The circumstances of the women folk were extremely worst. They were additionally facing suppression in the hands of males in the family and outside. It was essentially a male dominated society which had made it impossible for a woman to come out of the home and join a school or visit a place of learning.
Prior to the arrival of modern education in early 1900s, the name of Molvi Rasool Shah stands firm as the most influential person within the realm of religious education through his Islamia school where many of future leaders were once students including Sheikh Abdullah.
Nevertheless, Kashmiris are highly indebted to christian missionaries who did monumental work to introduce modern education and extra curricular activities. Two names emerge who had understood the clamour of the people to seek modern education – Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe for establishing a school for boys and Ms. Mallinson running a school for girls. Both properties were located in close neighbourhood at Fatehkadal.
The school for boys was housed in a sizeable structure belonging to Shahs, a well off family, and the owners for the school for girls were the highly revered spiritual family of Sahibzadas at Fatehkadal. Both families had to face ire of the society for leasing out their properties to Christians. Such type of effort of the missionaries had failed earlier. Several books and chapters have been written about Biscoe whose selfless contribution in the field of education will always remain in-grained on the minds of Kashmiris. The school’s logo ‘In all things be men’ speaks volumes.
Accordingly appropriate space has been given to women education in this series of tidbits.
During 1912 a bold, educated and far sighted lady namely Ms. Fitze with her team succeeded and started all exclusive girls school at Fatehkadal. Subsequently Ms. Mallinson took the charge and dedicatedly served till 1961. She worked untiringly and produced amazing results. She was a soft mannered sensitive by nature, silent in behavior and had understood nuances of Kashmiri society, writes Dr. Gulzar Mufti aptly in his book “Kashmir in Sickness and in Health.” Both became permanent ingredients of Kashmiri social fabric.
Ms. Mallinson was a lady remarkably extraordinary. She had a tremendous convincing power and would converse in ‘broken Kashmiri’. Pedaling a cycle, she would enter into Kashmiri homes and convince parents to handover young girls into her charge. She was always persuasive and her magnetic personality was her additional asset. It was this great lady who introduced Kashmiri girls to extra-curricular activities and sports. As the luck would have it, Mallinson’s legacy was carried forward by Ms. Girgan, another iconic figure.
As is true for any great leader, Ms. Mallinson’s did not succeed in implementing her vision alone. Her efforts were made possible by a few seemingly ordinary ladies with extraordinary resolve.
I feel proud to mention here that my mother Atiqa Begum spent here entire life as a teacher in Mission School, Fateh Kadal-Sheikh Bagh. Before she joined the school her elder sister Kulsum Begum also served as teacher in the same school but unfortunately died at a young age. Lo and behold their mother Mahtab Begum (My maternal grandmother) had also worked in the same school. She was teaching Holy Quran and Islamic education and that is why she was fondly known as “Otan Ji” (Perhaps distorted adaptation of Khatoon Ji or due to inadvertant phonetic decay.)
Left to Right: Nazira Ji, Fatima Ji, Atiqa Begum, Hajira Ji, Aisha Ji
An elderly woman who would run a ‘madrasa’ type institution with limited purpose of imparting education of Holy Quran and its recitation. Mostly they would do this work without any remuneration. Ms Mallinson was extremely talented and capable woman with tremendous organizational skills. She knew as a Christian missionary how difficult it was to convince parents to permit their daughters to seek modern education. She quite intelligently formed a team and introduced innovative methods to run the school. It is worth mentioning that middle certificate was issued in those days by Lahore university. To start with she introduced a few ‘Shikaras’ (boats) to collect girls from designated places on river Jehlum banks and drop them later in the day at the same places. She had selected discretely about half a dozen men who would do all the assigned jobs dedicatedly including peddling of boats or accompanying girls in small groups to their respective residences. Jamal Joo was at the top of the list. The remaining were Mohammed Joo (Peon & Chowkidar), Ismail Joo (old), Ismail Joo (young) etc. They were the real heroes.
Likewise, over a period of time, Ms Mallinson slowly and steadily collected the following as teaching faculty.
Note: Let me admit here that these details are penned down purely on the basis of memory. Therefore there is scope and space to add further names and details.
Shankar Pandit and Ms Lane (English), Mrs Baqal, Mrs Menon (Science), Ms Palen (Drawing & Art teacher), Kulsson Begum, Atiqa Begum, Fatima Ji 1, Fatima Ji 2, Munira Ji, Nazira Sahaf, Hajira 1, Hajira 2, Hajira 3, Fatima 2, Rahti 1, Rahti 2, Rajbi, Mrs Mohni. Because of multiple name sakes and removing any confusion numerical numbers were suffixed with the names.I feel previleged to have seen almost all these faces personally as a boy.
Photo Source: Ms Mallinson (Google Images), Biscoe (Wikipedia), Mallinson Teachers (Private Collection)…
… To be Concluded in part 4
Kashmir Tidbits 