MarcellaGunter0 at 23:04, 26 April 2026

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{{short description|Austrian Montessori teacher and theosophist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kitty Shiva Rao
| image = KittyShivaRao1937.png
| alt = A smiling white woman with dark hair, wearing a printed sari
| caption = Kitty Shiva Rao, from a 1937 publication
| birth_name = Kitty Verständig
| birth_date = 12 December 1903
| birth_place = [[Vienna|Vienna, Austria]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1980|02|09|1903|12|12}}
| death_place = [[Bangalore|Bangalore, India]]
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = [[Montessori education|Montessori teacher]]
| years_active =
| known_for = *Association with the Indian education system and Indian women's movement
*Promoting handicrafts made in India
| notable_works =
| spouse = [[B. Shiva Rao|Benegal Shiva Rao]] (1929-1975)
}}
'''Kitty Shiva Rao''' (12 December 1903 – 9 February 1980) was a [[Montessori education|Montessori teacher]] and [[theosophist]] from Austria who, by [[Independence Day (India)|India's independence]], had led a committee of women to draft an ''Indian Women's Charter of Rights and Duties'' for the new [[constitution of India]]. She studied child education and served on several women's movement and education boards including the [[All India Women's Conference]] (AIWC), [[All India Handicrafts Board]], Indian Council for Child Welfare and [[Delhi University]] Board.

Born into an upper middle-class Jewish family, Shiva Rao spent her early career at the Vienna House of Children. In 1925, she attended the [[Theosophical Society Adyar|Theosophical Society]] at [[Adyar, Chennai|Adyar]], India, and decided to stay and head a Montessori school in [[Varanasi]], before then establishing a Montessori in [[Allahabad]]. In 1929, she married the journalist and Congress politician [[Benegal Shiva Rao]].

In 1947, with [[Fori Nehru]], she helped set up the [[Refugee Handicrafts]] employment campaign in Delhi for refugee women in the camps following the [[partition of India]]. Later, she co-founded a national programme for the development of [[handicrafts]] and [[Textile manufacturing by pre-industrial methods|handloom products]], and continued to promote Indian made crafts later in her career.

==Early life==
Kitty Verständig was born in 1903 to Abraham Verständig and Jenny Lowy, an upper middle-class Jewish family. She studied [[Montessori education]].<ref name=Horn2018>{{cite book |last1=Horn |first1=Elija |title=New Education, Indophilia and Women's Activism: Indo-German Entanglements, 1920s to 1940s |date=2018 |publisher=Südasien-Chronik |location=Humboldt University of Berlin |isbn=978-3-86004-337-0 |url=https://www.iaaw.hu-berlin.de/de/region/suedasien/publikationen/sachronik/04-focus-horn-elija-new-education-indophilia-and.pdf}}</ref> In her early career she taught at the Vienna House of Children, a Montessori school, and attended the [[Theosophical Society]].<ref name=Horn2018/>

==Career==
===1920s-30s===
In 1925, after attending the 50th anniversary of the [[Theosophical Society Adyar|Theosophical Society]] at [[Adyar, Chennai|Adyar]], [[Chennai]], she decided not to return to Austria, and stayed on to become associated with the Indian education system, beginning with head of a Montessori school in [[Varanasi]].<ref name=Horn2018/> In 1927 she required assistance in establishing a Montessori school in [[Allahabad]] and invited her friend, {{Interlanguage link|Elise Braun Barnettto|de}}.<ref name=Horn2018/> There, both women mingled among the elite [[nehru-Gandhi family|Nehru family]].<ref name=Horn2018/> Herbatschek stayed for two-years and taught [[Jawaharlal Nehru|Jawaharlal Nehru's]] daughter [[Indira Gandhi|Indira]], and was assisted by his sister [[Krishna Hutheesing|Krishna]].<ref name=Horn2018/> Verständig married the journalist and Congress politician [[Benegal Shiva Rao]] in 1929 and became Kitty Shiva Rao.<ref name=Horn2018/> Her friends included [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]], who had been taught by her husband and theosophists.<ref name=Horn2018/> In 1931, like other new educationists, she travelled to Germany and visited schools such as the [[Odenwaldschule]] of [[Paul Geheeb]], to update on developments in education.<ref name=Horn2018/> After [[Anschluss]], she helped Herbatschek, who had by then married Rudolf Braun, escape to India.<ref name=Horn2018/> Her connections allowed her to assist other Jews fleeing persecution to settle in India.<ref name=Franz2010>{{cite book |last1=Franz |first1=Margit |editor1-last=Krist |editor1-first=Gabriela |editor2-last=Bayerová |editor2-first=Tatjana |title=Heritage Conservation and Research in India: 60 Years of Indo-Austrian Collaboration |date=2010 |publisher=Böhlau Verlag Wien |isbn=978-3-205-78561-3 |page=27 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AqDKSZUEi6gC&pg=PA15 |language=German |chapter=Sanskrit to Avantgarde. Indo-österreiche Initiativen zur Dokumentation und Förderung von Kunst und Kultur}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Franz |first=Margit |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ECzFDAAAQBAJ&q=+0.++63%2F97890043++738_004&pg=PA38 |title=Networks of Refugees from Nazi Germany: Continuities, Reorientations, and Collaborations in Exile |date=2016 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-32272-1 |pages=38–60 |language=en |chapter=2. Netzwerke der Zwischenkriegszeit als Fluchthilfen aus Zentraleuropa nach Britisch-Indien 1933 bis 1945}}</ref>

