Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/20

SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. non-proselytizing basis, of which the Bethune School in Calcutta was one of the earliest and the Victoria High School at Poona one of the most advanced and successful. So rapid, indeed, has been the development of female education in India, that the Indian universities actually threw open their' degrees to women before any English university did so. The University of Madras threw open its degrees to women in 1876, Calcutta followed in 1878, and it was not till 1879 that the University of London accorded them the same privilege.

But although schools for girls are among the most successful means yet tried for elevating the characters of Indian women, it must be remembered that they touch but a very small proportion of the vast number who require teaching. Among respectable families no married woman is allowed by custom in most parts of India to attend school, and as girls are generally married at eight or nine years of age their school days are cut short just as they are beginning to profit by them.

It is for this reason that the employment of lady visitors to the zenanas forms such an important part of all schemes for women's education, and especially of missionary work; and to these zenana teachers have been due the first rays of light and hope brought into many a dark home.

In 1866 Miss Mary Carpenter, after a visit to India,