otherwise, exerted to induce the pupils to attend religious worship?
There are other reasons which influence us in deciding that the Sharada Sadan cannot be removed to Kedgaon: the difficulty of inducing a class of women we are most anxious to reach to seclude themselves in a little village like Kedgaon; the difficulty of obtaining teachers permanently to reside at so grate a distance from the city; the objection which high-caste women may have to so close a contact with another class of society, and perhaps morally beneath them, as would be inevitable were the Sharada Sadan side by side with the Mukti. These and other considerations which I will not recite have had their weight with us.
I now wish to make, in behalf of the Board, two recommendations: First, that you make application to the municipal authorities of Poona for protection from the annoyance of your neighbours. We cannot but believe that in a city like Poona, in which England is a powerful influence, such protection would be given you. At all events we wish this application to the municipal authorities to be made in our behalf. Secondly, we wish you to make an appeal to your neighbor for a like protection. It may well be that he or his agent is unaware of the annoyance to which his guests and employees are subjecting you. Of course, we recognise that the appeal may be fruitless, but we distinctly wish it made. Will you then be so good as to make the above application and writes us in full the result of each?
Be assured that the Board is anxious to carry out, to the best of its ability, the purposes for which the Sharada Sadan was originally founded. We write in no spirit of fault-finding or criticism; we simply wish as Trustees standing in a fiduciary relation to the property and to the school on the side, and to the American public on the other, to be assured by indubitable facts that the school is, and is to be, what we in America have heretofore represented to our constituency and the public that it is.
With best wishes, I am,
Very sincerely yours,
E. WINCHESTER DONALD,
President, American Ramabai Association.
Questions sent by
DR. E. WINCHESTER DONALD
President of the American Ramabai Association
to be answered by
PANDITA RAMABAI
1. How many women of high caste are pupils of the Sharada Sadan at the present time? 2. How many such women were members of the school five years ago? 3. How many of the present inmates are Christians, and did they become so after entering the school? 4. Are any efforts or influences, by any person connected with the school officially or otherwise, exerted upon the pupils to convert them to Christianity? 5. Are any influences or efforts by any person, officially connected with the school or otherwise, exerted to induce the pupils to attend religious worship?
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