Quakers in India (review)

58Quaker History Margaret Bacon finds that central to this integration is Lucretia Mott's spiritual awareness which tested all religious and moral beliefs by her own experience of the Light. This way of knowing gave rise to an "inner economy" which allowed Lucretia Mott to avoid activities and problems which merely wasted energy. There was also an "instinct for self-nurturing" which made it possible for Mott to bear severe criticism, periods of illhealth , and considerable grief and questioning. She seems always to have been supported by her belief in progress (if only humans would take care to observe and understand the intent of God and the laws of nature) which allowed her to be open to voices more radical than her own and able to hear her critics without rancor. She was sustained throughout all of this by her serious engagement in the day-to-day affairs of providing food, lodging , affection and joy for those within view. In keeping with the form of Quaker biography, which lays out a lifepattern to encourage emulation, and contemporary scholarship about women, which stresses understanding rather than "praising famous women," Margaret Bacon's portrait of Lucretia Mott serves a useful purpose. It is instructive to see that there can be a very real compatibility between the private and public sphere—not just for women, but for men as well. There is, however, a tone missing which simply affirms the radical quality of Lucretia Mott. I shall insert in my copy of the book the following quote by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, protege, colleague and friend: I found in this new friend a woman emancipated from all faith in man-made creeds, from all fear of his denunciations. Nothing was too sacred for her to question, as to its rightfulness in principle and practice . "Truth for authority not authority for truth," was not only the motto of her life, but it was the fixed mental habit in which she most rigidly held herself. It seemed to me like meeting a being from some larger planet, to find a woman who dared to question the opinions of Popes, Kings, Synods, Parliaments . . . When I first heard from the lips of Lucretia Mott that I had the same right to think for myself that Luther, Calvin and John Knox had, and the same right to be guided by my own convictions, ... I felt at once a newborn sense of dignity and freedom; it was like suddenly coming into the rays of the noon-day sun, after wandering with a rushlight in the caves of the earth. From "Eulogy" at Washington National Women Suffrage Association, Jan. 19, 1881 in Hutory of Woman Suffrage, Vol. L, Stanton, Anthony & Gage. Guilford CollegeCarol Stoneburner Quakers in India. By Marjorie Sykes. Winchester, Mass.: Allen & Unwin, Inc., 1980. 169 pp. Paper. $12.95. Marjorie Sykes has added an important chapter to the existing Quaker histories. Her book should be read not only by those who have some special interest in India, but by all who care about cultural understanding in today's world. As her story unfolds, we become increasingly conscious that the several Quakers who lived in India had to come to terms with a culture Book Reviews59 that was alien in many ways, but which was deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of the Indian people. Perhaps Friends have not had to face this problem so acutely in any other part of the world. Other recent books, especially Ormerod Greenwood's three volumes of Quaker Encounters, have shown how widely Quakers have spread themselves during their three centuries; but Greenwood has paid most attention to the official activities of Friends who have travelled or lived abroad with the support of some Yearly Meeting or other body of Friends. Marjorie Sykes has discovered that, especially in the nineteenth century, a number of Friends lived in India as teachers or journalists with no official Quaker recognition or support; but in most cases they did what they could to present what may fairly be called a "Quaker witness" to the Indian people. The majority of these western Friends, who spent some years in India, were from Britain. The British were conquering India, and from an...