===1940s-50s===
[[File:Women refugees at the kingsway camp busy in sewing and knitting, September 1947.jpg|thumb|Women at the [[Kingsway Camp]], Delhi, sewing and knitting, September 1947]]
Shiva Rao studied child education in depth and served on several education boards and committees, including the [[Delhi University]] Board and the All-India Education Fund Association.<ref name=Rao1946>{{cite book |last1=Shiva Rao |first1=Kitty |editor1-last=Kumarappa |editor1-first=J. M. |title=Education of women in modern India |date=1946 |page=5 |chapter=2. Child Education}}</ref> She was highly critical of authoritarian types of teaching and believed that the needs of children should be identified and met, along with better laws for women.<ref name=Horn2018/>

Shiva Rao became involved in the Indian women's movement, and joined the [[All India Women's Conference]] (AIWC), taking the lead for the Social and Legislation Section at the conferences in 1941 and 1945, and endorsed their view "that the position of women in any state or society was an indication of the degree of its civilisation."<ref name=Horn2018/> With Shiva Rao as lead, the AIWC was able to have access to the Rau committee, chaired by her brother-in-law and appointed in 1941 by the government to examine issues in Hindu law pertaining to women's inheritance.<ref name="Everett2001">{{cite journal |last1=Everett |first1=Jana |title='All the Women Were Hindu and All the Muslims Were Men': State, Identity Politics and Gender, 1917-1951 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=2001 |volume=36 |issue=23 |pages=2071–2080 |jstor=4410720 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4410720 |issn=0012-9976|url-access=subscription}}</ref> By 1946, she had become an important member of the AIWC, which made decisions that could be ratified by then new [[Constituent Assembly of India|Constituent Assembly]] and which revealed contradictions in the proposed [[Hindu code bills]].<ref name="Ansari2019"/><ref name="Panda1994">{{cite book |last1=Panda |first1=Snehalata |title=Gender, Environment and Participation in Politics |date=1994 |publisher=M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. |isbn=978-81-85880-55-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2JB6Zqzl1PQC&pg=PA109 |language=en}}</ref> In creating the Hindu code bills, after agreeing that men and women should have equal rights, the AIWC questioned why a debate was needed on whether a daughter could inherit equally with her brother.<ref name="Ansari2019"/> Shiva Rao was appointed head of a committee to work out what Indian women expected from the new [[constitution of India]].<ref name="Hasan1994">{{cite book |last1=Hasan |first1=Zoya |title=Forging Identities: Gender, Communities, And The State In India |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-367-00938-0 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCmNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT78 |language=en}}</ref> By India's independence, she had led women to draft an ''[[Indian Women's Charter of Rights and Duties]]'' for the new constitution.<ref name="Hasan1994"/><ref name="Sharma">{{cite book |last1=Sharma |first1=Arvind |title=Today's Woman in World Religions |date=1 January 1994 |publisher=State University of New York Press|location=New York |isbn=0-7914-1687-9 |page=84 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dyQpNKH1oOYC&pg=PA84 |language=en}}</ref> Other members included [[Lakshmi N. Menon]], [[Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay]], [[Renuka Ray]] and [[Hannah Sen]].<ref name="Devenish2021">{{cite book |last1=Devenish |first1=Annie |title=Debating Women's Citizenship in India, 1930–1960 |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-93-88271-94-3 |page=68 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-cROEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |language=en |chapter=1. The emergence of the Indian woman as a political citizen}}</ref>

