Translator's/Editor's Notes
Translator's/Editor's Notes Preface 1.
Ramabai's lectures had a varied reception. Poona's Kesari ornately eulogized "her own feats of bravery" as "hardly less important that those of the American women she describes" (Kesari, 28 May 1889; my translation). Bombay's Indu-Prakash (10 and 17 June 1889) published an anonymous letter questioning the success of women's education in the USA, and Ramabai's response. Dnyanodaya reported the gist of her lectures and pointed out alleged errors (1 August, 8 August, and 22 August 1889).
For the U.S. census data and other factual information Ramabai has drawn upon Carnegie, who in turn acknowledged his reliance on Scribner's Statistical Atlas as his principal source (Carnegie 1886: vii–viii).
This is most probably a reference to Gopalrao Joshee, who traveled around the USA from mid-1884 to September 1886, giving lectures on the glories of Indian culture and exposing the seeming de¤ciencies of American culture. The embarrassment caused to Anandibai Joshee and her friends, who had extended hospitality and ¤nancial help to both her and her husband, has been documented by Dall
(1888: 136–43).
1. Voyage from Liverpool to Philadelphia 1.
Rachel Bodley (1831–1888) trained as a chemist and botanist, and taught natural sciences before being appointed to the ¤rst chair of chemistry at WMCP. An active participant in several scienti¤c societies, she became dean of the college in 1874; and was awarded an honorary M.D. degree in 1879. Her questionnaire survey of WMCP graduates and their professional success, made in 1881, was hailed as the ¤rst study of professional women in the USA. Bodley also had a special interest in medical missionary work (NAW I: 186–87).
Bodley had written to Ramabai in late 1885: "My thought in inviting you to come to America early in 1886 has been that if the tidings might be sent to India that you braved a wintry ocean to witness Anandibai receive her degree as a Doctor of Medicine, you in a certain sense gave your sanction to her act and enfolded her and her work in your own future leadership" (Letters: 165).
Despite opposition from CSMV and Miss Beale, Ramabai decided as a matter of duty to go to the USA, "¤rst, because the kind people who have given every kind of help to my cousin to study medicine want to see me, and have invited me again and again . . . Secondly, if I do not go, I shall greatly injure the cause of my countrywomen, for those kind people will think it very rude of me and the interest which they take in my countrywomen will in some measure be lessened" (Letters: 163).
It is not clear whether the term "Hindu" here refers speci¤cally to the Hindu community or means Indian in general, as it did (and still does) in the USA. In this
chapter Ramabai has used the words "Hindustan" and "Hindustani" for India and Indian.
The word used here is the Sanskrit jati, also used in Marathi, which embodies the concept of type or species and therefore has several connotations, including caste, class, community, tribe, race, and nationality. The meaning most appropriate to the context has been selected each time. In the present case Ramabai probably means
"nationality" as well, which was covered by "race" in the nineteenth century English usage.
Throughout this chapter Ramabai interchangeably uses two Marathi words meaning "ship" or "sailing vessel," and employs the equivalent for "steamboat" only for a boat on the Delaware, at the end of the chapter. The now prevalent Marathi word for "steamship" or "steamer" (literally "¤re-boat"), which was already in use then, appears in this text, except in chapter 9.
Such accounts appear in chapters 5 and 7.
The word used here is karnadhar, literally "helmsman."
The word used here is ghataka, a unit of twenty-four minutes.
This is a Sanskrit quotation.
10.
The word used here is the Sanskrit jivanmukta (one who is liberated from future births), which has a clear Hindu connotation.
11.
Ramabai's references to Anandibai in the present tense indicates that this portion of the text is dated prior to February 1887. The blood relationship between the two women was rather remote; Ramabai's father and Anandibai's maternal grandmother being cousins (Indu-Prakash, 5 August 1889). Anandibai and Ramabai had corresponded with each other in Bengal in 1882 (Dall 1888: vi–vii), but their ¤rst meeting occurred in Philadelphia on 6 March 1886.
12.
The Education Commission (also known as the Hunter Commission on Education) was in fact appointed in 1882, and Ramabai testi¤ed before it in Poona on 5
September 1882. The complete testimony is reproduced in Kosambi (forthcoming).
13.
During his Poona visit, Dr. Hunter was invited to a meeting of the Arya Mahila Samaj, which was attended by almost three hundred women and a few men (including M. G. Ranade). Ramabai read a Marathi address, "signed by nearly ¤fty ladies," elaborating upon some issues in her testimony; and the gist was translated into English by G. H. Deshmukh. Dr. Hunter responded with a speech endorsing
Ramabai's suggestions about "the necessity for a female medical profession," which had also impressed other commission members; and promised to initiate informal action, although the commission's purview excluded technical education (Times of India, 12 September 1882).
According to Bodley (1981 [1887]: xiii–xiv) Dr. Hunter had Ramabai's Marathi testimony translated into English and printed separately, which was indirectly responsible for the formation of the National Association for Supplying Female
Medical Aid to the Women of India (also known as the Countess of Dufferin Movement, after its president).
14.
This refers to the National Association for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of India.
242 Notes to pages 55–59
15.
The word used here is the ancient Sanskrit Bharatavarsha, from which is derived the current name "Bharat" for India.
16.
The word pranapratishtha, literally "bringing life into an idol when it is installed in a temple," seems to be used here advisedly to suggest the sacredness Ramabai attached to educational institutions.
17.
The liberal thinking of Quakers, in terms of gender equality, is mentioned at the beginning of chapter 8, "The Condition of Women."
18.
The County Medical Society strongly resisted admission of medical women. The Philadelphia Inquirer (5 October 1883) reported the start of the thirty-fourth session of WMCP ("Among the new students is Mrs. Anandabai Joshi [sic], the Hindoo woman, who proposes to take a four years' course at the institution") and added:
"The County Medical Society held an animated meeting on Wednesday to vote on the petition for admission of three women, graduates of the Womens' [sic] Medical
College. After an exciting debate a vote was taken, and it was found that the sentiment of the society was strongly against their admission, the highest candidate receiving but sixty-¤ve votes."
2. The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 1.
The word used here is the Sanskrit jati, which also translates as "community"; see chapter 1, note 4.
The Puranas are ancient sacred books of the Hindus, which range from cosmology to heroic tales in their contents and contain descriptions of marvels. The Nethermost World (patal) below the earth is described variously as the Netherworld and as a veritable paradise ¤lled with palaces and parks, where even the sun emits only light and not the usual scorching heat. Here Ramabai presents a progressive critique of the ancient Sanskrit literature, which lacked texts on history, geography, and similar branches of knowledge, and implicitly acknowledges the superiority of Western secular knowledge.
Shankaracharya was a great Hindu sage of the seventh and eighth centuries a.d. who revived Hinduism in all its Brahmanic tradition of rituals, a tradition that had been effectively challenged since the ¤fth century b.c. by Buddhism and Jainism, which emphasized ethical action as the determinant of spiritual welfare, rather than ritual observances and caste status.
This would translate as the "honorable" popes. The suf¤x -ji is an honori¤c often attached to names.
Ramabai adds a note here referring the reader to Mr. V. K. Oak's Marathi book Hindusthan Katharasa [Tales of India] "which has an excellent description of Vasco da Gama's voyage in the section entitled 'The Entry of the Portuguese into India'." The book was published in Bombay in 1871 (Date 1944: 255).
This is an allusion to a signi¤cant event in Hindu mythology. The contest for supremacy between the gods and demons led to a tussle to acquire Nectar hidden in the depths of the Great Ocean; and the churning of the Ocean produced fourteen
Gems, starting with Poison and ending with Nectar.
The rupee was the currency used in India at the time, as it is now. A rupee (then
Notes to pages 59–69 243
divided into 64 pice, instead of 100 paisas as now) was worth one-third of a dollar.
The mohur was an older coin of pre-British origin, usually made of gold.
The reference is obviously to the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, and witchhunting in medieval Europe.
Here Pandita Ramabai has used the Indian ¤gure lakh or lac (one hundred thousand). Wherever possible, I have transcribed the ¤gures in numerals for easy reading.
10.
This is slightly inaccurate. Cabot in fact visited North America ¤rst in 1497.
11.
Independence was formally gained in 1783, not in 1781 as Ramabai suggests.
3. System of Government 1.
The two sayings are quoted in Sanskrit in the original Marathi text.
Ramabai uses the words "created free and equal."
