A chronicle of women's education

Time of India

3 days ago

Guwahati: In late 19th-century Assam, the socio-educational scenario for women was unimaginable different from today. Women were restricted to their courtyards and household work.
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Although school education began in the then undivided Assam for boys by the British and missionaries, women's education was a distant dream in the state.
While some women from respectable families received domestic education, formal learning in schools was nearly non-existent. Historical records note the establishment of the region's first girls' school at Sadiya with the initiative of Mrs Brown in 1839, as documented in contemporary diaries and educational histories.
This marked the earliest formal step toward girls' education.
Despite deep-rooted societal challenges, a group of local education enthusiasts in Guwahati (then Gauhati) founded a lower primary girls' school in Panbazar in 1883.
It began with just seven students, gradually upgraded to a middle school by 1897, and reached high school status in 1926. Initially named Panbazar Girls' High School, it became a higher secondary institution in 1986 and is known today as Panbazar HS School.
Chaya Das, principal from 2013 to 2017, has had a 46-year association with the school — first as a student from 1965, then as a teacher from 1979. She recalled, "At the time of its inception, there was no girls' high school in lower Assam. I read somewhere that the school began in a small house at the place now occupied by Mohendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital." Her mother, Bimala Patowary, had appeared for matriculation exams — a rarity in an era when child marriage was common and women's education was still a distant ideal.
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The school's transformation gained momentum when Assam's first woman graduate, Rajabala Das, joined as a part-time honorary teacher. Though offered the principal's post in 1926, she declined it, with retired Cotton School headmaster Hem Chant Sen taking the role.
Rajabala Das, in her work "Three Score Years and Ten – One Life, Many Memories", mentioned her strong will to improve the school for the cause of women's education.
She and Sen raised funds to build new facilities and acquire a school bus to bring in students from distant areas. Das became headmistress in 1935 and served until 1947. She also founded Handique Girls' College — the first women's college in Assam.
Chaya Das said Rajabala Das made all efforts for the overall development of the school, personally visiting homes to encourage and inspire girls to enrol. "Experts from different fields were invited as resource persons for workshops, and special summer classes were held for 12th grade students," she added.
During World War II, the school building was occupied by British allied forces. However, the school was temporarily shifted to Rajabala Das's house. Among the school's distinguished alumni are novelist Nirupama Borgohain and Sudakshina Sarma, renowned singer and sister of legendary Bhupen Hazarika.