A girls school in our village?

By Parvin Oet (eldest daughter of Mr & Mrs Ruprah)

What would girls do with an education? They had to get married have children and look after the house, these skills did not require reading and writing. Girls knew what their role was and teaching them to read and write would give them ideas above their station. Why would you want to change the order of what worked? The notion was ridiculous.

Harbans knew he had a battle on his hands. His father admired his son one of eight the first to go to University. The people of the village in turn admired his father for his eight sons and his big houses so if Harbans could persuade his father maybe the village elders would agree to opening a school for girls in the village. His father was a wise and gentle man and if Harbans could present a good argument Harbans knew his father would help him.

As he adjusted his turban, he was a handsome man strong and articulate and believed he could bring about this change. Harbans thought of his life in the city, the independence movement and the other students from all over India.

His village in the Punjab was just a tiny part of this enormous country but the villagers saws themselves as India and knew nothing beyond the village. It felt good to be home but at the same time he didn’t really belong anymore.

He sneezed; he had forgotten the dust, the sugarcane fields, the peace and stillness of his birthplace. Tonight would be time with the family, the huge meal that his mother and sister would cook but not eat with the men folk. He wanted to change that why should the men folk eat first? Why couldn’t they all eat together? This was the way it had always been. His mother and sister ran towards him as they saw him walking to the hawili.

The next day Harbans got up at the crack of dawn to walk with his father to the fields. It was still cool and pleasant and his father wore a white Kurta and Pyjami and walked tall he was proud to be walking with his son who would soon be a lawyer. The village was bustling with farmers going to the fields and their wives going to the well. The colourfully dressed woman chatted together but the young girls looked down as they passed him and covered their heads. Harbans avoided looking directly at them but as he looked down he could see the pretty anklets that some of them wore. He walked quietly with his father.

It’s wonderful that you sent me to university he started “So many people believe that the new independent India will need educated people.”

“Yes Independence.” Santa Singh looked thoughtful. “Do you think the British will leave India? They are in the middle of a war and I don’t think they are thinking about us at all.”

Harbans looked surprised, He didn’t know that his father knew about the war the British were fighting. Even for him it seemed so far away and all his thoughts were for the new independent India. 1943 was a year of possibilities.

“We shall need educated girls too and I’m afraid there will not be enough for our free India.” He continued. “I was thinking we could open a school for girls in the village. It would be a patriotic act.”

Santa Singh stopped, “Our village girls in a school!” he exclaimed, “I can’t see our girls being interested in such a thing, certainly their parents will not allow it!”

It was very much as he had feared, but this was only the beginning of his argument.

“But father,” he argued, “you know the value of education. People listen to you. I’m sure you could talk to the others.” Santa Singh smiled at his young son’s confidence. “I’ll think about it.” he replied. He trusted Harbans and did indeed reflect on it. Santa Singh had travelled outside of the village to earn money for his family and had seen that life for women was very different outside of the village.

The next two weeks were busy. Harbans was in the fields every day with his father and brothers. The brothers were not against a school for girls but didn’t help him in the conversations he had with their father on the subject. He loved them but they were not what would call progressive.

The village elders listened to Santa Singh respectfully but equally respectfully they refused to even consider the idea of a girls school. On seeing the disappointed look on his son’s handsome face Santa Singh suggested they open a small school and send the girls in their own family to study. The girls would have to obey. Harbans agreed hoping that the example would persuade other families in the village to send their girls to the school. They sat on the beds in the courtyard late into the night talking about their plans. The mosquitoes buzzed around them but Harbans did not notice them, his mind was working overtime to find solutions. He knew it would work and there soon would be a girls school not only for the girls in their own family but the village and the neighboring villages.

A few months later the small school opened in one of his father’s houses. A young widow was found in the village that agreed to come every day to the village to teach the 5 girls who had been ordered to go to school. The wages of the teacher were paid for by his father.

Eventually the new schoolgirls stopped complaining and started to like their lessons but no new girls joined them. The people of the village considered the school an eccentric or even a dangerous idea.

Harbans did not despair. He got his friends in the local towns newspaper to put in some personal matrimonial ads where educated girls were demanded in marriage for highly educated men. He knew that every parent in India was obsessed with his or her child’s marriage. The village elders could not read of course but Harbans knew that they often asked somebody to read the local paper to them during their informal meetings. It took a couple of weeks. At first the ‘reader’ did not notice the ads, he was more interested in the quit India movement or the local town gossip. He only noticed a few weeks later when his eye fell on the ads by chance. Surprised he mentioned the ads to his wife who then talked about this strange phenomenon to the women at the well. The villagers started to worry, how were they going to find good husbands for their girls?