According to Hindu mythology, Time, which is in¤nite, consists of repetitions of a cycle of four eons or yugas. First comes Kritayuga (spanning almost two million years), which is ideal in terms of morality and general happiness. Next follow
Tretayuga, Dwaparyuga, and Kaliyuga (in which we now live, and which extends to almost half a million years), which are successively shorter and characterized by greater moral decline. After Kaliyuga has destroyed the world, the cycle starts again with another Kritayuga.
This is a reference to the Indian goddess Satwai (a folk form of the goddess Durga), who is believed to write an infant's destiny on its forehead on the sixth day after its birth. For the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, see chapter 5, note 25.
The following description is, in fact, taken from Carnegie (1886: 99–100).
A panchayat is the traditional Indian council of elders (usually ¤ve) which settles disputes. Each village had its own panchayat; in cities each caste had its own.
This appendix does not appear in the book.
This paragraph and the next two sections, "Counties" and "States," are based broadly on Carnegie (1886: 101–102).
The sections "Supreme Court," "Congress," and "Senate" are based on Carnegie (1886: 369–84).
10.
Ramabai states explicitly that some senators resign, when in fact it is only a matter of their term being over.
11.
Sahib was a descriptive label applied usually to a British of¤cial (and by extension any British person) in India.
12.
This section is based on Carnegie (1886: 384–91).
13.
This was only custom at this point. The Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution making this provision was adopted on 26 February 1951.
14.
If the president is to be impeached, he is tried by the Senate, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding.
15.
Inauguration Day was initially set for 4 March, but was changed to 20 January by a constitutional amendment in 1933.
16.
This section is based on Carnegie (1886: 449–65).
244 Notes to pages 70–91
17.
A picture of the Star-Spangled Banner was reproduced on the frontispiece of the original Marathi book.
18.
The reference to Delhi Gate is somewhat unclear. Ramabai probably means the main gate to the pre-British ruler's palace (Shaniwar Wada) in Poona, which is a symbol of his military might and ability to control vast areas of the Indian subcontinent. The palace was destroyed by ¤re in 1827, shortly after the British takeover
(in a suspected case of British arson), but the massive stone ramparts and the gate still stand as emblems of Poona's past glory.
19.
The currently prevalent Marathi word for "citizen" is nagarik, which literally means a resident of a city (Sanskrit nagara) and does not carry the connotation
Ramabai was so concerned about.
4. Social Conditions 1.
This paragraph is based on Carnegie (1886: 19–20).
This was a protest often made by progressive public leaders. As a member of the Poona Municipality, Jotirao Phule had voted against the proposed municipal expenditure on the occasion of the governor-general's visit to the city (Keer and Malshe
1969: xvii).
Chapter 9 has a brief description of the length of railroads in the USA.
This description of ¤re stations is based on Carnegie (1886: 83).
Ramabai does not use different words for "state" and "commonwealth."
This and the following three paragraphs are based on Carnegie (1886: 105–106), where he cites Fiske (1885). Ramabai's personal library includes a copy of Fiske with her signature on the ®yleaf, followed by "San Francisco Cal, U.S.A., Nov. 26th 1888."
Presumably as a result of Ramabai's visit and talk there, Gilbertsville established a Ramabai Circle and pledged funds for her proposed residential school for highcaste widows in India (Ramabai Association 1890: 12).
Edwin Arnold's long poem The Light of Asia, which describes the life of the Buddha, was ¤rst published in 1879. It has gone through numerous editions in Britain and the USA, as well as in other countries.
The phrase literally means "to win favors from Saraswati [Goddess of Learning] and Lakshmi [Goddess of Wealth]."
10.
Traditionally, when Untouchability was practiced, a village would have a separate colony of Untouchables on its outskirts. This was supposed to be a polluted area because they were required to perform the unclean tasks of sweeping streets, tanning and curing hides, etc.
5. Domestic Conditions 1.
The Marathi word used here literally means "paper covering."
Traditional Indian houses had wooden windowpanes.
Ramabai's postal address from July 1886 to April 1888 indicates that her lodgings were located at 553 North 16th Street in Philadephia (Letters: 195–213).
Notes to pages 92–106 245
Traditional Indian meals are served on metal plates, with metal bowls.
As a Brahmin, Ramabai maintained a strict vegetarian diet all her life (Dongre and Patterson 1963: 39). A disappointed Sister Geraldine, who had expected a change in Ramabai's diet upon her conversion, accused her of clinging to "caste prejudices" and displaying unwarranted "pride." Ramabai wrote to her in 1885: "I confess I am not free from all my caste prejudices, as you are pleased to call them. I like to be called a Hindoo, for I am one, and also keep all the customs of my forefathers as far as I can. How would you, an Englishwoman, like being called a proud and prejudiced [person] if she were to go and live among the Hindoos for a time but did not think it necessary to alter her customs when they were not hurtful or necessary to her neighbours?" (Letters: 109).
See chapter 4, note 10.
Omitted from the translation here is a short sentence which plays upon the Marathi word for fashions, nakhare, which the author construes as na khare, or "not authentic."
Kumta lies on the west coast of India, about four hundred miles south of Bombay, in the northern part of the state of Karnataka.
Europeans turn pink quickly in the hot Indian climate, and were often referred to as "red-faced."
10.
As the Chinese custom of foot-binding had entered the Western social reform discourse, so the Western practice of tight-lacing ¤gured in the Indian social reform discourse on the "Age of Consent" in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The reformers advanced the physiological protection of girl brides as an argument for late cohabitation within marriage; the anti-reformers claimed that early cohabitation was no more harmful than tight-lacing, which was not banned by law (Kosambi 1998a:
135–62). Ramabai's exposé of American women's double standards anticipates by a century Chandra Talpade Mohanty's discussion of Western women's self-construction as "the normative referent" in a binary East-West analytic. Mohanty speaks of Western feminists' tendency to assume themselves to be fully empowered, aware, in control over their bodies, and enjoying decision-making freedom; and of viewing Third World women as passive, powerless, and exploited (Mohanty 1994: 199–
200).
11.
Satwai is another name for the goddess Durga, who is believed to write the destiny of all infants; see chapter 3, note 4.
12.
The weight is given here in seers; one seer approximates one pound.
13.
In the 1850s the feminist protest against the tight, uncomfortable, and unhealthy dress worn by "ladies" resulted in the adoption of a new costume: a loose tunic, knee-length skirt, and ankle-length Turkish pantaloons. It was popularized most effectively by Amelia Bloomer, who wore it and publicized it in her feminist journal The Lily, and became known as the "Bloomer costume." The costume had to be soon abandoned because the public ridicule amounted to persecution (Flexner
1975: 83–84; Evans 1989: 103–104). The general movement for dress reform, however, had taken ¤rm root.
14.
Frances Willard (1839–1898) was a feminist best known for her association with the temperance movement which started in 1873 (see chapter 8) and which successfully
246 Notes to pages 107–112
closed about three thousand saloons in some six months in the Midwest and the East. She was chosen secretary of the women's temperance organization of Illinois, and of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which was founded in 1874. She was to serve as its president also, and tried to use this position to promote women's suffrage, which was opposed by the conservative members of the union, leading to long-lasting friction. In the 1880s Willard traveled widely within the country, promoting the establishment of the WCTUs in many states and territories in the country (NAW III: 610–19).
15.
The Audubon Societies formed for bird protection in the USA are named after John James Audubon (1785–1851), a very popular ornithologist and artist (DAB I:
423–27).
16.
This is a famous quotation from the Bhagavad Gita (chapter 2, verse 22) relating to death and the immortality of the soul. The soul is said to leave the old body and enter a new one, just as a man discards his torn clothes and dons new ones.
17.
The word used here is jati. See chapter 1, note 4.
18.
A Marathi proverb is quoted here in the original text, to the effect that "Everywhere the palas [Butea frondosa] tree has a triple leaf."
19.
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) started his reformist career by protesting against "intemperance and its kindred vices," but is best known for his anti-slavery efforts. He was one of the earliest to demand the "immediate and complete emancipation" of slaves, and spent thirty years advocating the abolitionist cause. Garrison was instrumental in the founding of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831 and the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and served as president of the American Anti-Slavery Society for twenty-two terms (DAB IV: 168–72).
20.
Elizabeth Coltman Heyrick (1769–1831) was a British Quaker who campaigned actively for the abolition of slavery in the British colonies (<http://www.spartacus. schoolnet.co.uk/REheyrick.htm>).
21.
