Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/70

58 tion, To the unknown God: whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you'? I must say that those missionaries who begin to denounce in strong language, good and bad equally, whatever is said in Hindu religion, gain nothing by it, because they themselves are ignorant of what is said in the religion of this people whom they go to teach, and hence arouse the indignation of the people, who have great love and reverence for their ancestors and their ancestral faith."

This, indeed, is what seems to have happened in the case of Anandibai Joshee, and though in later years she was fortunate enough to meet with many missionaries whose zeal was more wisely tempered by discretion, and from whom she received valuable assistance, yet her experience in Bombay was never forgotten, and was referred to with mingled pain and anger.

In 1881 Gopal Joshee was transferred to the Post Office in Calcutta; but here neither he nor his wife were at all happy or comfortable. The damp, enervating climate is very depressing to most people who are not natives of Bengal, and both the Joshees suffered in health, while it was with the greatest difficulty that they could procure the kinds of food to which they were accustomed. The social manners and customs also were quite different from their Mahratta ones, and when Anandibai walked about in the