Sikh educator; pioneer of girls' schooling at Ferozepur
Bibi Harnam Kaur
Bibi Harnam Kaur was a pioneer of girls' education in the Singh Sabha period. With her husband, Bhai Takht Singh, she built up the girls' school at Ferozepur that became the Sikh Kanya Mahavidyala. She passed away at twenty-four, in 1906.
Early life
She was born Jiuni on 10 April 1882 at Chand Purana, a village in Ferozepur district. Her parents were Bhagwan Das and Ram Dei. Her father became a follower of an Udasi sadhu at Ferozepur and later took over as head of his dera, and she and her mother joined him there while she was still an infant.
The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says she read widely in the religious texts before she was six. She went to a local Arya school to learn Hindi, but left after six months because it did not teach Gurmukhi. She then spent some years at Daudhar as a pupil of Bhai Dula Singh.[EoS]
The girls' school
Bhai Takht Singh ran a Gurmukhi school at Ferozepur under the local Singh Sabha, and he offered to open one for girls. The Sabha was reluctant to let an unmarried man run it. Her parents overcame the objection by promising him their daughter's hand.
The Kanya Pathshala opened on 5 November 1892, when she was ten, and she joined it both as a pupil and as a paid teacher. She was betrothed on 11 October 1893 and married on 8 May 1894. When she received the rites of the Khalsa on 15 July 1901 she took the name Harnam Kaur.
The couple's pay from the Sabha was modest, at Rs 6 a month for her and Rs 8 for him. They left its service on 1 September 1900 after disputes in the management, and went on teaching privately.[EoS]
The Sikh Kanya Mahavidyala
Early in 1903 she persuaded her husband to open a boarding school for girls with him, and parents offered to send their daughters. The school, the Sikh Kanya Mahavidyala, started work in March 1905. She taught there, and she also managed the food and lodging.
She started a women's religious society, the Istri Satsang, which met on Wednesday afternoons, and a group of preachers. She passed away on 1 October 1906.
This page rests on the Encyclopaedia's entry, which cites two Punjabi biographies published in 1907 and 1908. Those biographies have not been read for this page.[EoS]