Lucretia Mott (1793–1880) was an activist on many fronts: a Quaker minister and proponent of tolerance in religion, an abolitionist, and a pioneer in the women's rights movement. She helped William Lloyd Garrison to form the Philadelphia
Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 (because women members were then not allowed in the American Anti-Slavery Society), and helped to organize the AntiSlavery Convention of American Women. Ultimately she was to surpass Garrison's vision, and after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, she worked for suffrage for blacks. Mott exhibited a great deal of personal courage when threatened with mob violence on more than one occasion.
Lucretia Mott's best-known activism was on behalf of women. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she organized the women's convention at Seneca Falls,
N.Y., in 1848, and passed the "Declaration of Sentiments" modeled on the U.S.
Declaration of Independence. She attended the conventions regularly and was also elected president in 1852. She was the ¤rst president of the American Equal Rights
Association, formed in 1866. After the women's rights movement split into two factions in 1869, Mott worked hard, though unsuccessfully, for unity (NAW II:
592–95).
22.
Wendell Phillips (1811–1884) was identi¤ed with the anti-slavery movement, and spoke eloquently at the meetings of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and on Notes to pages 113–115 247
other platforms from 1837 on, and was closely associated with William Lloyd Garrison. In 1840 he attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention as a delegate from Massachusetts, and supported Garrison in insisting that women be given equal rights as delegates. After the Civil War, when Garrison suggested dissolving the American Anti-Slavery Society, Phillips proposed its continuation and was chosen president. He supported other causes, such as prohibition, the rights of American
Indians, and women's suffrage (DAB VII-2: 546–47).
23.
Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885), a highly respected author of poetry and novels, devoted her later years to crusading for American Indian rights, and wrote A Century of Dishonor in 1881 as an indictment of the U.S. government for its conduct of Indian affairs. On a commission from the Interior Department, she surveyed the conditions of the West Coast Indians; when the report had no impact, she turned to ¤ction and wrote Ramona in 1884, in the spirit of her friend Harriet Beecher
Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (NAW II: 259–61). In a letter Ramabai mentions having read A Century of Dishonor (Letters: 174).
24.
Alice Fletcher (1838–1923), ethnologist, feminist, and American Indian reformer, spent several years working among the Omaha Indians, and successfully petitioned the government to apportion the common tribal lands among the members of the tribe as individual holdings (later passed as the Dawes Act of 1887); she was appointed by the president in 1883 to carry out the apportionment. In 1885 she wrote a 700-page report for the U.S. Senate, entitled Indian Education and Civilization. In 1887 she was named a special agent of the Interior Department to implement the Dawes Act among the Winnebago Indians of Nebraska and the Nez Perce Indians of Idaho. Fletcher wrote several monumental ethnological works on Indian tribes.
In the early 1870s, she joined Sorosis, a pioneering women's club started in New
York; served as secretary for both Sorosis and the Association for the Advancement of Women; and worked actively in the temperance and anti-tobacco movements
(NAW I: 630–33).
25.
By 1882 more than 300,000 Chinese had already immigrated into the USA to work mostly as cheap labor in West Coast cities, which frustrated the American workers' bid for higher wages. In order to avoid imminent civil disorder, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. It banned the entry of Chinese laborers, strictly regulated the entry of other people from China, and denied citizenship to any Chinese person.
26.
The Hindu calendar divides the year into six seasons of two lunar (thirty-day) months each. The year thus has 360 days, and the de¤cit is made up by adding an extra month—that is, repeating one of the months by turn—when necessary. The adjustment sometimes also requires that a month be dropped.
27.
There is no such description.
28.
Assam (where Ramabai lived after her marriage), in eastern India, is now a separate state in the Indian Union.
29.
This is a Sanskrit quotation.
30.
A word meaning "restaurant" is used for hotels in this paragraph, except once when the word sarai (lodge for long-distance travelers, often associated with merchant caravans) is used. Traditionally there were no hotels in India; travelers stayed overnight at temples or temple halls meant for such a purpose, or at sarais.
248 Notes to pages 116–122
31.
The word used here literally means the palace of the god Indra.
32.
The amount mentioned is Rs. 6,000,000. Henceforth all amounts mentioned only in rupees in the original text are given only in dollars in this translation. Amounts mentioned in both rupees and dollars in the original text are retained unchanged.
33.
The author of an unsigned interview with Ramabai states that she met her "at a fashionable watering place in America. She was staying there with some of those kind friends who took up so warmly and effectually the cause of Hindu widows which she had at heart . . ." (Women's Penny Paper, 25 May 1889). The reference is probably to Saratoga.
34.
Hindus regard Ganges water to be so holy that drinking it or bathing in it is supposed to cleanse one of all sins.
35.
The Marathi word for "dysentery" (modashi) has a double meaning, and the sentence can also be read as "The very thought has de®ated my conceit."
36.
The Puranas describe the earth as composed of seven islands, one of which has the golden Mount Meru at its center. A veritable heaven on earth because of its pleasant woods and forests, it is ¤t for the habitation of the gods.
37.
Richard Heber Newton (1840–1914), a Protestant Episcopal clergyman from Philadelphia, served at All Souls' Church in New York City from 1869 to 1902 before going to Stanford University as the resident preacher. He was renowned as the foremost liberal Episcopal clergyman of his time (DAB VII: 474–75).
38.
Ramabai's project was to establish a residential school for widows in India.
39.
Kalidasa was a great Sanskrit poet and dramatist. Because of a lack of authentic biographical details, he is placed variously in the ¤rst century b.c. or the fourth century a.d. His Shakuntala was translated into English in the eighteenth century and became internationally famous.
40.
Snow was a fascinating novelty for all Indians except in regions like Kashmir in the extreme north of the country, and its Marathi descriptions are couched in surprisingly similar terms, and appended with some didactic moral. Anandibai Joshee wrote to her husband on 9 January 1884: "Snow does not make a noise like the rain when it falls; it comes silently, it falls gently like very light feathers. It is very white and looks like powdered sugar. But when rain falls on the original snow, it solidi¤es arti¤cially and is called 'ice.' It looks exactly like glass. If it remains in the streets by oversight, people slip and fall heavily, and are hurt in many ways. There is a Government order that every house-owner in the city must keep the area in front of his door clear. Therefore one has to go out of the city to see the real beauty of Nature, which I did when I visited Aunt [Mrs. Carpenter of Roselle, N.J.] during the vacation. One day we all played with snowballs, and I went with Aunt for a ride in a wheel-less carriage called 'sleigh'" (Kanitkar 1912: 225; my translation). A little later she wrote again on 31 January 1884: "Snow teaches us an excellent lesson; it falls so silently, no thunder can be heard or no lightning seen when it falls. In sum, it causes no disturbance. Besides, it makes all the surroundings as clean and lovely as itself. It gives equal treatment to all" (Kanitkar 1912: 220; my translation).
41.
The Ramabai Association had been established in Boston in December 1887.
42.
The actual word used is a crore, that is, 10,000,000.
43.
There is no such description in the book.
Notes to pages 123–130 249
44.
The many mythological stories connected with Diwali include the one which Ramabai narrates here—Lord Krishna's killing of the demon Narakasura, who had harassed the gods and kept thousands of women in captivity. Ramabai chooses to ignore the con®ict of good and evil implicit in the event, and stresses the aspect of political legitimacy. The four-day festival of Diwali marks the advent of the winter solstice and is celebrated with lamps and ¤recrackers.
45.
This is a quotation from the ancient Sanskrit poet Bhartrihari, who describes the traits of men he characterizes as morally superior, medium, and inferior. Worse than the inferior type of men are those whom he feels unable to describe: "We know not who they may be!"
46.
Balabodha Meva (roughly, Moral Instruction for Children) was started by the American Mission in 1873 as a journal specializing in amusing stories and poems, and illustrated information about animals and birds (Date, Kale, and Barve 1969: 177).
47.
Henry Bergh (1811–1888) pioneered the movement for the humane treatment of animals in the USA, through street sermons and lectures, mainly in New York City. He set up the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866, on the model of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Britain
(DAB I: 215–16).
48.
George T. Angell (1823–1909), reformer and philanthropist, established the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA); started a periodical, Our Dumb Animals, in 1868; formed the American Band of Mercy in 1882, and helped to organize local Bands of Mercy in order to carry his message to children in public and Sunday schools; and established the American Humane Education Society in 1889 (DAB I: 303–4). As mentioned in the introduction, Mr. Angell used the text of Ramabai's letter for "The Pundita Ramabai Humane Pamphlet," which was sold by the MSPCA.