The young girls wondered if they would be allowed to go to school. Majinder and Jaswant were the first to speak about their desire to go to school.

Their father would not even consider it. “But father, Santa Singh’s family…”

The girls protested but their father had already walked out of the room.

Majinder was angry she would go to school and learn to read. Her pretty face frowned in concentration she pulled at her long plait and finally she put her blue cotton chunnni on her head and decided to go and see Pritti Santa Singh’s niece and ask her about the school. She crept out of her parent’s house and crossed the street to Pritti’s house.

Strangely Pritti was not making rottis but curled upon the bed writing. Her face and hands were smudged with blue ink and her eyes were fixed on a book covered in strange lines. Majinder was impressed; she had never even held a pencil in her hands. Pritti looked up.

Hello! Have you heard about the ads in the paper? She said jumping straight into the subject “It’s strange I never heard of such a thing.”

Majinder sighed, “Yes well, you are going to get an education but who will want an illiterate girl like me!”

Pritti chewed the end of her pencil “I suppose your father doesn’t want you to go to school” Majinder nodded. Can I look at your book?” she asked. The reading book was simple, without pictures and it seemed to Majinder that learning to read would be impossible. Pritti said that they had to think of an idea to persuade the reluctant parents. The girls put their heads together and started to plot.

The next morning on the way to the village Majinder said loudly to her sister “I heard that people are saying we are to too stupid to learn to read and write.”

“If Santa Singh’s family can learn we can too!” cried Jaswant.

What are you shouting about? Asked their mother. “People think we are stupid and can’t learn to read.” Jaswant started to cry. The mothers looked worried, they had busy lives and no time for thinking, they obeyed their parents and husbands. They also loved their girls. Were their girls stupid they asked themselves. There was no other subject of conversation that morning.

The evening came early and the men sat down wearily to eat, happy to relax their aching muscles. They saw their wives hovering over the meal instead of serving them and going back to the kitchen. They all heard about the fears of their daughters being branded as stupid. They were bewildered. What had got into these women?

There was only one subject of conversation that week. Majinders father Balwant Singh was astonished at the debate, he did not join in the debate until his advice was sought. So much was changing he wasn’t sure what was the right or the wrong thing to do anymore.

The girls in his extended family were all in school and he found it handy to have the girls read to him and to be able to dictate letters to his sons. The men were not convinced but the sullen expressions on the ladies faces began to wear them down. Majinders father was the first to give in. The two girls joined the school and were welcomed with open arms. The other fathers resisted at first but could find no reasonable arguments.

Harbans came back in April and of course went to check on the little school.

To his astonishment there was nobody in the classroom. Saddened He turned away and started to walk back. Then he heard the giggling and the chatter of girls. The voices were coming from the courtyard he peeked round the corner

All the village girls were sitting cross-legged with their reading books in front of them.

Harbans and Santa Singh never did understand why the parents had changed their minds but were proud to live in a village where there was a school for girls.

As the numbers of the girls increased the other parents within the village decided to help the school grow. They collected donations and extended the rooms of the school. The school built up an excellent reputation and students came from surrounding villages and became a government run school.

Almost 70 years later the school is still standing. Harbans loving wife has kept his memory alive. It is fitting that she has done so as she was the first educated lady in the village. It is now a mixed school and with over 600 students this is a testament to what started with one young mans vision. Equal opportunity for both girls and boys something, which was unthinkable at that time. In memory of Harbans his wife on his death opened a trust at the school which helps students who cannot pay their fees.

In 2011 when she went back to the village the headmaster fondly told the story of when Kirpal first came to the village and didn’t cover her head. All women covered their heads out of respect for elders but Harbans absolutely refused to allow her to do so. People came from other villages just to see her. Kirpal remembered those days and how the rest of the family found it so difficult to understand why Harbans and Kirpal used to shared a their meals in a thali together. Harbans not only wanted to eat with his wife but share his food with her. How strange it all seems now.

She was a strong educated woman, a testament to what education and hard work and ambition can achieve. An ideal role model for future graduates of the school, even at 80 plus. The school, which 70 years ago was the symbol of progression and modernity, is now within a country with a potentially bright future.