AVTAR MOTA
MISSION SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS IN SRINAGAR
“O Janab idhar se kidhar gusta hai . Idhar Parvez Sameul Kaul Sahib nahin hai. Woh baahar gayaa hotaa hai. Aaj school bandh hai. ” said the gate keeper when I entered the Mallinson Girls School from Amirakadal side or from the main gate of CMS Tyndale Biscoe School . For going to Mallinson Girls School , I had surely to enter from the Forest Lane Gate.
And now something about this school that pioneered female education in Kashmir.
The credit for promoting female education in Kashmir should go only to missionary ladies like Miss Violet Fitze ( She started first Girl’s Primary School at Fateh Kadal in Srinagar city in 1912 although the Missionaries had started educating girls in a small two-room school opened at Fateh Kadal in 1895) and Miss Mallinson who joined this school in 1922 as principal and served till 1962. Miss Mallinson left Kashmir in 1966 or 1967 and went back to London. In fact she was more familiar in Kashmir as most of her Girl students rose to key Positions in different walks of life. She was tall, graceful and could speak fluent Kashmiri. She returned to Kashmir on a private visit in 1973 . During this visit , she was publicly felicitated By Miss Mehmooda Ahmed Ali Shah, her student and the then principal of Women’s College , Maulana Azad Road, Srinagar.
Long back I was informed by an elderly Kashmiri Pandit from Fateh Kadal locality that both Pandits and Muslims in Kashmir had opposed modern female education initially. The missionary ladies faced many difficulties in spreading girl education in orthodox Kashmiri society . One particular incident that he talked about is worth mentioning over here .
When the Missionaries found that rolls were not picking up in the Girls School, they decided to invite some European ladies as guests for a prize distribution function inside the two room school at Fateh Kadal , Srinagar , thinking this shall encourage more girls to come to the School. When the guests arrived , a shopkeeper outside the School shouted in chaste Kashmiri that Englishmen had come to kidnap Kashmiri girls.Hearing this the people from the locality assembled outside the School building and advised the girls to run for safety by jumping from the windows .When the guests entered ,they found no student in the School.
Miss Mallinson was always seen on her bicycle in the Srinagar city . Sometimes purchasing groceries from the Bazaar , sometimes visiting her sick students and sometimes addressing groups of women about hygiene and cleanliness. She was always busy and thoughtful about how best she could contribute towards spreading education among girls in Kashmir. She stayed at Sheikh Bagh where she would be seen washing clothes, cleaning her room and cooking her own food. She is reported to have personally visited most of the localities in the downtown area and addressed women against child marriage and superstitions. And she is singularly responsible for introducing swimming, dancing and mountaineering in the Mission School and taking the girls out for camping and trekking something unusual and daring during those days . In 1938 and 1940, the Kashmiri girls scaled Mahadev peak ( 13000 feet ) under her guidance only. All credit goes to this lady for adding a large number of educated women to Kashmiri society. Fateh Kadal School finally shifted to Sheikh Bagh in 1962 and is presently known as the Mallinson Girls School.
Miss Mallinson had told her close friends that after her death her skeletal remains should go to the School laboratory . She would often say this :-
“ My dear girls ,may you learn more from me when I am no more .My bones are meant to teach you physiology ”
And this pious lady died in June 1984. Can we emulate her ? Not so easy because Urdu poet Dr.Kaleem Ajiz from Patna writes ….
Ishq har shakhs ke bus ka nahin pyare jao
Yeh samandhar hai kinare hi kinare jao
Yuun to maqtal mein tamashaai bahut aatein hain
Aao uss waqt ki jis waqt pukare jao.
Koyi rasta koyi manzil ussay dushwar nahin
Jiss jagah Jao mohabbat ke sahare jao
Avtar Mota is a bloger and writes for local and national papers and magazines
