The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c6.76

c6.76

Let us now survey the state of female education during the last 700 years. During the Muslim rule the percentage of literacy among Hindu women went further down with a great rapidity. Rich and cultured families were as a rule ruined by the new political revolution; they were no longer in a position to make special arrangements for the education of their daughters. Some new Hindu families also no doubt rose to eminence with the rise of Islam, but their number was generally small and they did not, as a rule, possess sufficient culture to induce them to take active steps for the fostering of education among the girls of their households. The daughters in Rajput and Nair families could read and write; the same was the case with Jain nuns, who were generally in a position to read their own scriptures. These, however, were exceptional cases. Ordinarily only prostitutes and dancing girls could read and write. The decline of literacy among women was so marked and rapid that by the beginning of the 19th century hardly one woman in a hundred could read in Madras and Malva. In the former province in 1826 A. D. only 4,023 girls were attending schools as against 1,57,664 boys. According to the then population of the presidency the percentage¹ of girls receiving some kind of education was only ½. It may, therefore, be stated that at the advent of the British rule female education had practically disappeared from Hindu community. Nay, it was regarded as a source of moral danger, if not as an actual vice, since only dancing girls could normally read and write. In their families the old tradition to teach reading and writing to the new generation was continued.