Ramabai seems to have been deeply in®uenced by Mr. Angell. Years later she reported that in her Sharada Sadan she gave the girls "humane education. That is a monument to our dear friend Mr. Angell, God bless him! Through him I learned what a good in®uence this has over children. In India, though people worship animals, they are not humane; and they treat animals most cruelly" (Ramabai Association 1898: 33).
49.
This seems to be an error; Ramabai obviously means summer.
50.
For example, in the 1880s an advertisement for potency pills commonly appeared on the front page of Indu-Prakash, the liberal Anglo-Marathi weekly newspaper published in Bombay, with which a number of famous social reformers were associated.
6. Education and Learning 1.
Cited in Carnegie (1886: 131).
I have inserted this heading for easy reading. Much of this section is based on Carnegie (1886: 136–50).
The amounts which are given in rupees in the original text are converted here into dollars, at the exchange rate of three rupees to the dollar, as mentioned by Ramabai herself in the book.
250 Notes to pages 130–140
Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839–1893) was born and raised in Hawaii, and completed his college education in the United States. He enlisted in the army during the Civil War, fought at Gettysburg, and had been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general by the end of the war. He was subsequently appointed as the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau at Hampton, Va., and became greatly interested in the industrial education of emancipated slaves. With the help of generous donations he established the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute in 1868 and ran it along creative lines. The institute became an illustration of "education of the head, heart, and hand alike" as the essence of education for life (DAB I:
359–60).
This extract is given by Ramabai as a translated quotation from Armstrong. I have not been able to trace it and have therefore not presented my retranslation of it as a quotation.
Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852), German educator, devised his own educational system, which was aimed at helping the child's mind to grow naturally and spontaneously. He opened his ¤rst kindergarten school in 1836 and spent the rest of his life setting up more such schools and writing books on the subject (Chambers: 523).
Elizabeth Peabody (1804–1894) must have been about eighty-four years old when Ramabai met her. For many years she was a Transcendentalist who associated with Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne. She was strongly in®uenced by her mother, who ran a school in Salem, Mass., based on the principle that every child should receive the training which was appropriate to his ability. She taught in, and started, a few schools; lectured widely on education; and wrote ten books and ¤fty articles on the subject. In 1860 she started in Boston the ¤rst kindergarten school in the USA, then traveled in Europe for a few years to study kindergartens, and on her return devoted herself to promoting the movement in the USA (NAW III: 31–34).
A special prize was awarded to the St. Louis Manual Training School at the School
Exhibits, held at the National Education Association convention in July 1888, at which Ramabai was present and was given a reception by the WCTU (San Francisco Chronicle, 21 July 1888).
Felix Adler (1851–1933), born in Germany and raised in New York City, where his parents had emigrated, was trained as a rabbi, but left this post to become professor of Oriental languages and literature at Cornell University from 1874 to 1876.
Later he founded the ¤rst free kindergarten in American in 1877, the Workingman's School in 1880 (which became the Ethical Culture School in 1895), the Plymouth School of Ethics in 1889, the Child Study Association in 1907, and the Fieldston School in 1928. He was professor of social and political ethics at Columbia
University from 1902 to 33 (DAB XI-1: 13–14).
10.
Francis Wayland Parker (1837–1902) was born in New Hampshire, began to teach at an early age, enlisted in the army during the Civil War, and, after the end of the war, went back to teaching school and experimented with innovative methods of teaching. He spent a few years in Germany, where he studied educational methods, including the kindergarten, which he introduced in schools in Quincy, Mass., where he served as superintendent of schools, and in Boston, where he was one of the supervisors of schools. In 1899 he set up the Chicago Institute, with the help of a generous endowment offered to him. After two years the institute was transNotes to pages 143–147 251
ferred to the University of Chicago as the School of Education; he became the school's ¤rst director (DAB VIII: 221).
11.
This heading has also been added. The factual information in this section is derived from Carnegie (1886: 343–45, 353–54).
12.
The Vernacular Press Act was imposed by the Viceroy Lord Lytton in 1878 to censor vernacular journalism; it was repealed by the next viceroy, Lord Ripon in 1882.
13.
Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) served as governor of New York before taking of¤ce in 1885 as the ¤rst Democratic president after the Civil War. In the congressional session of 1887–88 he supported revision of tariff rates, which he saw as evidence of favoritism to certain protected industries. The tariff debate raged while the 1888 elections were held, and Cleveland lost because of the popular perception that tariff reduction was a British policy. However, a swing in popular opinion on the issue voted him in for a second term as president from 1893 to 1897 (DAB II: 205–12).
14.
The Indian National Congress was the organization established in 1885 by Indian nationalist leaders and their British (nonof¤cial) sympathizers, in order to obtain political rights and eventual independence.
15.
Mathura is an ancient city in the north of India, currently in the Hindi-speaking state of Uttar Pradesh; Awadh (British Oudh or Oude) is a nearby region in the same state. By "Madhyadeshi" Ramabai probably means the language spoken in central India (the British Central Provinces, currently the state of Madhya
Pradesh). Punjabi, the language of the state of Punjab in northwestern India, is somewhat akin to Hindi, but can hardly be regarded as a dialect of Hindi.
Ramabai was probably the ¤rst and certainly one of the earliest public leaders to promote the use of Hindi as the national language for India.
16.
The Konkan area is the strip along the west coast and the Deccan area the inland plateau of the Marathi-speaking region, which currently constitutes the state of Maharashtra in western India.
17.
Gurjars are the inhabitants of the southern part of the state of Gujarat which borders on northern Maharashtra.
18.
Kanarese, now Kannada, is the language spoken in the region then known as Carnatick, which was partly included in the Bombay Presidency. Today Karnataka is a separate state which lies immediately to the south of Maharashtra.
19.
The "language of the Demons" obviously means any alien language.
20.
This spans the length and breadth of undivided India from Kanyakumari, the former Cape Comorin, at the southern tip of India, to the Himalayas, which form the country's northern border, and from the Indus delta in the west (now in Pakistan) to Manipur in the extreme east.
21.
The rest of this section is based on Carnegie (1886: 350–62).
22.
See Carnegie (1886: 352, 355).
7. Religious Denominations and Charities 1.
The separation of state and church is also an underlying theme in Carnegie's chapter "Religion" (1886: 152–164), from which some ideas and information in this chapter are derived.
252 Notes to pages 147–154
Under the Charter Act of 1833 the East India Company undertook to meet the expenses of the Church of England in India, out of its pro¤ts from the India trade.
After the transfer of power in 1858 the British Crown assumed this responsibility, and the expenses were charged to the revenues of the Government of India (David
2001: 44).
Burning of witches was not really an American practice; hanging was the usual penalty.
A Puranika is a person who narrates sacred stories from the Puranas. Ramabai's natal family eked out a living in this fashion, and she was one of the very few women Puranikas of her time. After her return to India, Ramabai used the Purana format for her lectures to women audiences to popularize her ideas of social reform.
The several Shastras and the four Vedas (composed over the period 2500 to 1000 b.c., and the oldest literature in the world) form part of the Hindu scriptures which could traditionally be studied only by Brahmin men. Women and the lower castes were not allowed to read them or to study Sanskrit, the language in which they are written.
Missionary activity was forbidden in the English East India Company's territories in India until the Charter Act of 1813 ended the company's monopoly of India trade. The American Marathi Mission pioneered Christian evangelical and educational activity in Bombay. See the section "The Indo-American Backdrop" in the Introduction.
A bairagi is a religious mendicant who has renounced the world; ganja is dried hemp ®owers, or marijuana.
Kaikadis, a caste whose traditional occupation was making twig baskets, also earned money through acrobatic performances in the streets.
Raosahib is a title. See chapter 9, note 7.
10.
Hinduism believes in the transmigration of the soul and the resultant multiple rebirths. The ultimate spiritual goal is salvation, or the merging of the soul with the omnipresent Divine Spirit (Brahma), which also frees one from the cycle of death and rebirth.
11.
This paragraph is based on Carnegie (1886: 167–70).
12.
See Carnegie (1886: 170).
13.
Ramabai was impressed enough by these schools for the blind to open a section for blind women at her Mukti Mission at Kedgaon, and to give them special education through books in Braille; the section is still in existence.
14.
