Women in the New Asia: The Changing Social Roles of Men and Women in South and South-East Asia by Barbara E. WardReview by: Cora Du BoisJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 85, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1965), pp. 605-606Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/596744 .

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Reviews of Books 605

India's political progress lay in the orderly exten- sion of such western institutions of government, which could best be achieved by 'constitutional' methods of agitation-in other words by speeches and petitions. He also accepted and actively pro- moted western ideas of social reform. Tilak had no liking for western institutions or social re- forms and no faith in constitutional methods, which he termed 'political mendicancy.' Instead, he sought to increase the popularity of the nation- alist movement by introducing religious sym- bolism and urged that Indians should cease to co-operate with foreign rule. Gokhale became a respected member of government committees, but Tilak was twice imprisoned for sedition. Yet it was Gokhale, not Tilak, whom Mahatma Gandhi hailed as his guru.

Professor Wolpert adds to our detailed knowl- edge both of Tilak and of Gokhale by the use that he has made of contemporary sources. He also throws fresh-and sometimes critical-light on Tilak's character and career. He shows, for ex- ample, how Tilak in his early days in the Deccan Education Society would threaten to resign when- ever he could not have his way-thus foreshadow- ing the split in the Congress in 1907, when Tilak led his extremist group out of the party for nine

years, after unsuccessfully challenging the mod- erate leadership. As Gandhi recognised with ap- proval, Gokhale thought the means as important as the end, while Tilak considered that there was no room for such scruples in a struggle for power. On the other hand, Gokhale's conduct in the 1907 crisis still needs further explanation. There is also room for further study of his relations with Morley. Perhaps Professor Wolpert will now go on to make a detailed study of these matters. His treatment of the historical background to his sub- ject is competent, except for a few points of de- tail. Thus, the educational controversy of the Bentinck period was finally decided in 1835 not 1834, and the real point at issue was not so much the teaching of western knowledge as the use of the English language as the medium of instruc- tion. Cautious students may also be startled by the assertion that the absence of an expression for ' thank you' in Marathi is a reflection of 'the laconic characteristics so typical of the Maharash- trian people.' But this is a useful and stimulating book.

KENNETH BALLHATCHET

ORIENTAL INSTITUTE,

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Women in the New Asia: The Changing Social Roles of Men and Women in South and South-East Asia. Ed., BARBARA E. WARD.

Pp. 529, 16 pis. UNESCO, 1963. $10.00.

This reviewer confesses to having approached the present volume with reservations. Books about women, and especially of such a populous and heterogeneous area, run the risk of being trivial and solicited compilations of this sort are usually uneven in quality. Dr. Ward is to be congratu- lated for having avoided both of these pitfalls. Her extension of the subject matter into questions of changing roles for both men and women, her own excellent introductory summary (Part I., 74 pp.) and her judicious choice of contributors have raised the book beyond the level one expects of such enterprises.

The heart of the book is in Part II where 17 citizens of 11 South and South-East Asian countries have contributed 19 articles. The

papers on each country are introduced by a small map and a few orienting facts on area, popula- tion, recent history, citizenship, religious and family practices. Many of the authors have written biographical and frequently frank but ob- jective statements of their own families. These statements are of necessity written by modern, privileged and distinguished Asian women. The impression left from such case materials is cor- rected by more macro-social summaries for some countries, by synoptic studies of peasant groups, by the editor's introductory survey and by three articles in Part III on the history of female emancipation and of population characteristics. This balance between biographical data, micro- synoptic articles and macro-social summaries in which changing roles and values are stressed gives this book a worth and interest for which this re- viewer was unprepared.

However, I must join the editor in stressing that, " We are not writing for academics or offi-

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606 Journal of the American Oriental Society 85.4 (1965)

cials; we are simply hoping to interest ordinary people, men and women in the West . . ." (p. 13). This is therefore a book that will have little interest for the readers of this journal unless they teach undergraduate courses for which they wish to assign supplementary readings of this type. A further use might have been possible: an intro- ductory reading for those young women who inevitably suggest term papers on the role of women in country X. Unfortunately the " Sug- gestions for Further Reading" (pp. 527-529) is so meager and often poorly chosen that this vol- ume provides minimal guidance for such young students.

Having said this much about the book as a whole I should like to say a little more about Dr. Ward's excellent introductory essay. With rare lucidity in a modern social scientist she presents the idea of social roles and status, including those

which are incompatible and mutually exclusive; she defines complex societies in terms of the greater number of roles available to people; she discusses the normative in relation to change cor- rectly rejecting "westernization" as explanatory. Dr. Ward then gives a brief but trenchant ap- praisal of a series of factors that are affecting changes in South Asian nations ranging from modern medicine through political emancipation. Finally she sketches the impact of such factors on traditional institutions, particularly on the family and kinship, pointing out problems of compati- bility, or noncompatibility of these changes in respect to traditional roles. In a very few pages Dr. Ward has written a small gem of an essay whose clarity, good sense and perception deserve separate reprinting and distribution.

CORA DIi Bois HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Perintis Sastera. By C. HOOYKAAS. Terdjemahan Raihoel Amar Gelar Datoek Besar (Pustaka Bahasa dan Sastera). Pp. xv + 477 pp. Kuala Lumpur: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1965. M$. 11.50 boards). M$. 15.00.

This volume, roughly translated " Literary Pathblazer," is a Malay adaptation of the Indo- nesian language version of Literatuur in Maleis en Indonesisch (Groningen: J. B. Wolters) which appeared in 1952. The author and compiler is a renowned scholar in Malay and Indonesian studies with numerous important publications on the Balinese, Indonesian, Javanese and Malay litera- tures. For some years he has held the post of Reader in Old Javanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and prior to this spent a number of years in teach- ing and research in Indonesia.

In preparing the Indonesian edition for use in Malaysia, the spelling has been changed to con- form with current Malay orthography. Some phraseology has been changed here and there in the text, but the major change, and a most useful one, is the expansion of parts of the first section to include data on recent Malay literature and the replacement of some selections in the earlier edi-

tion by additional and more up-to-date Indonesian writers and by the inclusion of modern Malay writing.

The volume is divided into three major parts, the first entitled " Pemandangan " (1-111) or short essays on seventy-seven literary topics or aspects of literature with Malay and Indonesian literary examples. Part II is called " iimpunan Jkhtisar " (115-184) or descriptions and discus- sions of the selections from the older literature found in Section B of Part III. The final part (III) is headed " Petikan " or " Selections " and is divided into two sections: A. Dari Zaman Moderen (187-321) and B. Dari Zaman Dulu (321-477) or "From the Modern Period" and "From the Older Period."

This volume is a fine introduction to the litera- tures of Malaysia and Indonesia and it will un- doubtedly prove to be a very useful survey text for the Malay secondary school as well as for the teacher training college. Like any anthology there will be differences of opinion about the selec- tions but in the reviewer's judgment the choices are quite good for the older period and ably selected for the later period.

JoHn M. ECHOLS CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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