Church. Mrs. Shewantibai Nikambe's School [This school still exists and is known as the Princess
"These years of actual experience have proved that the scheme is no mere vision, inviting the compassionate to well-meant but fruitless labour, but can be made a living fact. It is proved that enormous abuses, though deeply rooted in centuries of habit can be successfully attacked. A solitary woman, consumed with love and pity, endowed with insight and tact, knowing through and through the temper of the people among whom she must work, unfaltering in purpose, unfailing in resource, excelling in patience, undaunted by whatever adversity of conditions, has been able to inaugurate a reform, and in face of a most bitter and relentless prejudice, has been able to maintain and advance it through nearly ten years. It is a marvel that she and her school have not been annihilated by the violent hands of the hostile multitude about them. But though the conflict has been fierce, she has not suffered defeat. Her school has been established and maintained and it accommodations are already overtaxed. In a movement opposed to fanatical prejudice the most difficult and dangerous part is gaining a foothold. Ramabai has gained a foothold and has kept it. The possibility of ultimate success is assured thereby".
The foregoing extracts go to prove that Ramabai is not only an inspirer of her countrywomen but also an inspirer of the world at large. The wealth of providence which has fallen like raindrops along the vast watershed of her singular experience has been the means of fertilizing wherever her story is told not only her own people, but the peoples of the world. The following are some of the results which have already followed on her espousal of the cause of the child-widows of India :
1. "An increased sentiment in the Hindu community in favour of re-marriage of Hindu widows in all parts of India in large numbers. 2. The interest in the kindergarten system and female education which is daily increasing in India. 3. The desire which Ramabai's institutions have created in the hearts of Hindu men for the education of their wives. 4. The Hindu people who live in Kedgaon and the surrounding country are more careful not to ill-treat their little wives and windows lest they should run away and go to Pandita Ramabai. 5. The impetus which Pandita Ramabai's example has given to the Indian Christian Church. Mrs. Shewantibai Nikambe's School [This school still exists and is known as the Princess
High School for Girls situated at Grant Road, Bombay.] which was started in Bombay for high caste child wives, child widows and unmarried girls. Godubai's Home [Godubai (alias Anandibai alias Baya) writes in her autobiography Maze Puran (Marathi) that she had determined to start a similar institution and Maharshi Annasaheb alias Dhondo Keshav Karve admits in his autobiography that he too had received inspiration from Pandita Ramabai and thus they both together established their world-renowned institution for women at Hingane, near Poona-now developed as S. N. D. T. Women's University] for Hindu Widows in Poona and Miss Shorat Chuckerbutty's orphanage at Allahabad are the direct outcome of Pandita Ramabai's work. The chief agent in this great development is a daughter of India. This is not the work of missionary Society or of European missionaries but an Indian widow, moved by the spirit of God, as His instrument in this mighty work. It shows something of the possibilities of Indian Christians. When hundreds more are actuated by the same spirit which moves Ramabai and are led to similar efforts what may we not expect to see?" One extract from an American Ramabai Association Report will close these remarks upon Ramabai's work :
"During the ten years of her work in the Sharada Sadan this one woman reformer, by her silent influence, and by her object lesson to the educated young men, showing them the difference between an educated wife of twenty and an ignorant wife of none or twelve, has done more towards
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weakening caste rules, more towards the recognition of the true brotherhood of man, and more for the advancement of women; has prevented more demoralizing child marriages and promoted more remarriages with the despised widows than have the many so-called reformersthan has the Brahmo Samaj during the entire period of its existence. While her brothers theorize, she practices".
