Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/57

 may be some day, when the Indian feminist movement has done its perfect work. India has three hundred millions of people, of many races and of many tongues, of different religions and of various castes. These facts make the solution of the woman question, as of all questions in India, a highly complex and exceedingly difficult matter. Many thousands of women, who might otherwise strive for a larger opportunity and a wider outlook for themselves than the zenana affords, are kept humble and bound by those interested in keeping them so, who threaten them with loss of caste and consequent loss of future happiness if they come into contact with infidels and aliens.

Others, notably the Parsee women, upon whom this fear does not rest, are appalled at the difficulty of the task in front of them. Nevertheless, Indian women of culture, who have gained the necessary qualifications, can enter a profession which is entirely closed to the women of this country. The habit of secluding their women and forbidding all strange men from entering the women's quarters, or the zenana, has made it difficult for women to engage the services of a lawyer in their interests; and for this reason it has been permitted to women to become lawyers that they may act on behalf of their own sex.

The British Government has forbidden the Rh