Karnataka - Bidar   

A German nun's passion for Kannada

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

HUMBLE BEGINNING: The first Kannada school, started by Norma Fendrich in Bidar district, began functioning from this building in 1901.

Bidar: It was a German nun who established the first Kannada school in Bidar district over a century ago.

Norma Fendrich, a missionary of the Methodist Church, came to Bidar in 1896. She started a primary school in 1901. It was the first effort to teach Kannada in this part of the region then. The first government school in the district was set up by the Nizam in 1920.

Urdu was the language of the land, which was under the Nizam of Hyderabad. Large sections of the people spoke Marathi and Telugu. Kannada was also spoken by the people, but there was no institution to impart education in that language. The affluent went to Urdu or Marathi schools and the deprived classes had no access to education.

"Mother Norma realised the strong need for Kannada education. She sought help from her friends overseas and started the school," according to Ramappa Samuel, who retired as the school's principal two decades ago. "She chose Kannada as it was the language of the masses. She loved the masses and wanted to do something for them," said Rev. Samuel.

But managing the school was not easy. There were not many children initially. It was equally difficult to find teachers who could teach in Kannada in this backward region. Teachers were invited from far-off places such as Mangalore, Mysore and Dharwad. Parents had to be motivated to send their children to school. They also had to be convinced about the need for education in their mother tongue. Norma Fendrich and her colleagues in the church would go round villages asking parents to send their children to schools.

"She admitted children of all castes. Education was free. She was like a mother to the children. She used to say that an intelligent teacher's worth is judged by how he transforms a dull student into an achiever," said Rev. Samuel. "Norma Fendrich spent most of her life in Bidar. She learnt and taught Kannada. She returned to England in 1921 and died a few years later.

Now, the school has grown into a junior college. It is called the "Norma Fendrich High School and Pre-university College." It has produced many achievers. The first generation of the district's doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers are all products of the school.

Efforts to get a photograph of Norma Fendrich did not yield fruit. And as principal Naleen Kumar rightly said: "people like her are recognised by their work and not by their images."

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A German nun's passion for Kannada

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