Along with [[Fori Nehru]] and [[Prem Bery]], she helped set up an employment campaign, 'Refugee Handicrafts', for refugee women in the 1947 Delhi camps following partition.<ref name=Sackley2025>{{cite book |last1=Sackley |first1=Nicole |title=The United States and South Asia from the Age of Empire to Decolonization: A History of Entanglements |date=2022 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-94-006-0442-1 |editor-last=Fischer-Tiné |editor-first=Harald |pages=235–266 |chapter=10 - The Bankura Horse as Development Object : Women’s Work, Indo-American Exchanges, and the Global Handicraft Trade |doi=10.1017/9789400604421 |editor-last2=Slate |editor-first2=Nico |chapter-url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/61212/1/9789087283971.t.pdf#page=235 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240802204501/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/61212/1/9789087283971.t.pdf#page=235 |archive-date=2 August 2024}}</ref><ref name=Nehru2012>{{Cite book |last=Nehru |first=B. K |title=Nice guys finish second: memoirs |date=2012 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-341782-8 |location=New Delhi |pages=211 |language=English |oclc=1117765699}}</ref><ref name="Salvi1999">{{cite book |last1=Salvi |first1=Gouri |title=Development Retold: Voices from the Field |date=1999 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |isbn=978-81-7022-798-4 |pages=97–107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RGYdgQWpzHAC&pg=PA97 |language=en}}</ref> After 1947 she pioneered the [[Indian Council for Child Welfare]].<ref name=Horn2018/><ref name="Bar1999">{{cite book |last1=Barooah |first1=Pramila Pandit |title=Handbook on Child, with Historical Background |date=1999 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |location=New Delhi |isbn=81-7022-735-6 |pages=166–172 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aMQM4QJ7VQC&q=rao&pg=PA172 |language=en}}</ref> In July 1948, Shiva Rao reported that the AIWC was urging a swift passing of the [[Hindu code bills]] by lobbying ministers and the prime minister.<ref name="Ansari2019">{{cite book |last1=Ansari |first1=Sarah |last2=Gould |first2=William |title=Boundaries of Belonging: Localities, Citizenship and Rights in India and Pakistan |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-19605-6 |page=198 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJCuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 |language=en}}</ref> It was generally understood by the AIWC that public campaigns were not enough to make change for women's rights; women were reported to object to the Hindu code bill in public, but secretly revealed that that was really the view of their households.<ref name="Ansari2019"/> In 1949, she said to members of the AIWC "that unless you make an effort and urge on the member of the legislature representing your town or province the urgency of taking up this measure and asking him for his support, it will be difficult to get the Code through ... I am requesting you to write without delay to the member presenting you and urge on him that he should support this measure".<ref name="Ansari2019"/>

In 1952, she co-founded a national programme for the development of handicrafts and handloom products.<ref name="Viswanath">{{cite news |last1=Viswanath |first1=Meylekh |title=From the Reich to the Raj |url=https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/from-the-reich-to-the-raj/ |access-date=15 March 2022 |work=Jewish Standard |date=13 April 2017}}</ref> She also became vice president of the [[All India Handicrafts Board]].<ref name="Viswanath"/> The Indian artist [[Anjolie Ela Menon]] recalled that post independence, Shiva Rao was one of a small group of women "who took it upon themselves to preserve and develop handicrafts and the handloom industry, without any renumeration".<ref name="Dalmia2013">{{cite book |last1=Dalmia |first1=Yashodhara |title=Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life |date=2013 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-81-8475-921-1 |pages=9–11 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KmMctE3wAgIC&q=kitty&pg=PT9 |language=en |chapter=2. The Rebel: Hungarian at heart}}</ref>

Later in her life, she spent time in the US when her husband was posted to work with the United Nations.<ref name="Salvi1999"/> There she continued promoting Indian made crafts along with Fori Nehru.<ref name="Salvi1999"/>

==Death==
She died on 9 February 1980, in [[Bangalore|Bangalore, India]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1980-02-12 |title=Kitty Shiva Rao |url= |url-status= |access-date= |work=[[The Times of India]] |pages=4}}</ref>

==Publications==
*{{cite book |last1=Rao |first1=Kitty Shiva |title=The Draft Hindu Code |date=1945 |publisher=All-India Women's Conference |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2F4NQAACAAJ |language=en}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite web |last1=Conference |first1=All India Womens |title=All India Womens Conference Sixteenth Session held at Cocanada on December 29, 1941 to January 1, 1942 |url=https://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/handle/10973/28549 |access-date=22 March 2022 |language=en |date=1942}}
*[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.116079/page/n1/mode/2up?q=shiva "The All India Women's Conference"]. Eighteenth Session. Hydrabad, 28 December 1945 – 1 January 1946
*{{cite web |title=Draft of Indian Woman's Charter of Rights and Duties Prepared by India by all India Women's Conference and Submitted by Mrs. Hansa-Mehta for Information of Sub-Commission |url=https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1494728?ln=en |language=en |date=1 May 1946}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiva Rao, Kitty}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing]]
[[Category:Social workers from Delhi]]
[[Category:1947 in Indian politics]]
[[Category:Handloom industry in India]]
[[Category:Women in World War II]]
[[Category:Indian Jews]]
[[Category:People from Vienna]]
[[Category:Indian feminists]]
[[Category:Indian political writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women educational theorists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian educational theorists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian educators]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women educators]]
[[Category:Austrian Theosophists]]

Kitty Shiva Rao - Revision history

MarcellaGunter0 at 23:04, 26 April 2026