Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/54

42 the conclusion that she could best help her country-women, not by taking up the higher education in high schools and colleges, but by founding native schools, where the poorest, the most helpless, and the most oppressed members of society, the young widows, could find a home and learn how to gain a respectable livelihood independent of their families. Herself a high- caste widow, she determined to devote her life, her boundless energy, and her rare intellectual gifts to the task of educating and enlightening other high-caste Hindu widows. And this she determined to do apart from all questions of religion.

Although a true Christian herself, she felt convinced that no good, but rather harm, would ensue from making the acceptance of Christianity by the young widows a condition of their admission to the Home she had determined to establish. From her own personal experience, she felt sure that many suffering and down-trodden Hindu widows, the very ones perhaps who most needed her help, would not come to such a home if they were obliged to give up their own religious customs or were compelled to study the Bible.

Missionary homes and schools already existed for those who would use them; but Ramabai's aim was to provide a refuge for those who would not, for such orthodox women as, unable to bear the cruel