It is better to light a candle
The beautiful city of ours Lucknow is endowed with many splendid buildings. Many of them bear the stamp of history and its great heritage. On Kanpur road, stands ‘Literacy House’, which has a unique claim, not for being an architectural wonder but for its unique simplicity.
‘Literacy House’ was the result of the dream, passion and endeavour of an indomitable woman who established it to fight against illiteracy in India and made Lucknow her home. It is a place of pilgrimage for the people who are associated with ‘Literacy movement’.
Dr Welthy H. Fisher was an American educationist, who in early life decided to dedicate herself to the service of humanity. To fulfil her mission, she left America for China in 1906 when she was hardly 26 years old and became principal of a girls’ school, the Baldwin School in Nanchang.
After working for more than a decade, she had to leave China in 1917 when the U.S.A joined in the First World War.
She came to India in 1924, after her marriage to Bishop Fredrick Bohn Fisher. Bishop Fisher was a great friend of Rabindra Nath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi.
He was sympathetic towards Gandhiji’s struggle for India’s independence and was a votary of non-violence. To introduce Gandhi and his mission to the Western and American people, he wrote a book ‘ That strange Little Brown Man Gandhi ’.
This book was proscribed by the Government of India. After the untimely death of Bishop Fisher, Dr Welthy Fisher returned to America but she kept in touch with Gandhiji. She met Gandhiji for the last time on 15th December 1947 and expressed her desire to come back and work in India.
Gandhiji asked her to go to the villages of India and work to remove illiteracy which was so rampant.
She went back to America but Gandhiji’s advice kept on ringing in her mind. Ultimately, she took the call and came back to India in 1953 to work in the field of adult literacy.
She went to Naini in Allahabad and started her work.
The then Governor Late K.M Munshi was impressed with her dedication and invited her to come and start her work in Lucknow. She decided to establish ‘Literacy House’ in Lucknow in 1956 and rest is history.
When she took this momentous decision, she was already 77 years old, but age for her was just a number. She looked for a good architect to give shape to her dream and in search for one, she trekked to Pithoragarh where famous architect Larry Baker was living at that time.
Baker agreed and designed ‘Literacy House’ like an Indian village.
When she started her work, the pedagogy of adult literacy was virtually nonexistent, there was no primer available. She brought famous littérateurs and educationists under one roof who produced primers for learners as well as literature for neo-literates.
Her work brought her international recognition and ‘Soldiers of Literacy’ came from all corners of the country to be trained here.
In fact, more than 38000 volunteers came from neighbouring countries to become full-fledged literacy trainers.
Her mission was to give identity to the illiterate masses making them literate and to make them self dependent by giving
TODAY IS THE 140TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR WELTHY H FISHER WHO MADE THE CHINESE PROVERB FAMOUS WORLDWIDE, THAT ’’ IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN TO CURSE DARKNESS.’’
them vocational training.
Her work brought her many national and international awards like Ramon Magsaysay Award, UNESCO award, first Jawaharlal Literacy award etc.
Today is the 140th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Fisher who made the Chinese proverb famous worldwide, that ’’ It is better to light a candle than to curse darkness.’’
Let us remember her indomitable passion for the people of India to whom she was known as ‘’ Akshardatri Maa’’.
The best homage one can pay to her is to make a person literate and give him/ her an identity.