The questions "Is she true? Is she honest?" have so often been raised that before closing these thoughts on her work and character they must be death with. Unhesitatingly we can answer that in following her God-given call she has sought to be wholly sincere and single-hearted. At times in her relationship with others her truthfulness has been called into question. As one reads between the lines of the American Ramabai Association Reports one perceives this to be the case. But what great worker is there who has never had his or her veracity at some time in their lives called into question? And when one takes into account two great difficulties which have existed all along with regard to Ramabai and her Committee great allowances have to be made in the judgments formed. The first of these is the radical difficulty which Orientals and Occidentals experience in understanding each other's mind. The other is hardly less great than the former. Her Committee have had to control a rapidly growing work whose base of action is 14,000 miles distant from its guiding hand. Two months elapse before an answer can be received to a question on either side. In these days of fast-going, circumstances rapidly change, and an answer when it comes may fail entirely to meet the case as it then stands. As one follows through the Reports the delicate relationships between Ramabai and her Committee, one cannot but be astounded at the unfailing generosity, patience, kindliness, and tenderness which they have at all times evinced in dealing with their difficult problems, Circumstances prevented the Committee at the time of Ramabai's great trouble with the Brahmin Advisory Board from understanding the grave difficulties through which she was passing. After months of patient waiting, she wrote a long letter of explanation to an American friend which this latter wisely circulated among the Committee.
The following extract from a letter of Mrs. Andrews shows how highly they thought of her in those early days :
"It is written in such a calm dispassionate manner that it carries conviction to the minds of all who read it, and therefore there seems but one opinion that your policy prior to February 1890 must be resumed."
Ramabai has naturally been charged with unfaithfulness in regard to the religious policy of the Sharada Sadan. So much has already been said with regard to this in the written history that not much need be added here. She was very strong in her opinion that only as a secular school allowing religious freedom could she hope to draw in any members of the higher caste she desired to benefit. She wished that her pupils might be free to study as they desired the religious book of the East as also the Book of books. She started by not desiring to influence them directly towards Christianity. Such a position to a true believer is almost if not wholly untenable. Ramabai was wholly inexperienced when she set forward, and as Christianity took a greater hold on her whole being she more and more desired to see her girls drink in the blessings which she herself was experiencing. Bit by bit, Christian influence strengthened in her institution, and conversions were more readily made, and within ten years the school had almost entirely changed its character. It had become a Christian institution. Missionaries report its work as a mission work.
The generous Committee proved itself as ever ready to go forward with Ramabai. From one of the Reports we gather the line they took with regard to this change. "Now if this sudden change, if these rapid conversions, are the result of the indirect influence of Ramabai's unselfish Christian life, then it is indeed God's own work to which she is called. No one would say 'God speed' more gratefully, more reverently than your Executive Committee. But if any indirect influence has crept in though all unconsciously to Ramabai, them the pledge to the people is broken, and we do not regret that the policy of the school should be changed before the expiration of ten years, a policy insisted upon by Ramabai and faithfully adhered to by her constituents."
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In 1898 when Pandita Ramabai's American Committee reconstructed her Association they were gladly willing to set her free from her promise of retaining an unsectarian position. I gather from various trustworthy printed matter that three quarters of her original subscribers were members of Orthodox Churches. Her committee (after the Unitarians had retired in a body) were led by and continued to be led by prominent clergy of the American Episcopal Church, who were associated in their work with Methodists, Baptism, Presbyterians. At no time would it have been difficult from the American point of view for Ramabai to have embraced full Catholic Truth. In fact, at the reconstruction of the American Association, the Committee would have gladly set her free from her promise of retaining an unsectarian stamp on her institution, but she again accepted this yoke of her own free will.
What then are the chief impediments to Ramabai's going forward to accept the fullness of the Church's teaching? The chief causes are two :
(i) The difficulty in her own mind with its strong pantheistic mould, viz., that all is equally right and good; and (ii) The strong pressure put upon her by Non-Conformist friends, especially those of her staff. I venture to think that her unusual circumstances–those of controlling and employing European and American workers–made it impossible for her at the beginnings of her work to call to her aid (as fellow-workers) the higher type of missionary worker. I think this has hampered her in many ways and it has barred her way to her return to her full membership in the Catholic Church.
Extracts from two letters of Manoramabai's will prove this latter to be the main hindrance. When Manoramabai returned to India in 1900 and was desirous of being Confirmed and taking her stands as a churchwoman, she found innumerable difficulties, which held her as a spider's web holds a fly.
"We have so many Non-Conformist friends in Poona and Bombay who would create no end of talk about it. Nearly all mother's friends dislike the idea of my being even on friendly terms with the Sisters."
