm at Mukti. Among the
widows rescued from the 1897 famine was one who un-
derstood the process of oil-making. Ramabai, prompt
to seize opportunities, purchased a second-hand oil
mill, and placed her in charge. The mill interested us
very much; it was a clumsy looking erection, a heavy
upright beam, some cords and pulleys, with another
I40 PANDITA RAMABAI
beam placed crosswise; this was attached to the yoke
of a small bullock who patiently plodded round and
round in a circle with his eyes blinded. A large hundie
(cooking pot) stood at the mouth of the mill, and re-
ceived the oil as it flowed. This had to undergo some
process of boiling or purifying before it was ready for
use. Several girls were employed, beside the woman
in charge, sifting and sorting the grain and prepar-
ing it for the mill. Ramabai said this manufacture
effected a great saving in expense.
While we were there, the woman lifted up a full pot
of oil and put it aside. We had been admiringly watch-
ing the patient little bullock, and just then I ventured
to pat its back. Then was a transformation scene. The
unaccustomed caress so scared the apparently gentle
little creature, that he began kicking and plunging in
every direction. We had to beat a hasty retreat, and
send a workman to assist the woman in disentangling
the animal from the cords of the machinery into which
it had pranced. Happily the pot of oil had just been
placed outside of his range, and no damage of convSe-
quence was done. A field of red peppers ready for harvest at this time
was employing a troop of women and girls in gather-
ing, sorting, and drying the pods. Another detach-
ment was at work harvesting the jowari crop—a grain
used instead of wheat in making bread.
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 141 A weaving department with about twelve looms was
under the care of a Christian man, who was employed
to teach, to a selected number of young women, the
art and mystery of weaving sarees (the length of ma-
terial which gracefully twisted about the person forms
the dress of the Marathi women.) The preparation and
spinning of cotton yarn from the raw material is an
adjunct of this industry, and employs as many in pro-
portion as the looms.
The manufacture of these hand-loom dress-stuffs is
an industry which has not been affected to any great
extent by the modern Manchester competition. True,
the mills do put out a printed cotton saree, but in wear
and durability it is not to be compared to the hand-
loom production, and for women's garments the hand-
loom still holds its own. It is well that it is so; and I
for one trust the day is far distant when this whole-
some simple family industry will be substituted in In-
dia by the herding together of crowds of persons in
the unhealthy moral atmosphere of mill life. Bombay
has already its forest of mill chimneys. The work-
ers are chiefly men from country districts, and the women are the wives of working men, who are in all
sorts of employment in the city. Frequently a man will
have two wives, one of whom works at the mill from
seven in the morning till six at night ; the other remain-
ing at home to provide for the family. Tragedies often
142 PANDITA RAMABAI
come up in the police-court which reveal the sort of
life led by these unfortunate women. Contrast this
with a model settlement of Christian weavers which
we saw at Itarsi, in the Central Provinces, in con-
nection with the Friends' Mission. These were heredi-
tary weavers who had become Christian. Their com-
fortable home-life, wives and daughters plying the
spinning wheel, dyeing and winding the yarn, the boys
learning to take their father's seat at the loom when
school days should be over, and the babies rolling in the
sunshine, gave an almost ideal picture of what indus-
trial life should be.
Those who would successfully solve the problem of
the industrial employment of Indian Christians will be
wise to take into consideration the system of family in-
dustries indigenous to the country.
Rev. Albert Norton, a missionary of many years'
experience, had arrived with his wife from Amer-
ica, and was helping in the outside mission work.
Fifteen villages in the neighbourhood were then ac-
cessible to Gospel work. Mr. and Mrs. Norton had
organized Sunday Schools in some of these. Two
Bible-women were going out daily from Mukti to these
villages. Miss Abrams accompanying them as often as
her other duties permitted.
I had the privilege of going with them on one after-
noon to a village two miles away. I was impressed
MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT 143
with the miserably poverty-stricken aspect of the place.
It had the appearance of having been at some time
wrecked, and then patched up with any and every kind
of material that could be got : mud and straw by choice. Some of the stone walls were high and massive, and the
doorways pretentious. Some of the " cosiest homes,"
if such words could be used in such a connection, were mud walls with thatched roofs. These at least were in
keeping. I was told that this village was in fair ave-
rage condition.
Seven times during the afternoon we sat on door-
steps or outside of houses, at the invitation of the in-
mates, while a little crowd gathered around to hear the
Gospel hymns and messages from Miss Abrams and
the Bible-women. All castes were visited, high and
low.
As we drove home through the moonlight. Miss Ab-
rams told me of some of the responses made by the peo-
ple, which I had been unable to understand, and also of
some of her experiences in the work. When she first
visited some of the villages in this district, she found
they had never seen a white woman before ; some were
afraid, and afterwards told her they took her for a sol-
dier in disguise. At one house where the neighbour-
women had gathered to hear, one excused herself from
remaining by saying she had grain to sift at home ; the
hostess spoke up and said : " Don't go, you can clean
144 PANDITA RAMABAI
grain any day ; but it is not every day you can see such
an image as this/*
We left Mukti more than ever impressed with the
wide possibilities and healthy developments of the work
in the hands of Ramabai and her helpers.
Two Christian women from America were then on
a visit to Mukti. These friends helped Ramabai to
give shape to a thought that had long been with her,
for the erection of a building specially for the care of
girls who had been sinned against by wicked men ; many
of these were sick, and it was undesirable that such
should be mixed with the others. The younger lady
took charge of a few of this class already with Ramabai.
She remained for nearly twelve months. She nursed
several of these poor girls back to good health, and then
left to establish a rescue home of her own in another
part of India. The other stayed and saw the founda-
tions in for a new building on the piece of ground pur-
chased from the liquor-dealer. She then returned to
America, and worked for some months both there and
in England, and raised half the amount needed for this
new building.
Rev. Albert Norton and his wife remained with
Ramabai till February, 1900, when they removed to
Dhond, ten miles distant, being led to undertake famine
relief work especially on the line of caring for destitute
boys.