The harmful effects of oil dropped in infants' eyes was a favorite theme which Ramabai elaborated upon, along with other traditional Indian child-care practices, in Morals for Women (Kosambi 2000d: 92–93).
15.
The reference is to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in New York.
16.
The social reformers and nationalists G. G. Agarkar and B. G. Tilak were editors of the Marathi weekly Kesari and the English weekly The Mahratta, respectively. In their papers they exposed the irregularities in the internal affairs of the Princely
State of Kolhapur, which was under indirect British control. The Kolhapur Libel Case stemmed from their support of the young prince against his chief minister,
Notes to pages 154–165 253
who allegedly maltreated him with the connivance of the British Resident. During the court case which followed, Agarkar and Tilak discovered that the documentary evidence in their possession was forged and that their informants were unwilling to testify. The two editors were sentenced to prison in Bombay and served their terms in July–October 1882. Agarkar's account of prison life, A Hundred and One
Days in Dongri Prison, was published in 1882 as a booklet, and was the ¤rst of its kind in Marathi (Natu and Deshpande 1986: xiii–ixx, 1–37).
17.
The rest of this paragraph is based on Carnegie (1886: 173–75).
18.
The term "zenana" was applied to the inner quarters of a house where women lived in seclusion in traditional homes. This kind of seclusion was strict in northern and eastern parts of India, and generally among the upper classes.
19.
Shaivites and Vaishnavites are the followers, respectively, of the gods Shiva (the Destroyer) and Vishnu (the Preserver). Together with Brahma (the Creator), they form the highest trinity in Hinduism. There are said to be thirty-three crore (330,000,000) gods in the Hindu pantheon. Shias and Sunnis are the chief denominations among Muslims (formerly called Mohammedans by many English speakers).
8. The Condition of Women 1.
The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the great Hindu epics; the Bhagavata Purana is a collection of sacred stories which are used for recitals and as a basis for popular religious discourses. The other works mentioned here are lesser-known religious works, which Ramabai deliberately refers to as "literary."
Haihayarjuna was said to have a thousand arms. Sita is the wife of Rama (an incarnation of God Vishnu), on whom the epic Ramayana centers. While Rama is forced to live in exile in a forest, Sita is abducted by the ten-headed demon king
Ravana. After a gigantic battle, Rama kills Ravana. Ramabai indulges in conspicuous exaggeration here, and her surprising reference to Sita as having killed Ravana seems to be a strategy of presenting an acceptable, empowered Hindu female
¤gure.
Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) remained single and pursued a literary career when her father's death left the family in straitened circumstances. Her serialized "Illustrations of Political Economy" were enormously popular, as were the 1,642 articles she wrote on a wide range of subjects. In 1837 (not 1840, as Ramabai states) she published Society in America, in which her feminist ideas found cohesive expression
(Spender 1982: 125–35).
This is ostensibly a quote from Martineau's Society in America, but it does not appear in Martineau's book and was obviously intended as the gist of her argument.
The World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840 ruled, in spite of strong objections, that only men delegates should be seated. The American women delegates, including Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were compelled to sit in the galleries and were unable to participate in the proceedings (Flexner 1975: 71).
See Willard (1888: 94). Willard's arguments about women's right to preach obviously in®uenced Ramabai.
Hannah Lee Corbin, an advocate of women's rights, was the daughter of Thomas Lee of Virginia and sister of Richard Henry Lee—and not of Robert Lee as 254 Notes to pages 165–171
Ramabai states. Robert E. Lee, son of their cousin "Light Horse Harry" Lee, later became the general of the Confederate Army during the Civil War (<http://www. stratfordhall.org/>). Hannah's letters to her brother Richard Henry are not extant, but his reply dated 17 March 1778 indicates that she solicited his support for voting rights and tax exemption for widows with property (<www.uchicago.edu/Civilization/America/Suppl35/Corbin.html>).
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) was the wife of President John Adams. Her letter to him, written on 31 March 1776 and now famous, reminded him to redress some of the existing gender inequalities while making laws. It advised him to "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors," and to "not put such unlimited power into the hands of Husbands." John Adams, though an affectionate husband, dismissed the advice (Spender 1982: 83–85).
The reference to 1832 is unclear. Slavery was abolished in all British possessions in 1834; Oberlin College was founded in 1833.
Oberlin College was founded in 1833 as a seminary and developed into a rudimentary college. It "offered women a curriculum even remotely comparable to that available to men on the college level," and was "the ¤rst such institution to open its doors to all comers, regardless of race, color—or sex" (Flexner 1975: 29).
10.
This paragraph is based on RICW (1888: 51).
11.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1759–1797) wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 to plead for equal education and employment opportunities for women. She was harshly judged by her male contemporaries, and the label of "hyena in petticoats" given to her is remembered long after her writings are forgotten (Spender 1982: 100–14).
12.
Hannah More (1745–1833) was a member of the Bluestocking Club (see note 50 below) and a professional writer whose literary output included poetry and drama.
She did much to improve the condition of the poor (Chambers: 951; Spender 1982:
76).
13.
Sidney Smith (1771–1845) was an English journalist and clergyman, and a brilliant speaker. He supported liberal and reformist ideas through his writings, mainly in the Edinburgh Review (Chambers: 1241).
14.
This paragraph is based on RICW (1888: 51–52). Emma Willard (1787–1870) supplemented the conventional schooling she received by teaching herself a number of other subjects, including geometry. After teaching in several "female academies," she opened her own Middlebury Female Seminary, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the New York legislature to support a program of state-aided girls' schools, the Troy Female Seminary in 1821, which was "the ¤rst endowed institution for the education of girls." The pamphlet she produced for this campaign in 1819, "An Address to the Public; Particularly to the Members of the Legislature of New York, Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education," was a landmark document in the history of women's education. Although conventional in her views about the average woman's role in life, Willard nevertheless made available to her students all the scienti¤c subjects, as well as the accomplishments considered essential for girls (NAW III: 610–13; Flexner 1975: 26).
15.
This and the next few paragraphs (excepting the description of the Arkansas River) are based on RICW (1888: 53–59).
Notes to pages 171–173 255
16.
Vassar College was opened in 1865, Smith and Wellesley in 1875, Harvard Annex (which in 1894 became Radcliffe College) in 1879, and Bryn Mawr in 1885 (Flexner
1975: 36). Antioch College became coeducational in 1852, the state University of Iowa accepted women in 1858, and Wisconsin admitted women to its normalschool training course in 1863. Cornell was founded in 1868, and a special branch for women, Sage College, was added in 1874; the ¤rst woman student entered the University of Michigan in 1870 (Flexner 1975: 124–25).
17.
This paragraph is based on RICW (1888: 59–60).
18.
Matthew Vassar (1792–1868) was born in England, emigrated as a child to America with his family, and made his fortune ¤rst in the family brewery, then in his own brewery and other enterprises. The founding of Vassar College for women, opened in 1865, was his attempt to prove the intellectual equality of women, and was well advertised throughout the country (DAB X: 230–31).
19.
The following quotations are taken from RICW (1888: 74).
20.
This quote is taken from RICW (1888: 165); the quote that follows is by President
James B. Angell of Michigan University and is taken from RICW (1888: 73).
21.
Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780–1872) lived in Scotland and England, taught herself mathematics in her twenties, and soon gained pro¤ciency. In 1826 she presented a paper to the Royal Society on "The Magnetic Properties of the Violet Rays of the Solar Spectrum." In 1830 she wrote Celestial Mechanism, a popular version of the work of the French mathematician and astronomer Laplace; and in 1832 The Mechanisms of the Heavens; her book became a required textbook for students at Cambridge (where she herself and other women could not study). In 1834 she published The Connection of the Physical Sciences, and later Physical Geography and numerous papers and monographs; and in 1869 Molecular and Microscopic Science.
She mixed with the greatest mathematicians of her time, and received several honors (Spender 1982: 168–72; Chambers: 1246).
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–81) was a famous and proli¤c English poet, who married the English poet Robert Browning. She made an explicit feminist protest in her best-known poem, Aurora Leigh (Spender 1982: 172; Chambers: 193).
22.
This is a well-known Sanskrit phrase.
23.
This refers to Harvard Annex, which later became Radcliffe College for women.
See notes 16 and 24 of this chapter.
24.
Alice Freeman Palmer (1855–1902) obtained a college education on a loan from her parents, promising not to marry before its full repayment; and also paid for the education of her siblings. She graduated in 1876 from the University of Michigan while holding part-time jobs; and was awarded an honorary Ph.D. degree in 1882.
