The problem of this study is to trace the emancipation and education of women since 1829 and to determine the factors that have shaped the course of this development and directed its trends. Before the Moslem conquest, which brought the Purdah system, child-marriage, polygamy and divorce, the Hindu woman's status had changed from equality to men to complete slavery. The factors that have influenced the present emancipated status of women, more political than social and economic, are the influence of English education and the efforts of Christian missions. Three developments are important in the modern period: 1) the influx of female Christian missionaries from 1819-1854; 2) a government policy of grants-in-aid to voluntary associations, from 1854-1884; and, 3) from 1884, the government's more direct share in girls' education, Gandhi's granting of suffrage and encouragement of feminine social participation, and the British cultural stimulation of Indian reformers. Although education has not reached the masses of India, when it does, it will bring social and economic emancipation, increase woman's understanding of the world, and, through her family steering, educate the entire nation. (Author/DJB)