HPB-SB-14-72: Difference between revisions

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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|What was wanting in number and spirit at the political meeting…|14-71}}

Mr. Sinnett’s concluding observations displayed Theosophy to the best advantage. Read side by side with the contents of his ''Occult World'' these remarks will offer a significance of their own.

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Having recognised her worth so far, we are anxious that Ramabai’s friends should not ''overdo the thing''. We are inclined to believe that much of the ''eclat'' with which the Pandita was greeted last week was due to idle curiosity. There is little of genuine appreciation in this ‘enlightened’ city of ours, and the scramble made after the Sanskrita was, honestly speaking, more owing to the novelty of the thing than otherwise. There are ‘public’ men in Bombay who are always on the look-out for strangers to lionize and to make capital out of. Now in this case a good deal has been done which cannot commend itself to sober spectators. Taking into consideration the age and the sex of the lecturer, we would advise her friends to be a little more guarded. A Hindu lady addressing unequally mixed audiences—with males five or six times out-numbering females—is not a sight to harmonise with the instincts of the people, and not likely therefore to popularise efforts of the kind in future. To be brief, it is ''improper'' as it does not consult the fitness of things. A shrewd observer like Mr. Kabraji, who knows the state of society here too well, who knows that Bombay society is not like society in the mofussil, will best appreciate our advice. We think so many gentlemen at the meeting improvised by him were out of place—at any rate they ought to have come with their ladies. The excuse may be that the latter could not have appreciated a lecture in Hindi. But for obvious reasons that is no excuse. As it was, most of the English gentlemen and the native ladies could not have followed the Pandita. There was another meeting after that, almost entirely composed of men, we are told, which poor Ramabai had to address! We would strongly advise Ramabai’s friends to keep her away from such audiences. If she is to be utilised as a power, she will work best as an invisible power. Let her remain for a few years in Mrs. Mitchell’s charge. It would be a misfortune if Ramabai were to be, after all, a brilliant failure for purposes of practical reform. The tendency appears to be to that end, and it must be checked in time. Let wealthy native gentlemen place her above want—let them create a lectureship if they like; but Ramabai’s work should be for a long many years more of a private character and confined to the presence of her own sex.

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