In 1903 she writes : "I am situated among people of many different denominations and among many who are opposed to Church teaching."
Determination and preservance have been among the largest factors in the human side of Ramabai's work; but we note how she constantly ascribes all to the glory of God, and looks upon herself as an instrument in His hands.
We may add to this that she is a capital farmer, and a poet of no mean order. In the kindergarten, which is a part of her educational work, training the older girls to teach the little ones, many of the action songs used in English school have been aptly translated into Marathi by Ramabai. She has also enriched the song of the Christian Church with a number of beautiful hymns [set] to English as well as to Indian tunes.
The following extracts from her letters and utterances, show how her heart went out continually in acts of prayer, praise and thanks-giving. Her strong faith is shown in the following :
"I have been having a great deal of opposition lately from my Brahmin brethren. For twenty years continually they have written and talked against me and tried to break down and overthrow this work. It is hard to feel this when one is in the midst of great undertaking but the after-effect of it is like that of a powerful tonic to one's moral and spiritual nature. It taste bitter but it is very strengthening. A visitor here remarked that I need a strong powerful man to stand by me and fight my
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battles. Yes, I said, the Lord of Hosts is His Name; and He is that fights my battle for me. "Oh !", said the gentleman, "He is a spirit, you require human help in this work". I have a different opinion. There are some things that power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.".
"When the last such trial came, my heart seemed to fail; but the Lord rebuked my unbelief. Just about that time the foreign mail arrived and there was a beautiful post-card containing pictures on it. It came from Boston, from a friend whose name I could not make out simply from the initials. It contained just one sentence as a New Year's message. It was this :
More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. This message helped me out of the trouble".
We have yet to speak of her reverence and love for the Bible, Ramabai was well versed in the Holy writings of the Hindus. From the first when she came to read the Book of books, she perceived it to be something very different from the sacred books she was familiar with. The latter may be compared to diamonds hidden in heaps of rubbish and dust, the former to light brighter than the sun at noonday, scintillating on its every page and cutting like a sword into the denseness of man's heart, dividing asunder the very bones and marrow of his inmost being, and throwing light on the thoughts and intents of his heart. She loves to tell her family of our Lord's conversation with the woman of Samaria, and leads them through it to find in the World of God those perpetual streams of water, welling up to quench the thirst of parched and anguished souls.
Ramabai read her Bible subjectively, and interprets it literally She is content to find in it the green pastures needed for herself and her flock. She fails to appreciate the noble work of students devoting their lives to Higher Criticism studies, and has taken up her pen in their condemnation as she considers this hurtful to the pure Word of God. She fails to see that as a propaganda of scepticism is being zealously pushed in India by infidel emissaries from Western lands, it is needful to allow antidote to grow and expand alongside of the poisonous literature circulated throughout the length and breadth of her country.
She inspires her people with a like love of the Scriptures, and take pains that they should all possess them. She considers that the translation made of the Bible is too difficult except for the learned, too many Sanskrit words being employed, and so she has made a re-translation of the New Testament, which she is having printed in the Mukti press, and as each book is printed it is circulated in the mission. She is also compiling a Concordance, and employing several of her better educated women as helpers in this work. If her life is spared she also hopes to prepare a Greek and Marathi, and a Hebrew and Marathi lexicon. All these will doubtless serve as valuable foundation works, which in future times can be improved upon or enlarged as students are found to take in hand literary work.
Ramabai's burning desire that her people should embrace Christianity constrained her to write a paper in which she called upon Christians to consecrate themselves to the Lord for the work of spreading the Gospel, and upon missionaries to train Indian Christians in Bible methods of evangelization. She has also written a learned pamphlet in which she seeks to show Western nations the harm which is being done by the undue magnifying of the sacred books of Eastern philosophical beliefs in that it puffs up the vanity of the followers of these false creeds to make them consider them of equal value with the Word of God and there by strengthens them in their hold of the kingdom of darkness.
We have alluded to fault and imperfections in Ramabai's character; not that these make one think less highly of her, or love her less on account of them, but rather because these very imperfections overruled by the loving Heavenly Father to His Glory, have gone to bring out truer and deeper traits than if she had been exempted from the "erring and straying" to which all the sinful children of Adam are prone.
