Educator who gave the Capital a new model, left an indelible mark
Rajni Kumar has passed into an eternal spring dale. But the Springdales Schools that she founded in Delhi shaped, educated and nurtured hundreds of thousands of girls and boys over the decades. And each of them carry a bit of Rajni in their minds and hearts. Because Springdales was more than a school, it was place for developing creativity, thinking humanity, loving science, making art.
In Rajni’s Sprindales morning assemblies are the songs of Indian nationalism, studies are student-teacher interactions, art is self-expression, sports is team work, activities are what you want to be. Moreover, you get to know the world-- the world of liberation, of the global South, of the ideas of progress and humanism. And you get your best friends and your favourite memories.
That was Rajni, born in England as Nancie Jones, a student of the London School of Economics who met and loved an Indian student Yudhishter Kumar when they were both 23.
Yudhishter suddenly left England in the middle of his studies. She followed him to India only to discover that he was in a sanatorium in Shimla as a TB patient. She tended to him till he was well, and soon became Rajni Kumar.
Her first assignment in 1950 was in Salwan School. When Rajni left Salwan School, Yudhishter encouraged her to start a little primary school in a rented house in Patel Nagar in 1955. Patel Nagar was then a sprawling refugee colony. Springdales became part of rebuilding the future of the second generation of refugee children. It was here that these children were introduced to spoken English, to express ideas freely, to learn the rigours of education.
But Rajni was more than an educator; she worked with the pioneers of the progressive women’s movement, was a supporter of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, of the struggles of anti-colonialism. All of which were suffused into her students. She engaged with the literacy movement in Delhi and enthusiastically supported the ‘economically weaker section’ of students.
Rajni was awarded the Padma Shri in 2011.
Many across the world remember Rajni and thank her for making them who they are today. But most of all, the institutions she created and the ideas imbued here continue to be nurtured by her daughter Kiran Jyoti and her team, who carry on this stupendous work.
Professor Anuradha Chenoy, former dean, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, is an alumna of Springdales School