That Eurasian

by Aleph Bey

I found that it was the custom of the people after their evening meal to assemble in front of the school-house at the chibutra, the areopagus of India villages, when the teacher and older scholars would read aloud the papers and books that I had sent them. Questions were put, and various were the discussions, with more courtesy and order than in the British Parliament, when the Irish bill is to the front. These assemblies became so popular that every man, woman and child in the village would be present, not one left to guard a house, for why should there be a guard, when all were at the chibutra?

The women had their right to half the space, and well they claimed and kept it. Woe to the wight who dared intrude upon their side. I greatly enjoyed this assertion of rights by the women. I have always been foolish enough to believe that a woman is as good as a man, everywhere and at any time, and most of the time a great deal better. She has her rights and should demand them, even if she has not as much coarse brute muscle as the self styled lords of creation. From my little reading and observation I have come to the conclusion that the moral and social status of a nation, a tribe or individual, is seen by the way they treat their women. If a man, or rather a male of the human species, acts like a hog towards a woman, he is a hog in other respects. I mistrust that this word is not a polite one to use, and that it would be as bad to say hog before some fastidious people, as it would be to say hell in church. But when I mean hog why not say it, and surely I have seen hog bipeds, as well as hog quadrupeds.

I cannot help throwing in a suggestion. If I, now an old man, should give any advice to a young woman, about to accept a man for a husband, it would be to see him often with his mother and his sisters, and observe his treatment of them. His murder will out to them, when he would be all smiles and graciousness to women outside his home. In his home he is off his guard, and there is the place to judge these slippery men.

As long as the people of India keep their women in ignorance and seclusion, England need have no fear of holding the country in subjection. Liberty, patriotism and the higher moral traits of the human race were never born of men, but of women. Was it not the mother of the Gracchi who bade her sons go forth and conquer in battle or be brought home dead on their spears? That was also the spirit and patriotism of the Spartan mothers that made a place in history for their nation. Was there ever a great people, but had its grand women, its noble wives and mothers? The people of India think they know a great deal, but they are far from having learned this first great principle, the great secret of a nation’s freedom and civilization, the education and elevation of women. I may be mistaken in this as I am in so many things, yet I see no reason why I should not say the best I think on the subject.

I do not know when I acquired this regard and reverence for women. I think they must have been implanted by Mr. Percy to grow with my years. I know of so many traits in my thoughts and life, that in after years I saw I got from him unconsciously, not that he taught me directly, but rather that he impressed upon me by his conversation and example. It was an education to walk and move beside or in the company of such a man, to absorb something of his character and goodness. Ah! that grand man, so pure and good! What would he have been without that noble mother of his! He fairly worshiped women as God’s best gift to men, and he could no more have harmed a woman than he could have blasphemed his Maker. I have often thought that a man who respects and reverences women can scarcely go wrong in a moral sense.

I was greatly pleased with the position the village women had taken, and with their spirit of inquiry. They were my best hope in the permanent prosperity of these people.

I was allotted the place of honor at the chibutra. There was no one to move that I take the chair, or to ask for a vote of thanks at the close of the meetings. They had not come to imitate the babus in aping the customs of the English. There were more questions put than ever dreamed of in Parliament, but with this difference, none were asked to gain time, or to waste time, or to perplex the Ministry or the chair. They applied their inquisitive pumps to me, as if I was a never-failing well of knowledge. The women, too, had their questions, mostly about the women in Wilayat, how they lived and did, a very good sign. During all these evenings I gave talks on all sorts of subjects, making them practical, as well as interesting. Once I talked on gossip and slander. I suspected that there were several women whose tongues hung as loosely as a clapper in a bell.

The next day several matronly women met me, and said they were very glad I had talked about women quarreling, as there were some guilty of it. All this may be called trifling matter, not worth mentioning. Yet, what to great people would seem trifles, were to these simple people great affairs. They were not in society, could attend no operas, clubs, or fashionable parties, had few books, knew nothing of the great life of the world, and were better for it, so the little things would make their lives happier, and would lift them up from the earth, above the brutes, and raise them toward God, and fit them for a better eternal life.

I am convinced that if the simple, ignorant people of India were shown how to better their condition, no people on earth would be so ready to act. Theories will not reach them. They, like all people in their grade of life, are materialists; they want to see with their own eyes—results. They can reason upon what they see and feel, or better, upon what they eat. I have been told by an educated, English gentleman, that most of the common people or voters in England, were guided more by their stupid bellies than by their brains, how much more so these people? I might have talked and persuaded all my life, and they would have remained just what they were, and would have continued doing as their forefathers did centuries ago, but when they saw me spending money in support of my theories, they became interested, and when they saw results, they were convinced. All the people in India are the slowest in the world to make experiments or engage in anything that they do not comprehend or see a profitable solution.

It appears that when the tram-car was first proposed for Bombay, not a native would invest in it, though begged and urged to do so. As soon as they saw it was a paying concern they clamored for shares, and felt wronged that none were sold to them. A Parsee complained to me that he had been hurt by the refusal.