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Another reason, and this a most important one, is that when the time comes [for] handing on a true character-picture of so important a personality, the tendency of her heathen countrypeople, after Ramabai's death, will be to account her as a goodness, and of her Christian compatriots to accumulate legendary records which will bring disproportion into the story of her life and mar its true harmony.
How conscious she herself is of these wanderings from the fold of the Good Shepherd, some of her most beautiful utterances prove. Ramabai cannot be judged by ordinary standards. Raised up to be a beacon in a benighted land, she is a public character. As her acts of praise and thanksgiving are public, so too are not unfrequently her acts of penitence.
A few words need yet to be said in answer to the question. Why did not England instead of America help in supporting Ramabai's work? The main portion of the answer to this has already been given. Ramabai asked the help of England and England readily accorded her everything she wanted. I cannot too emphatically assert this. Ramabai went to America on a visit with the intention of returning to England, and thus put into the hands of the Americans the opportunity of espousing her cause. I think I am right in saying that England and her Colonies have hardly been behind America in the gifts they have sent out to Ramabai; and England would have done still more for her, had she had [the] patience to wait and prove the generosity of the English public.
In having attempted to make a fair study of Ramabai's life, the impression remaining on one's mind is one of great contrasts. Thankfulness that through her instrumentality the kingdom of darkness is being weakened in India. Heart Sorrow that she has failed to rise up to the highest Spiritual gifts, chiefly through the unhappy divisions among Christians. Is it altogether the fault of the NonConformists that we are so divided? I think not. It surely seems that we need more elasticity in our methods and systems; more power of entering into the difficulties of those less advanced in the faith than ourselves. While guarding jealously the Church's heritage of the Faith, should we not also be able to enter more into the difficulties of those who, unable to accept the whole body of Christian Truth, are yet sincere in their desire to be led onward by the gradual teaching of the Holy Spirit? And should we not more readily perceive the goodness and beauty of the work and lives of others?
It was painful to hear of one who had known and loved Ramabai in England being dissuaded from visiting her on account of "the strange practices carried on in her mission". Shall we ever hope to win our erring members if we are not willing to meet them as friends and watch over them as children?
Broad-minded generous-hearted reverent Christians of various denominations in America have banded together to attack the stronghold of caste in India and in so doing have set an example to the world of Christian unity, and may we not hope that the day is not far off when their example will be followed in other Christian lands? Such action has surely given richer and fuller meanings to the teachings of the Master and strengthened the hope that the prayers of Christ and His Bride may be answered by a growing unity of heart and mind among His followers.
SISTER GERALDINE
Community of St. Mary the Virgin, Wantage
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A Message from Pandita Ramabai to her friends Dear GUARDIAN, [This letter is addressed to the Editor, Bombay Guardian edited by Mr. Alfred Dyer.]
Kindly allow me to send a few words of greeting and farewell to my friends through you columns. I wish you and all my dear friends in the lord a joyful New Year. I am very grateful to the Lord and to you all for helping and making me feel very happy in the past year. The Lord be praised and glorified for all His goodness to my children and to me.
On the 24th of the last month, I opened my Marathi Bible in the morning and my eyes fell upon certain passages, marked on the same day in the year 1896. I happened to be at Sohagpur, C. P., on that day. Dear Sister Drynan and myself were preparing to go to the Government Poor House there, and were waiting on the Lord to give us directions before going to do the morning work. The Lord told me that morning that I was to get 300 young widows from the Famine districts, and gave me for my comfort and strength the promise from Isaiah 60 : 10, 11, 16 and 18. I little understood and realised then the importance of these promises.
On the 24th of the last month, when my eyes fell upon these verses, and the date put down against them, the HOLY SPIRIT brought to my remembrance all that the Lord said to me through those words and my joy knew no bounds when I began to recount His mercies one by one. When I gathered all my girls for prayer on the Christmas morning, I found that there were three hundred of them from the Famine districts – all looking well and happy. How I thanked the dear FATHER for fulfilling His promises in giving me the desire of my heart. A Church, all of the newly-converted girlwidows, is established in the ground which was a lonely desert a year ago, but is now alive with human beings, and in which the walls of the new houses are fast springing up. GOD gave me three hundred and twenty girls from the Famine districts before the year was over, and has squared the number of the fifteen Christian girls who attended the Camp meeting in April 1896 at Lanowlee (Lonavla). So a Thanksgiving and a Camp meeting was held at our new settlement near Kedgaon Railway station.
