Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/503

 God that this Association might soon produce such women as I have described above.

PLACE OF LITERARY EDUCATION We have now discussed the root cause of the degeneration of our women and have considered the ideals by the realization of which the present conditions of our women can be improved. The number of women who can realize those ideals will be necessarily very few and therefore, we will now consider what ordinary women can accomplish if they would try. Their first attempt should be directed towards awakening in the minds of as many women as pcssible a proper sence of their present condition. I am not among those who believe that such an effort can be made through literary education only, To work on that basis would be to postpone indefinitely the accomplishment of our aims ; I have experienced at every step that it is not at all necessary to wait so long. We can bring home to our women the sad realities of their present con- dition without in the first instance giving them any literary education. Woman is the companion of man gifted with equal mental capacities. She has the right to participate in very minutest detail in the activities of man and she has an equal right of freedom and liberty with him. She is entitled to a supreme place in her own sphere of activity as man is in his. This ought to be the natural condition of thing and not as a result only of learning to read and write. By sheer force of a vicious custom even the most ignorant and worthless anen have been enjoying a superiority over women which they do not deserve and ought not to have. Many of our movements stop halfway because of the condition of our women, Much of our work does not yield

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