She became the second president of Wellesley College in 1882, at the age of twentyseven, and the ¤rst president who nurtured the institution's early growth. In 1882 she was involved in the founding of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (later the American Association of University Women), which promoted women's educational interests. In 1887 Alice Freeman married G. H. Palmer, professor of philosophy at Harvard, resigned her post, and moved to Cambridge, Mass. The marriage led to a public controversy between the anti-feminists, who saw this as proof of women's inability to shoulder positions of responsibility, and the feminists, who saw it as betrayal of the cause of women's independence. Alice Freeman Palmer
256 Notes to pages 175–177
served various women's educational institutions in of¤cial and unof¤cial capacities, and was closely involved in the struggle to transform Harvard Annex into Radcliffe
College (NAW III: 4–8).
25.
This is a quotation from the Bhagavad Gita (chapter 4, verse 40).
26.
This and the next three paragraphs are based on RICW (1888: 165–66).
27.
Maria Mitchell (1818–1889) inherited her love of mathematics and astronomy from her father, who also trained her from an early age. In 1847 she discovered a comet, which was named after her; she gained international fame, and was awarded a gold medal by the king of Denmark. In 1848 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston; she was the ¤rst, and for almost a hundred years the only, woman elected to that body. In 1850 she was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1869 to the American Philosophical
Society (as the ¤rst woman to receive this honor); in 1873 she was made vice president of the American Social Science Association. In 1873 she became one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Women; she later served as its president for two years, and as chairman of its science committee for the remainder of her life. In 1865 Matthew Vassar inducted Mitchell into the faculty of the newly opened Vassar Female College and built a special observatory for her research and teaching; she taught there until 1888 (NAW II: 554–56).
That Ramabai was personally acquainted with Mitchell is indicated by the following note on the ®yleaf of Ramabai's copy of RICW (in what seems to be her own handwriting): "Mariah Mitchel [sic] discovered a planet and immortalized her name for which Russia gave her a medal. She was Professor of Astronomy in Vassar when I was there. She showed me the large telescope and observatory; she is a noble woman of beautiful character."
28.
For Caroline Herschel see note 47 below.
29.
Jane Bancroft Robinson (1847–1932) graduated from Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary in 1871 and obtained her Ph.D. in 1884 from Syracuse University. Her doctoral thesis, A Study of the Parliament of Paris and Other Parliaments of France, was published in the same year. She served as dean of the Woman's College and professor of French language and literature at Northwestern University, Ill., where she founded the Western Association of Collegiate Alumnae in 1883, which heralded the later American Association of University Women. Jane Bancroft made an extensive study of deaconesses, or women serving in the Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on whose behalf she exerted herself for many years and to whom she left her home in California. In her early forties, Bancroft married G. O. Robinson, a Detroit lawyer. She bequeathed $10,000 to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (NAW III: 183–84).
30.
Louisa Reed Stowell, M.S., was Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, and President of the Western Association of Collegiate Alumnae. She was a delegate to the International Council of Women, and read a paper in the session on education
(along with Ramabai herself) on 26 March 1888 (RICW 1888).
31.
Pauline Agassiz Shaw (1841–1917) was married to Quincy Adams Shaw, a wealthy and philanthropic Boston businessman. In Boston she revived the kindergarten movement started by Elizabeth Peabody and others in the 1860s; opened some kindergartens herself and supported others, some of which were taken over by the Notes to pages 178–180 257
Boston School Committee; and also started a number of industrial schools. Another of her well-known and highly successful innovations was the setting up of day nurseries for working mothers in the poor sections of Boston, to which she added evening classes in various subjects. She founded the Boston Equal Suffrage
Association for Good Government in 1901, and provided ¤nancial support to the weekly suffrage newspaper, the Woman's Journal (NAW III: 278–80).
Mrs. Shaw served as a trustee of the Ramabai Association from 1889 to 1898, and continued to be an of¤ceholder of the American Ramabai Association afterward. In her annual report of 1899 Ramabai expresses her gratitude to Mrs. Shaw
"for sending several wash-boards, washing tubs, iron stoves, and other things to help start a laundry" (American Ramabai Association 1899: 27).
32.
Elizabeth Rowell Thompson (1821–1899) contributed generously to the suffrage and temperance movements, out of the wealth left her by her husband at his death. In 1873 she developed an interest in scienti¤c research and gave $1,000 to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Elizabeth Thompson Science
Fund, which was independently set up out of her gift of $25,000, was among the ¤rst such endowments in the USA made for the advancement of scienti¤c research
(NAW III: 452–53).
33.
The Daily Inter-Ocean of Chicago published an interview with Ramabai in December 1887 (Sengupta 1970: 79).
34.
The organization was called the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Ramabai consistently drops the word "Christian," possibly in view of her Hindu readership.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed in 1874. Frances Willard became its president in 1879; she organized WCTU chapters in every state and increased its membership to over 200,000 (Deckard 1983: 264).
35.
See RICW (1888: 171).
36.
Yama, or Yamaraj, is the Hindu deity of death, and Yami is his twin sister.
37.
Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842–1906) graduated from the New York College of Pharmacy in 1863, received her M.D. degree from WMCP in 1864, and spent ¤ve years studying medicine in France. Her abiding interest in raising the standards of medical education for women led her to establish the Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women (later the Women's Medical Association of New York City), of which she was president for many years. She was a professor at the Woman's Medical College of the New York In¤rmary for Women and Children, and worked for many years as a physician at the New York In¤rmary, Mount Sinai
Hospital, and St. Mark's Hospital. Her essay won Harvard's Boylston Prize in 1876, and opened to her membership in several prestigious medical societies. Jacobi was among the earliest physicians to focus on the environmental factors related to illness, and took active part in the women's suffrage movement (NAW II: 263–65).
38.
This paragraph is based on RICW (1888: 95–97).
39.
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), an eminent physician and the ¤rst woman to graduate in medicine, was born in England and emigrated to the USA as a child, with her family. After being rejected by several medical schools, she was admitted to Geneva College in the state of New York, where she had to face a great deal of opposition and ridicule until she graduated in 1849. She opened a small dispensary for women in New York City, which she developed in 1857 into the New York
258 Notes to pages 180–183
In¤rmary for Women and Children, staffed entirely by women. She was assisted by two able women doctors, Marie Zakrzewska and her own sister, Emily Blackwell.
The in¤rmary provided medical training for women; it also served as a model for similar institutions. Elizabeth Blackwell was instrumental in forming the United
States Sanitary Commission in 1861, and selected and trained nurses for the commission. In 1868 she established the Woman's Medical College at the New York
In¤rmary, with high professional standards; the college functioned until the Cornell University Medical School began to enroll women students in 1899. She spent the latter part of her life in England, where she had a successful practice in London
(NAW I: 161–65; Flexner 1975: 119; Solomon 1987: 35).
40.
The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded at Boston in 1859 by Marie Zakrzewska, who had earlier worked with Elizabeth Blackwell
(NAW I: 163).
41.
This and the next two paragraphs describing women in law are based on RICW (1888: 174–79).
42.
Arabella Mans¤eld (1846–1911) was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1869, together with her husband, and became the ¤rst woman lawyer in the USA, although she preferred to teach rather than practice law (NAW II: 492–93).
43.
All four men were eminent lawyers, orators, and statesmen or political leaders.
Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847) and John Philpot Curran (1750–1817) were Irish; Daniel Webster (1782–1852) and Rufus Choate (1799–1859) were American (Chambers: 997, 357, 1903, 286). The original sentence from which Ramabai has taken these names reads as follows: "There has not been time enough yet for a woman to develop into an Erskine or Burke, an O'Connell or Curran, a Webster or Choate"
(RICW: 179). Characteristically Ramabai has omitted the names of the two famous British lawyers and statesmen: Thomas Erskine (1750–1823) and Edmund Burke
(1729–97) (Chambers: 465, 207–208).
44.
Mrs. Myra Bradwell (1831–1894) pioneered women's entry into the legal ¤eld in Illinois. During the Civil War she actively participated in the work of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission; she helped organize the Sanitary Fair in 1863. The publication of the highly successful weekly newspaper the Chicago Legal News was her own ambitious project, while she also, together with her lawyer husband, set up the Chicago Legal News Company, a printing and publishing ¤rm. She was one of the ¤rst women lawyers in the USA. Her application to the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1870 for a license to practice law was denied; she ¤nally won the right in 1873 after a protracted battle involving the United States Supreme Court. Bradwell helped to organize the American Woman Suffrage Association, and served as an of¤cial of that body and of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association. With her husband's support, she successfully lobbied several bills through the Illinois legislature.