Also, the Lord gave me a name for our new settlement : "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls SALVATION, and thy gates PRAISE !"
(Isaiah, 60 : 18) Yes, the devastating plague was not heard of within our borders the whole of the last year. The Lord has kept and preserved us under His wings. Blessed be our good FATHER for His everlasting mercies ! Now the walls of the new houses being built up, shall be called Salvation according to His command. So our new settlement is called MUKTI; and the gates, when they are finished, shall have PRAISE THE LORD inscribed on their heads.
My American friends have been asking me for a long time to go over to see them; but I could not do so without consulting GOD. At the end of November last, the Lord showed me clearly His will about my going abroad. I had prayed to Him to send me the right person to take charge of the work; and He has done so. My dear friend Sunderabai Powar and my assistants will look after the school at Poona, while Sister Abrams (who a few months ago was told by the Lord to go to Kedgaon to help me) has charge of the new church and school at Mukti. Also a good Christian architect has been sent by God to look after the buildings there. I have sure promises of the Father to depend upon for the support of my children, and look forward to the time when our new building will be completed, and we shall have a church building of our own at Mukti.
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The desire of my heart as regards having 225 Christian girls is more than fulfilled. I have during the last year realized that the Lord "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think". So I praise and thank Him out of the fullness of my heart. To your prayers and help I owe much of this happiness, my dear good friends; so I thank you very gratefully for what you have done for me. I thank you and pray for you that the dear Lord may bless you according to His rich mercies.
Now farewell, my dear friends. I am to sail for America very soon. So please pray for me that GOD's will may be fulfilled in me whether I am at home or abroad; and that my children and myself may be kept by Him. "Now, unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the Power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by CHRIST JESUS throughout all ages, without end, Amen."
Bombay : January 10th, 1898 Yours in His Service,
RAMABAI My address in America will be : 36, Rutland Square, Boston Mass., U. S. A.
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Appendix–Ramabai Sings Magnificat About forty years ago when I was a little girl, my parents visited Benares as pilgrims to get merit, for they thought they would save themselves, and us their children, by bathing in the Ganges, and by worshipping the idols in that place. As orthodox Brahmins, they most religiously avoided coming in contact with Christians and the Mlechchas, i.e. the foreigners, but one day in the providence of God, a Christian man came to see my father while we were at Benares. I do not remember whether he was an Indian or a European Christian, nor what he spoke to my father. But I remember two words which I heard him say while he was conversing with my father. The words were "Yeshu Khrista" i.e. Jesus Christ. He shook hands with my father when taking leave, and said something which I do not remember. But I found myself repeating the two words "Yeshu Khrista" which I heard from him, after he went away. I must have repeated them many times because my sister was much alarmed and drew my mother's attention to what I was whispering to myself. Mother asked me what it was that I had been repeating; but I was afraid to answer her question and kept silence. She warned me against repeating the name of the God of the Mlechchas, and told me not to bring His name to my lips again. But I never forgot that Name.
About thirteen years after this, a Baptist missionary [The name of this Baptist missionary was Mr. Issac Allen
whom Pandita Ramabai later met while she was in England.] living at Silchar, Assam, sent a little printed card to me by my husband. The card had these words on it : "Incline your heart unto the Lord". I read them and pondered over them in my heart. I had lived without God and without hope for many years. I felt as if there was a great emptiness within me which needed to be filled, and no one but the God who was full of love and compassion for sinners would be able to fill it. I felt I needed His help and for the first time in my life I prayed to the Unknown God to incline our hearts unto Him.
I did not know how to pray, but without my knowing it, the Holy Spirit converted the Words of the Scripture into a prayer in my heart, and God did answer that prayer in His appointed time, when it pleased Him to bring me into the light of the blessed Gospel.
