It has been well said that no Western should attempt to make any general statement about inscrutable India; the most he can venture to say is, that “in certain places certain things which he saw may possibly have been what he thought they really were.” The present volume is therefore based upon appearances which may or may not have represented reality, upon conversations with Government officials, missionaries and Indian friends, who kindly gave of their leisure to a stranger, and upon the study of Government Reports. Where any generalization has been made, the writer trusts it will be taken with the reservations which a very brief residence in the East renders needful. If the book help the women of the West to realize how critical is the present evolutionary period in the education of the women of India, especially in its relation to constructive Christianity, it will not have failed of its purpose.

My thanks are specially due to Miss Richardson and Miss M’Dougall of Westfield College for aid in revision, to many friends for their unstinted help, and to the Faculty of Advocates for the use of their Library. M. G. C. +EDINBURGH+, _July 1912_.

To the G. A.

XI. +CONCLUSION+ 244

+BIBLIOGRAPHY+ 253

+INDEX+ 254

Illustrations

A Parsi Girl _Frontispiece_

OPPOSITE PAGE

Government Examination of Girls, Calcutta 52

Girls at St Luke’s Mission, Toungoo, Burma 62

Ghurka Girl Boarder at S.P.G. Girls’ School, Mandalay 68

A Hill School, Eastern Bengal 80

High School Class, Eastern Bengal 90

Four Scholarship Girls. United Free Church Mission School for Hindus, Calcutta 120

Standards I. to IV. United Free Church Mission School for Hindus, Calcutta 126

The Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow 136

C.M.S. Middle School, Amritsar--Hoop Drill 142

The Alphabet Class, Nasirabad 156

The University Settlement Students’ Hostel, Bombay 208

Ludhiana School of Medicine--Hospital Court Yard with Patients 216

Statistical Tables

TABLE CHAP. PAGE

I. Management of Girls’ Schools. All India II. 48

II. Classification by Race or Creed. All India II. 49

III. Management of Girls’ Schools. Burma III. 65

IV. Classification by Race or Creed. Burma III. 70

V. Comparative Figures. Bengal (Footnote [82] reference) V. 107

VI. Management of Girls’ Schools. Bengal V. 108

VII. Management of Girls’ Schools. United Provinces VI. 132

VIII. Management of Girls’ Schools. Bombay VIII. 168

IX. Classification by Race or Creed. Bombay VIII. 169

X. Classification of College Students IX. 197

XI. Diagram of University Courses IX. 204

APPENDIX

PAGE

A. Matriculation Course 250

B. Teachers’ Certificates 251

C. Growth of Female Education in India 252