These bills removed women's legal disabilities; for example, they gave married women the right to their own earnings, and gave a widow a share of her husband's estate (NAW I: 223–25; Flexner 1975: 122–23).
45.
This and the next paragraphs are based on RICW (1888: 134–36).
46.
There is no indication that Beethoven had a sister. Perhaps Ramabai confused him with Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), German composer, pianist, and conductor
(Chambers: 915). His eldest sister, Fanny (1805–47), also a gifted pianist and comNotes to pages 183–187 259
poser, published some of her works under his name (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8: 6).
47.
Caroline Herschel (1750–1848) assisted her astronomer brother Sir William Herschel and made independent observations. She discovered eight comets, several nebulae, and clusters of stars; and in 1798 she published a star catalogue. Her achievements were credited to her brother (Spender 1982: 83; Chambers: 665).
48.
This section is based largely on RICW (1888: 226–29, 242–44).
49.
This is a Sanskrit quotation; see chapter 5, note 45.
50.
The Bluestockings were a group of intellectual women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England whose association belonged to the private rather than the public realm. They included writers like Hannah More and the novelist
Fanny Burney. Given the contemporary ethos which denigrated women's intellectual and literary achievements, the word "Bluestockings" acquired the negative connotation of ridiculous mis¤ts (Spender 1982: 75–83).
51.
For Lucretia Mott see chapter 5, note 21. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) became interested in the anti-slavery and temperance movements at an early age, and was married to the reformer H. B. Stanton. Immediately after the wedding in 1840, she sailed with him to London to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention, from which women delegates were excluded. She formed a close friendship with another rejected delegate, Lucretia Mott, which was to result in the woman's rights convention held at Stanton's home town of Seneca Falls in 1848. The Declaration of Sentiments drafted for the convention by Stanton, on the model of the Declaration of Independence, started with the self-evident truth that "men and women are created equal," and listed women's legal and social grievances. The ¤rst public demand for suffrage by women was made at this well-attended convention. Stanton's association with Susan B. Anthony, another feminist of repute, was long-lasting and fruitful. Her address to the New York legislature, protesting against the legal disabilities of women, resulted in 1860 in married women being granted the right to their earnings and the guardianship of their children. She also campaigned for easier divorce, and for sensible and comfortable clothing for women. She wrote copiously for newspapers, and was an untiring and popular public speaker. In later years she was strongly critical of the gender inequality in religion, demanded equality in church matters, and published The Woman's Bible in two volumes in the 1890s, which created dissension within the women's movement (Flexner 1975:
71–77).
52.
This seems to be a misprint. Ramabai obviously means 1848.
53.
See chapter 2, note 6.
54.
Mary Ashton Rice Livermore (1820–1905) was a bitter opponent of slavery and helped General Grant's army with hospital supplies as well as fruit and vegetables during the Civil War. Her greatest wartime accomplishment was the planning and organizing, with Mrs. Hoge, of the women's Sanitary Fair in Chicago in October
1863, which raised more than $70,000 for the Sanitary Commission. Other major northern cities were inspired to hold similar fairs, and together raised over $1,000,000 for hospital and sanitary needs. Mary Livermore also served as president of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association and later of the American Woman
260 Notes to pages 187–192
Suffrage Association, editor of the Woman's Journal established by Lucy Stone and others, and ¤rst president of the Association for the Advancement of Women
(NAW II: 410–13).
55.
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), English hospital reformer, organized a nursing unit to care for the wounded during the Crimean War and strove to improve the sanitary management of hospitals. Subsequently she founded an institution in London for the training of nurses, and wrote Notes on Nursing (1859), which went through many editions. Nightingale received the Order of Merit in 1907 (Chambers: 989).
56.
This and the next paragraph are based on RICW, pp. 215–18. Sorosis was founded in 1868 by Mrs. Jennie C. Croly, a recognized journalist who was refused a ticket to the dinner hosted by the New York Press Club in honor of Charles Dickens' visit, because she (like other women journalists) did not belong to the Press Club
(Flexner 1975: 182–83).
57.
Here Ramabai seems to draw an implicit comparison with contemporary India, where the few women's organizations which existed were founded and managed by men—her own Arya Mahila Samaj being something of an exception.
58.
The New England Woman's Club was founded in Boston in 1868, the same year as Sorosis (Flexner 1975: 183).
59.
This paragraph is based on RICW (1888: 198–99).
60.
The American Equal Rights Association which resulted from the Woman's Rights Convention split in 1869 into the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association; their merger began to be negotiated in 1887 and ¤nally took place in 1890 (Flexner 1975: 155, 226).
61.
See Flexner (1975: 155).
62.
The Territory of Wyoming was the ¤rst to enfranchise women, in the late 1860s (Flexner: 163).
63.
In Manchester, "unmarried women householders were given the right to vote in local elections" in 1869 (Deckard 1983: 212).
64.
See Flexner (1975: 224).
65.
Ramabai does not mention her own contribution to the convention, acknowledged by Frances Willard: "Pundita Ramabai, in her white robes, was a central ¤gure, and her plaintive appeal for the high-caste Hindu widows, a memorable event in the convention" (Willard 1889: 416).
66.
Ramabai was present at the International Council of Women organized by the National Woman Suffrage Association at Washington, D.C., from 25 March to 1 April
1888, as mentioned in the introduction. The other delegates included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Clara Barton, Hannah Whitall Smith, Mary Livermore, Susan B.
Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Frances Willard. Ramabai delivered an address on "The Women of India" in the session on education on 26 March (RICW 1888: 12–18, 63–67).
67.
Ramabai has based this account on Mrs. Thompson's "Hillsboro Crusade Sketches" in Thompson, Willard, et al. (1906: 57–172), also reproduced (with slight variations) in Willard (1886: 50–79).
Notes to pages 193–203 261
68.
Its full name was the Woman's Temperance Crusade.
69.
Thompson's account, on which Ramabai relied heavily in this section, has been liberally used in this translation.
70.
This brief account has been literally translated by Ramabai in the text; I have quoted it here verbatim from Thompson, Willard, et al. (1906: 75–76) and Willard
(1886: 58–59).
71.
The leader was Mrs. Thompson herself.
72.
Ramabai gives this quotation in English (with a gist in Marathi); it is reproduced verbatim here.
73.
Mary Clement Leavitt (1830–1912) was a teacher, advocate of woman suffrage, and temperance activist who helped to organize the Boston WCTU. She worked as a temperance missionary within the USA. From 1884 to 1891 she visited Hawaii, New
Zealand, Australia, East Asia, India, Africa, and Europe; during this seven-year journey she established eighty-six branches of the WCTU and twenty-four men's temperance societies in various countries (NAW II: 383–85).
74.
See RICW (1888: 57–59).
75.
This is not historically accurate. Spain had been controlled by Muslims since the early eighth century a.d.
9. Commerce and Industry 1.
This subsection and the next are based on Carnegie (1886: 416–24).
This heading has been added. This subsection is based on Carnegie (1886: 428–35).
This section heading has been added.
See Carnegie (1886: 75).
This section heading has been added.
See Carnegie (1886: 231).
Among the titles bestowed by the British Government on eminent Indians were Raosahib, Raobahadur, Rajasahib (all three for Hindus), and Nawabsahib (for Muslims).
See Carnegie (1886: 237).
This heading has been added. The section is based largely on Carnegie (1886: 49, 52–
68, 301–3, 309).
10.
The Smritis are the ancient Hindu codes of religious law compiled by great sages, such as Manu, on the basis of tradition. The Manusmriti, or Code of Manu, is considered to be the most authoritative of these codes.
11.
Alaska was only a possession of the United States at this time. It became a territory in 1912 and a state in 1959.
12.
The actual Marathi words used here are, literally, "iron roads" for tracks and "¤recarriages" for trains; the latter word and a Sanskritized version of the former are still prevalent today. The two words seem to have been coined by Madgavkar in his account of Bombay (1961 [1863]: 29–30) and in his earlier book, published in 1858, whose title translates literally as The Marvels of Iron Roads (Malshe and Chunekar
262 Notes to pages 204–225
1970: 72–92). A Chinese visitor to the USA refers to the railroad train (which he rode for the ¤rst time in 1868) as a "¤re-wheeled vehicle" (Arkush and Lee 1989: 27).