A few weeks after the above incident, I found a little booklet, the Gospel of St. Luke in my room. I do not know who had brought it or left it there, but I began to read it and greatly liked the story told in it. About this time my husband introduced me to the missionary who some weeks before had sent the card for me. The missionary read the first chapter of Genesis and explained it to me. There was a wonderful attraction in the words which he read. My soul responded to the message of God's Holy Spirit. I resolved then without knowing the reason why, that I would become a Christian. Sixteen years after the time when I first heard the Name of Jesus Christ, I realized that "there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved".
Some unknown friend, whose name is written in the Book of life, made me acquainted with that Name at Benares and another unknown friend left a small Gospel in my room for me to read, that I might come to know the Son of God, "Who loved me and gave Himself for me". These dear people who are well known to God and whom I expect to meet soon in the presence of the King, sowed the seed, other watered, and God gave the increase and I was born in His Kingdom. How I thank God with a full heart to-day for sending His messengers in order to make Himself known to me. I realize more and more the wonderful power that is in the Name of Jesus and in the Word of God which converted me. It will be an encouragement to the dear children of God, who have toiled long in this country without seeing any visible fruit of their labours, to know that the Word-Seed, faithfully and prayerfully sown, does surely bear fruit.
I am convinced more and more that the Gospel given to our people freely will be the means of their salvation. I am therefore going to spend your generous gift in giving the Gospel to many thousands of pilgrims, and to many others.
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Mukti, Kedgaon, RAMABAI
April 23rd, 1908.
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ERRATA
Note : There may be a few more mistakes in the biblical references; those listed above are only illustrative and appear in the original.
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INDEX ABRAMS, MISS MINNIE Agra Allen, Rev. Isaac American Ramabai Association Andrews, Judith A yerst, Licut. BAJI RAO, PESHWA Beale, Dorothea Benares Beveridge, Dr. Bhagat, Anandibai Bible Marathi Bodley, Rachel Bombay Guardian Brahmin(s) Brahmo(s) Samaj Brindawan Brotherton, Mrs. Buddhism Butler, Canon CACHER (SILCHAR) Cheltenham Chittare, Pritabai Christ, Jesus Christian Endeavour Society Christianity, Christian religion Church, Apostolic Anglican, English Catholic Indian Christian Lutheran Methodist Roman Catholic DAS, BIBIN BIHARI Donald, Dr. E.W. Dongre, Anant Shastri Duff, Dr. Alexander Dyer, Alfred and Helen ELIZABETH, SISTER FULHAM
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GADRE, GANGADHAR Gangabai Geraldine, Sister Godubai Gomatibai Gore, Mr. Goreh, Father Grace, Sister Eleanor Gwalior HALE, REV. E. E. Hallowell, Miss Hamilton, Lord Hamlin, Miss Harriet, Mother Harris, Lord Hindu People Law Religion Home for Hindu Widows Hunter, W. W. Hurford, Miss JOSHI, ANANDIBAI Joshi, Gopal Vinayak KALOKHE, SISTER MARRY Karve, D. K. Kashi Kedgaon Kesari LAKSHMI Lakshmibai Life of the High-Cate Hindu Woman, Lonawlie MANJULABAI Mano (Manorama) Mathura Monier-Williams, Sir Monier Mukti Mission Mukti Prayer Bell Muller, Max NATIONAL INDIAN ASSOCIATION New York Christian Weekly PAGE, FATHER Panch Howds
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Pandit, Tara Nath Pentecost, Dr. Pinhey, Mr. Justice Poole, Mrs. Powar, Soondrabai RANADE, RAMABAI Rand, murder of Rivington, Mr. Robinson, Rev. Roy, Raja Ram Mohan Rukhmabai Ryder, Dr.Emma B. SADANAND SADAN Samuel, Miss Saraswatibai Sen, Keshub Chander Sharada, Sadan Shastri, Ramchandra Silchar St, Mary's Home, Poona Stree Dharma-Neeti TARA (RADHA) Trinity Church Tubman, Harriet VITHABAI WANNOWRIE Wantage Wedderburn, Sir W. Westcott, Bishop Willard, Miss Frances YAMUNA
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