‘Light, Courage, Love’

Celebrating Kinnaird’s ‘Century of Empowering Women’

The publications celebrating a centenary of any institution are rare (like individuals, institutions that make it past the three figures are indeed few and far between). And in its very nature such publications are celebratory and presumptuous. Of course, to be 100 and counting is something to brag about in itself!

Kinnaird on its centenary has come out with a twin volume, collectively worth about a whopping 600 pages of rich visual and written content. And it matches the above description to a tee. Presented in a tough hard-card case, both volumes are in deep burgundy brown with lettering either embossed or quite fittingly in shimmering gold. The first, titled ‘Kinnaird, 1913-2013’, traces the college’s rich history. The second, titled ‘Light Courage Love – A Century of Empowering Women,’ is a summation of the Kinnaird motto that must have been crafted when it started as a fledgling: ‘Light to guide us, Courage to support us, Love to unite us”, and for the most part through their updated profiles contains a citation of its alumni, most having blossomed into ladies of reckoning in diverse fields.

Ms Rukhsana David, a distinguished educationist and presently Kinnaird’s principal has described it as a “monumental treatise”.

In her brief but precisely worded opening piece, Ms David waxes eloquent: “What you are holding in your hands is a narrative of Kinnaird’s century of existence as a pioneering educational institution for the women of Pakistan, from its earliest years to the coming of age and thence to recognition and prominence.”

For the casual reader, there might be a hint of exaggeration here, but the outsiders cannot really appreciate the feel of a place like Kinnaird, set up early in the twentieth century at the zenith of the Raj, in 1913 with just six students enrolled – a part of a process that “began to change women’s education” around here.

With Kinnaird barely into its thirties, and having moved to its present Jail Road abode from Empress Road in 1938 and some expansion having already taken place, the partition happened at a point in time when Lahore was one of the most cosmopolitan cities not just in these parts but the whole of sub-continent. With the Pakistan standard in their hands, the Kinnaird girls led the huge 1947 Independence Day procession in Lahore. The grainy, sepia-tinted picture bordered with gold is there in the book, as are so many other memorable ones from that period.

But more importantly, Kinnaird retained its liberal multi-religious moorings both in faculty and student enrolment. After the partition when its principal Ms Isabella T McNair (1928-50) retired, Miss Priobala Mangat Rai (1950-69), who was elected as principal-elect in 1947 took the reins. Retaining this liberal ethos along with progressively high educational standards when most other first rate institutions in our neck of the woods were sinking into mediocrity and below, was no mean achievement. The trauma of nationalization was again a setback. But by then the inimitable Dr Mira Phailbus (1972-2004, 2005-8) was in-charge. And with, as the book mentions, with attributes of ‘perseverance and determination with diplomacy’, she saw through those turbulent times until in the mid-1980s the government generously undid the wrong and removed its yoke.

The good thing about ‘Kinnaird: 1913-2013’ is all these events are chronicled with honesty, in a matter of fact style. Such as without really indulging in the politics of nationalization in the early 1970s and denationalization in the mid 1980s, the rapid growth spawned afterwards, to the coming of age that culminated in Kinnaird’s evolution into a degree-awarding university in the 1990s.

The legend of Kinnaird, in a nutshell, is a pretty engrossing one.

Having emerged self-confident, proud and triumphant from the many inevitable challenges – and going strong with a Centenary already behind it, only someone who has been from within, who is intimately aware of the place and what it means to so many excellent ladies who have been part of this institution par excellence – whether they be faculty or alumni, or perhaps even those women and men who were there to tend to affairs that fell in the realm of mundane – can truly bear witness to its magnificence.

To quote Dr Mira Phailbus, one of its longest serving principals who remained at the helm in its most eventful years in living memory, from the foreword of the first volume: “As you go through this book, you will read of the struggles, the heart breaks, worries and challenges of persons who were determined to provide the best possible education and facilities for women… As you turn the pages and browse through the book, it will also be fun to recognize persons and recall events of the time when you were a part of the College. There is a timeline for everyone”.

Here, she has said it. A timeline for everyone!

This is a gift of association, the one you take away as an alumni as well as a teacher – and it stays with you for the rest of your days. There are so many fabulous and famous women who have passed through the portals, and so many have stood out in so many walks of life. Bapsi Sidhwa, a stand-out amongst the stand-outs, has recounted the romance of Kinnaird in a poignant piece in the second volume, ‘My blissful days at Kinnaird’, while Sikandera Mir too has with great emotion and nostalgia penned, ‘Chariot of Dreams’.

Priced rather steeply at Rs. 8,000/- (but, one has to understand, the cost of publishing these days has gone through the roof), the double volume is solely distributed by Readings Lahore. But this is not a mere book, it’s a memento, a commemorative that but for those who have either had a direct association with the prestigious women’s college or by extension would find it worth the investment

Written, edited and produced by Samar Batool Shah Gardezi, with exceptionally stunning graphic design and sleek printing on high quality art paper ticks right all the hallmarks of a classy publication, make the twin volume indeed an unabashed celebration of Kinnaird as a premier women’s institution in this part of the world.

Agha Akbar is Editor, Op-ed, Pakistan Today.