13.
See Carnegie (1886: 285).
14.
The rest of the paragraph is based on Carnegie (1886: 96).
15.
Although Ramabai makes light of India's railroad network, the innovation had greatly impressed the previous generation of Bombayites. In his presumably eyewitness account, Madgavkar (1961 [1863]: 230–31) captures the excitement caused by the inaugural one-hour run of the "¤re-carriage" from central Bombay to a city on the mainland (twenty-one miles away) in April 1853. The day had been declared a government and business holiday, and thousands of locals and out-of-town visitors cheered as three steam engines pulled a string of "twenty large chariots" seating special invitees—Governor Falkland of Bombay, other British of¤cials, and the city's Indian elite. Madgavkar also reproduces a song composed for the occasion, to commemorate the advent of a new historical era.
16.
This description of waterways and railroads is based on Carnegie (1886: 274–75, 278–82).
17.
This and the next paragraph are based on RICW (1888: 138–39).
18.
The rest of this section is based on Carnegie (1886: 183–205).
19.
See note 11 above.
20.
The rest of this section is based on Carnegie (1886: 214–34).
21.
The factual information in this section is derived from Carnegie (1886: 241–70).
22.
Ramabai uses the word "rockel"—the then (and now) prevalent Marathi corruption of "rock oil"—which is now used alternatively with "kerosene."
23.
See Carnegie (1886: 3).
24.
This section heading has been added.
25.
The actual Sanskrit saying quoted here translates as "by any and every means; by breaking the pot, by tearing the cloth, by braying like a donkey."
26.
The idea is derived from Carnegie (1886: 109).
27.
The conspicuous consumption and meaningless extravagance (especially on wedding celebrations—of children and even pets) of the princes and the idle rich in India have been documented with a suitable critique by Madgavkar (1961 [1863]: 350–53).
28.
The amounts gifted by the philanthropists, as mentioned by Ramabai, do not tally with the amounts mentioned in DAB, which is used as a source here. There is no indication of the book to which Ramabai referred.
29.
For John B. Trevor, see note 35 below.
30.
William Wilson Corcoran (1798–1888), banker and philanthropist, was a resident of Washington, D.C. In addition to setting up the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Louise Home to support "gentlewomen in reduced circumstances," he made substantial donations to the Columbian (now George Washington) University, the University of Virginia, Washington and Lee University, and other educational institutions (DAB II: 440).
31.
Samuel Williston (1795–1874) owned several business enterprises and donated money to religious and charitable enterprises. He founded the Williston Seminary
Notes to pages 226–238 263
in Easthampton, Mass., in 1841. His endowments to Amherst College during his lifetime amounted to $150,000 (DAB X: 309–310).
32.
William Johnson Walker (1790–1865) was a successful physician who became a ¤nancier and made a large fortune in railroad and manufacturing stocks. His contribution to American education totaled about $1,250,000, and the bene¤ciaries were Amherst, Tufts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Boston
Society of Natural History (DAB X: 366).
33.
There is a mention of Annie McClure Hitchcock having provided funds for a men's dormitory at the University of Chicago in honor of her husband Charles, a founder of the Chicago Bar Association (<www.lib.uchicago.edu>).
34.
Henry Winkley (1803–1888) made a fortune in the crockery business, and divided it among several educational institutions, including Williams College ($50,000);
Phillips Exeter Academy ($30,000); Bowdoin College ($70,000); the theological seminaries at Bangor, Maine ($30,000), Andover ($45,000), and Yale ($50,000);
Dartmouth College ($80,000); and Amherst College ($30,000) (<http://www. virtuolology.com/henrywinkley/>).
35.
James Boorman Colgate (1818–1904) had a highly successful stockbrokerage in partnership with John B. Trevor, which was renamed Colgate & Co. in 1873. He was one of the founders, and for many years the president, of the New York Gold Exchange.
In 1873 he founded and endowed the Colgate Academy, which was merged in 1890 with Madison University (which he had earlier supported); the combined institution was named Colgate University in honor of his father. His total gifts to the two institutions amounted to more than a million dollars (DAB II: 298–99).
36.
John Price Crozer (1793–1866) was a cotton manufacturer, and had served on the Christian Commission during the Civil War. The Crozer Theological Seminary at Chester, Pa., was built in his memory by his family, who added $275,000 to the fund of $50,000 left in his will (DAB II: 579–80).
37.
The name mentioned by Ramabai transliterates as Sinnay. I have found no mention of a philanthropist of that name; the closest approximation is Cheney. Benjamin
Pierce Cheney (1815–1895) made his fortune in the express transportation service of which he was a pioneer. He left $50,000 to Dartmouth College (DAB II-2: 50–51).
He is also said to have contributed $10,000 in 1882 toward founding the Benjamin
P. Cheney Academy, which has eventually grown into the Eastern Washington University (<http://www.ewu.edu/new/alumni/IDStatement2002.pdf>).
38.
Benjamin Bussey (1757–1842) made a fortune in foreign trade and left it to Harvard
University. His bequest was estimated at $350,000 (<http://www.virtuolology.com/ benjaminbussey/>).
39.
Amasa Stone (1818–1883) was a railroad builder and capitalist involved in the construction of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad; the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad; and the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad. He gave $500,000 for shifting Western Reserve College from Hudson to Cleveland, and making it into an urban university (DAB IX-2: 70–71).
40.
Stephen Whitney Phoenix (1839–1881), a graduate of Columbia University, had inherited a large fortune. He left a collection of specialized books and a legacy of $15,000 to the New York Historical Society; and his general library of books, to be
264 Notes to page 238
known as "The Phoenix Collection," to Columbia with $500,000 for technical use (<http://famousamericans.net/stephenwhitneyphoenix/>).
41.
Cornelius Vanderbilt (1843–1899) was a ¤nancier from a wealthy family, president of the New York and Harlem Railroad, and of the Canada Southern Railway; and chairman of the board of directors of some other railroads. His gifts to Yale
(where all of his four sons studied) totaled $1,500,000 (DAB X: 173–74).
42.
Matthew Vassar gave over $800,000 to Vassar College during his lifetime (DAB X:
231). See also chapter 8, note 18.
43.
Jonas Gilman Clark (1815–1900) accumulated money by shipping furniture and other goods from Massachusetts to California, and in real estate. During the Civil
War he was prominent in the work of the Sanitary Commission. After visiting American and foreign universities, he founded Clark University in Worcester, Mass., in 1887. His total gifts to the university were $1,000,000—the largest amount given by any individual for education in New England up to that time (DAB II: 135–36).
44.
John Cleve Green (1800–1875) was a merchant engaged in foreign trade, and a ¤nancier in New York. During his lifetime he donated generously to the Home for the Ruptured and Crippled, and the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. He also made very liberal gifts to Princeton College ($500,000), the Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Lawrenceville School (DAB IV: 551–52).
45.
Isaac Rich (1801–1872), merchant, died one of Boston's wealthiest men. During his lifetime he gave over $50,000 to the Wesleyan Academy in Massachusetts and $150,000 to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He also left his whole estate
($1,500,000) to the new Boston University, which he had been instrumental in founding (DAB VIII: 548–49).
46.
For Francis Wayland Parker see chapter 6, note 10.
47.
Stephen Girard (1750–1831), merchant and ¤nancier, was born in France, went to sea at an early age, settled in Philadelphia in 1776 just as the Declaration of Independence was about to be signed, became an American citizen, and amassed wealth in foreign trade. Girard was a generous philanthropist: he left $300,000 to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; $500,000 to the city of Philadelphia; and $6,000,000 in trust to the city for educating poor white orphan boys. Out of this trust Girard College was established. He was the ¤rst private citizen of the USA to bequeath such a vast sum for the public good (DAB IV: 319–22).
48.
Johns Hopkins (1795–1873) was a merchant who made his fortune mainly from the newly started Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He left in his will $7,000,000, to be equally divided between the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital (DAB V: 213–14).
49.
Leland Stanford (1824–1893) was a railroad builder associated with the Central Paci¤c Railroad (as president and director), and intermittently with the Southern
Paci¤c Railroad (also as president and director). He founded the Leland Stanford
Junior University in Palo Alto, California, in memory of his only son who died at the age of ¤fteen; the university was opened in 1891. After Stanford's death, a gift of $2,500,000 was made from his estate to the university (DAB IX: 501–506).
50.
See Carnegie (1886: 296).
Notes to pages 238–239 265