1897
Midnapore
Khanta Bela Rai
Indian
teacher
Principal, 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 Baba 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
- ↑ Rev. Otis Robinson Bacheler: fifty-three years missionary to India{{#if:Stacy|, Stacy}. The Morning Star Publishing House(1904)
- ↑ Sachidanandi Rai. Missions: American Baptist International Magazine({Template:Date).
- ↑ More Echoes from the Jubilee. The Baptist({Template:Date).
- ↑ Girl from India to See Spokane. Spokane Chronicle(May 16, 1921). Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- ↑ Co-Ed So Different From Other Girls. The Saint Charles Herald(December 24, 1921). Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- ↑ Women Who Are Transforming the Orient. The Missionary Review({Template:Date).
- ↑ Khanto Bala Rai to be City's Guest. Star Tribune(May 8, 1921). Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- ↑ The Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, 1873-1921{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. The Society(1922)
- ↑ The Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, 1873-1921{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. The Society(1922)
- ↑ 40 Missionaries Return from India on STR City of Sparta. The Boston Globe(March 22, 1921). Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- ↑ Silver Trumpets of Women's Jubilee Still Blow. The Baptist({Template:Date).
- ↑ Annual of the Northern Baptist Convention{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. The Convention(1921)
- ↑ Golden Jubilee of the Baptists is Celebrated. The Selma Times-Journal(June 23, 1921). Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- ↑ An Opportunity for a Book Shower. Missions({Template:Date).
- ↑ "Midnapore Increases Local Support" American Baptist Foreign Mission Society 1924: 159-160.
- ↑ Rai, Miss K. B. "Midnapore Mission Girls' School" Tidings from the ABFM Society of Bengal-Orissa (1925): 21-25.
- ↑ The Baptist family in foreign mission fields [microform]{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Philadelphia, Boston : The Judson Press(1926)