LOGIN DASHBOARD

    Photo Essays

    3 MIN READ

    Reading under the candlelight

    Nepal Picture Library, November 19, 2018, Kathmandu

    Reading under the candlelight

      Share this article

    A glimpse into the history of women's education

    (The Record)

    The tyrants of our past treated the culture of literacy and learning, reading and writing, as dangerous. For women, too, participating in progress and democracy meant in the first place being literate, having opinions, and becoming part of the world of letters.

    Women’s education is an important part of feminist history, perhaps even the most important for the quiet and dramatic ways in which it transformed everyday life. To pursue education, Nepali women had to go against the common wisdom that saw girls’ education as an aberration, a waste, or even a threat to social order.

    Feminist pioneers in Nepal all emphasized education as the key to overcoming women’s subjugated position in society. From the middle of the twentieth century, circumstances began to change and women started attending schools and colleges in ever-growing numbers. Teaching in schools also became the most significant route for women to begin their professional lives. This series brings together some glimpses of the past that capture the outward surge of girls and women through the life of study and learning. It also shows how schools uniquely fomented a collective experience for women.

     

    Date: 1965  Kathmandu, Instructor and students at Padma Khanya College.

     

    Date: 1965 Location: Tansen, Palpa Description: Elementary school girls at Education Day celebration in Tansen.
    Date: 1966-1967 Location: Banepa, Kavrepalanchok Description: 8th class girls of Azad High School
    Date: 1975 Location: Butwal, Rupandehi Description: Primary teacher training seminar at the primary school.
    Date: 1975 Location: Butwal, Rupandehi Description: 4th (?) class girls of the Lower Secondary School.

     

    Date: 1975-02-24 Location: Kathmandu. Description: Girl scout on the street on Coronation day of King Birendra.

     

    Kathmandu | 1982
    Friends Anita Pradhan, Yaso Kanti Bhattachan, Rabina Vaidya, Ratna Baba Tandukar, and Jayanti Gurung during their Bachelor’s Convocation at Dasarath Stadium.
    Yaso Kanti Bhattachan Collection/Nepal Picture Library

     

    Kathmandu | 1972
    Sulochana Manandhar and Astalaxmi Shakya among other students of Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Girls’ College. Started in 1961, RR Campus offered classes in the Humanities and Social Sciences only in the morning shift to accommodate women with busy domestic and professional schedules.
    Sulochana Manandhar Dhital Collection/Nepal Picture Library

     

    Syangja | 1983
    Laxmi Karki with Draupadi Gurung and Durga Gurung, who became close friends while living as tenants in Syangja to prepare for the SLC exams. All three were active cadres of communist-influenced All Nepal Independent Student Union from young age.
    Laxmi Karki Collection/Nepal Picture Library
    Jhapa | c.1993
    Adult women pick up pen and paper to become learners and gain literacy in a multi-generational setting.
    LACC Collection/Nepal Picture Library

     

    Kathmandu | c.1935
    Chandra Kanta Devi Malla, known as the first “guruama” of Nepal, with other instructors and students. At the time when public education was seen by the ruling elites as perilous and women’s school unheard of, Chandra Kanta managed to convince the Rana government against the odds to let her open a girls’ school in Makhantole.
    Chandra Kanta Devi Malla Collection/Nepal Picture Library

     

    Date: 1969 Location: Chautara, Sindhupalchok Description: Student with her books and a teacher with Shree Krishna Ratna High School in the background.

     

    Date: 1967-05
    Location: Silgadhi, Doti
    Description: Students standing “at ease” in the courtyard of the school; waiting for the celebration program to begin.

    [Feature Image: Kathmandu | 1972

    Sulochana Manandhar and Astalaxmi Shakya among other students of Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Girls’ College. Started in 1961, RR Campus offered classes in the Humanities and Social Sciences only in the morning shift to accommodate women with busy domestic and professional schedules.

    Sulochana Manandhar Dhital Collection/Nepal Picture Library]

    These images are part of the ongoing Feminist Memory Project, which were under exhibition during Photo Kathmandu.

    :::

    We welcome your comments. Please write to us at letters@recordnepal.com.


     



    author bio photo

    Nepal Picture Library  Nepal Picture Library is a digital photo archive run by photo.circle that strives to create a broad and inclusive visual archive of Nepali social and cultural history, and has collected over 70,000 photos from various sources across Nepal.



    Comments

    Get the best of

    the Record

    Previous Next

    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Books

    9 min read

    An archive of consonants

    Shambhavi Basnet - April 29, 2022

    Many of the poems in Itisha Giri’s new collection are dedicated to women, talk about women, and diagnose how women occupy the pages but have not been allowed to occupy similar spaces in society.

    The Wire

    Photo Essays

    5 min read

    Women for women

    Nepal Picture Library - November 18, 2018

    A photo story on the history of women's rights activism

    The Wire

    5 min read

    Disappearance of the alu-chop girl

    Poonam Rauniyar - May 5, 2018

    In rural Madhes, a success story comes undone

    COVID19

    News

    4 min read

    Covid19 Roundup, 8 April: Covid19 kit procurement, NA-APF hospitals ready for emergency, and blood shortage

    The Record - April 8, 2020

    A daily summary of Covid19 related developments that matter

    Perspectives

    13 min read

    One hat to rule them all: the dhaka topi and the subjugation of minority cultures in Nepal

    Bikash Gupta - January 10, 2021

    While nationalists celebrate the hat as a symbol of a ‘unified’ Nepal, Madhesis and other marginalised groups regard it as a symbol of oppression and forced assimilation

    Features

    5 min read

    Take us home: detained workers’ plea to Nepal from Qatar

    Roshan Sedhai - April 8, 2020

    Inside Qatar’s deportation centre, migrants detained under woefully harsh conditions

    COVID19

    News

    3 min read

    Daily Covid19 Roundup, 2 April: A new Covid19 case, rage over DPM’s rash remarks, & testing starts outside capital

    The Record - April 2, 2020

    A daily summary of all Covid19 related developments that matter

    COVID19

    News

    3 min read

    Covid19 Roundup, 19 May: Kathmandu Valley seals border and paid testing to be made available

    The Record - May 19, 2020

    A daily summary of Covid19-related developments that matter

    • About
    • Contributors
    • Jobs
    • Contact

    CONNECT WITH US

    © Copyright the Record | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy