At first, when British colonization spread throughout the East, there was a dominant focus on economic profit. However, a gradual wave rose within the British Empire and other European countries that these Eastern Countries were in need of Christian saving and it was their responsibility to do so. Missionary organizations began popping up in various locations in Asia, all promoting the word of their God. The focus of these missionary trips as well as the missionaries themselves for a time was only men. Educating women was not a pressing need for the missionaries for they saw that educating the native men would spread the word faster and encourage their families to convert. It was also difficult for the male missionaries to gain access to the native women. All this changed with the begining of the nineteenth century with a rise of European women becoming involved with missionary work. With these female missionaries also came a focus on educating and Christianizing the native females.
The Baptist Missionary Society was the first to establish a school for native females in 1820. After this first intial step, many other all female organizations were established. One such organization was the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, an organization comprised only of females and dedicated only to native females. Reverend David Abeel, an American missionary established the society out of England in 1834. He believed the missions weren't completley effectient due to the lack of Christianizing attention given towards native females in the East. Abeel brought together a number of Christian women from different demoninations and proposed his idea to them, which was readily accepted. The Society for Promoting Female Education in the East was thus established. Although they had male supervision, the females had a large say in their missionary work. They had their own committee ran by 24 women, a vice president, and a president. These female missionaries were sent out to various locations such as Egypt China, Singapore, and India. At first, China was their main priority, but the women soon felt that India should be given equal attention due to the responsibility they had for it since it was under British rule. The goal of the society was to "bring the pupils to an acquaintance with scriptural truth, and to a belief in Christ their savior" (Society, 7). However, this goal was largely unsuccessful.
The society's reasoning behind only focusing on females, especially young orphans were that the adult males were too set in their evil practives to convert to Christianity. They had many failed attempts as examples to support this claim. Convertig females, however, would allow for Christianity to take place in their future household and spread for generations because fo a women's influence. They also put a heavy emphasis on "developing the personality of the women in Inda" (Srivastva, 737). This personality was the western ideal of femininity that the missionaries wanted the natives to adopt. The missionaries set up various schools for women and taught them the basics of scripture and incorporated the Zenana system into their schools. This system was used to transform the feminity of the native women by giving them a moral education with a focus on virtues such as, "obedience, patience, and chastity" (Srivastva, 741).
Although a missionary organization, their goal of transforming the Indian women in to the ideal western image of femininity soon becaem their primary focus. The schools that were established "were percieved as removing the outcaste women from a "useless" and "dirty" heathen environment" (Gupta, 667). Many of the society's members recounted practices they saw as terrifying and wished to remake the women in the goldy European image. The society was partly successful in, "the spread of education but was a dismal failure in terms of religious conversion" (Gupta, 667). Many of the female missionaries work in India became restricted as tensions rose in the area. Many Indian women had a "fear of conversion to Christianity " which thus utlitmately , "prevented the women in India from acquiring education in Missionary schools" (Srivastva, 742). The Society for Promoting Female Education in the East showed the Christian savior attitude the British Empire had adopted in regards to its colonized territories. They saw themselves as spreading morals and light to places where evil, savage practices were carried out. However, in the case of India and other Eastern countries, their efforts were only partly successful and succeeded in creating more tensions and alienating the converted natives from both cultures.
Sources:
48th Report of the Society For Promoting Female Education. (1883). Adam Matthew, Marlborough, Empire Online, /http://www.empire.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Details/48thReportofthesocietyforpromotingfemaleEducation
Society for Promoting Female Education in the East. History of the Society for Promoting Female Educaton in the East. London: Edward Suter, 1847. October 4, 2006. https://archive.org/details/historysocietyf00eastgoog.
Gupta, Charu. "Intimate Desires: Dalit Women and Religious Conversions in Colonial India." The Jouranl of Asian Studies 73, no. 3 (2014): 661-87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43553340.
Srivastava, Gouri. "The Christian Missionaries: The Evolution of Female Education in Western India, 1857-1921." Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 52 (1991): 737-43. http://wwww.jstor.org/stable/44142695.
Picture: Cover Page from Society For Promoting Female Education in the East. History of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East. London: Edward Suter, 1847. October 4, 2006. https://archive.org/details/historysocietyf00eastgoog.
One thing we talked about often this semester was the British Empire working to 'save' Africans whether that be through missionary work or other ways. I found it interesting to learn from your presentation that this was not limited to Africa but was evident in many other British colonies, even places like India where there already was a religion in place with a strong following. Did you come across anything in your research that discussed what it was like for females to be missionaries? Did they have different relationships with the natives than male missionaries?
This was a very interesting research project. It gave a new perspective of the impacts of colonialism. I can see both sides of benefits of educating women, especially since they probably did not have that access before, but also forcing beliefs onto innocent children is controversial. This topic goes along with what we have been learning throughout the semester in our class about the British thinking the are superior and everything they do and believe is the ultimate goal. Their "holy" role in the world and spreading God's word. Great work!