ABSTRACT
Daughter of a prominent Unitarian minister hi Bristol who was the most significant influence on her life, Mary Carpenter (18071877) was a notable example of the 19th-century English spinster who dedicated her life to philanthropy and social reform (Banks, 1985, pp. 46-48; Carpenter, 1974; Manton, 1976; Prochaska, 1980; Schupf, 1974). She was unusual in that she had received a rigorous, classical education with her brothers so that she might assist in a family-operated schooL While teaching, the angular, frail Miss Carpenter had her first contact with India when Raja Rammuhan Roy, the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, a rationalist Hindu reform group in Bengal, came to visit her father in 1833. Her admiration for Roy and her view of England's mission of salvation in India are expressed in some sentimental sonnets, which she wrote after Roy's unexpected death in Bristol that same year. According to Carpenter, England was
Far from thy [Roy's] native clime a sea-girt land/Sit thron'd among the nations; in the breasts/Of all her sons immortal freedom rests;/And of her patriots many a holy band/Have sought to rouse the world from
the command/Of that debasing Tyrant who detests/The reign of truth and love. At their behests/The slave is free! and Superstition's hand/Sinks powerless. (Carpenter, 1974, p. 33) India was to remain a shadowy concern
for three decades while Carpenter pursued a career as a social reformer that focussed on the needs of destitute children who crowded urban streets in England as industrial development created social problems beyond the capacity of older social institutions to solve. She became noted for ragged schools for underclass children, reformatories for delinquent children, and a crusade for reforms in the penal system. During the 1860s renewed contacts with Indian male social reformers, most notably a Christmas in 1865 shared with three Hindu students, including Monomohan Ghose, a member of the Brahmo Samaj then in England to compete for the entrance examination of the Indian Civil Service (ICS), revived her interest in India (Carpenter, 1868, Vol. 1, pp. 3-4). Krishna Lahiri has also argued that Carpenter was experiencing personal despondency and was looking for new fields of endeavor during these years (1979, pp. 20-22). On January 8, 1866, the 59-year-old reformer confided to her diary:
Heavenly Father! by tokens drawn from the marvellous workings of Thy providence, I believe that Thou has destined for me the unspeakable privilege before leaving this world, of going to our distant India, and there working with the spirits of my beloved father and the noble Raja for the elevation of woman, and perhaps also for the planting of a pure Christianity. (Carpenter, 1974, p. 245)
Her emphases are significant: On guidance from her father and Rammuhan Roy and on women first and Christianity second. The Englishwoman wanted to assist Indian men such as her recent guests who sought to change some social conditions for the women in their own class, but she also implicitly accepted the ethnocentric views of British officials and Christian missionaries that the "degraded** position of Indian women was a major indication that Indian civilization ranked below that of the enlightened British.
