Khanto Bala Rai
A young Indian woman wearing a dark sari over a white blouse; seated, hands folded in her lap. Her hair is parted center and dressed back behind her ears.
Khanto Bala Rai, from a 1921 publication.
Born1897
Midnapore, British India (Present day in Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India
NationalityIndian
Other namesKhanta Bela Rai
Occupationteacher
Known forPrincipal, Mission Girls' High School, Midnapore

Khanto Bala Rai (born 1897) was a Bengali Christian educator, head of the Mission Girls' High School in Midnapore beginning in 1923.

Early life

Khanto Bala Rai was the daughter of evangelist Sachidananda Rai[1][2] and teacher Esther Rai, Christian converts in Bengal.[3] She attended Bethune College in Calcutta,[4] and the University of Nebraska.[5]

Career

Rai taught at a Baptist girls' school in Midnapore.[6][7] Her older sister, Shanta Bala Rai, was also a teacher at Midnapore.[8]

Rai traveled with medical missionary Mary W. Bacheler to the United States in 1921.[9][10] That year, she made appearances and speeches at American Baptist gatherings, with Burmese doctor Ma Saw Sa and Chinese teacher Kan En Vong, among others, as a group representing the work of Baptist women missionaries in Asian countries.[11][12][13] She collected English-language books while in the United States, to create a library at the school in Midnapore when she returned. "We would like all kinds of children's story books, magazines, and some religious story books," she explained to a Baptist publication in 1922.[14]

She returned to Midnapore after her time in the United States, and returned to schoolwork there, as headmistress of the Midnapore Mission Girls' School starting in 1923. "In executive ability, tact with teachers, pupils, and patrons, and keen insight into the needs and opportunities of the school Miss Rai has shown her real worth and has greatly strengthened the school," noted a 1924 report.[15] She described the challenges of a growing school in a 1925 letter to American Baptists.[16] She was still principal of the school in a 1926 update.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Stacy, Thomas Hobbs (1904). Rev. Otis Robinson Bacheler: fifty-three years missionary to India. The Morning Star Publishing House. p. 425.
  2. ↑ Griffin, Rev. Z. F. (September 1923). "Sachidanandi Rai". Missions: American Baptist International Magazine. 14: 478–479.
  3. ↑ Hudson, Helen (10 December 1921). "More Echoes from the Jubilee". The Baptist. 2: 1432.
  4. ↑ "Girl from India to See Spokane". Spokane Chronicle. 16 May 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 13 November 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Co-Ed So Different From Other Girls". The Saint Charles Herald. 24 December 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 13 November 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Peabody, Mrs. H. W. (June 1921). "Women Who Are Transforming the Orient". The Missionary Review. 44: 475–476.
  7. ↑ "Khanto Bala Rai to be City's Guest". Star Tribune. 8 May 1921. p. 19. Retrieved 13 November 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ The Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, 1873-1921. The Society. 1922. pp. 43. Khanto Bala Rai.
  9. ↑ The Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, 1873-1921. The Society. 1922. pp. 104. Khanto Bala Rai.
  10. ↑ "40 Missionaries Return from India on STR City of Sparta". The Boston Globe. 22 March 1921. p. 9. Retrieved 13 November 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Mansfield, J. A. (18 June 1921). "Silver Trumpets of Women's Jubilee Still Blow". The Baptist. 2: 630.
  12. ↑ Annual of the Northern Baptist Convention. The Convention. 1921. p. 231.
  13. ↑ "Golden Jubilee of the Baptists is Celebrated". The Selma Times-Journal. 23 June 1921. p. 4. Retrieved 13 November 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Montgomery, Helen B. (November 1922). "An Opportunity for a Book Shower". Missions. 13: 623.
  15. ↑ "Midnapore Increases Local Support" American Baptist Foreign Mission Society 1924: 159-160.
  16. ↑ Rai, Miss K. B. "Midnapore Mission Girls' School" Tidings from the ABFM Society of Bengal-Orissa (1925): 21-25.
  17. ↑ Prescott, Nellie G.; Northern Baptist Convention. Board of Education (1926). The Baptist family in foreign mission fields [microform]. Internet Archive. Philadelphia, Boston : The Judson Press.
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