Chandra Kanta Devi Malla

Chandra Kanta Devi Malla (Nepali: चन्द्रकान्तदेवी मल्ल) was a Nepalese activist and teacher.

Chandra Kanta Devi Malla
Malla in c. 1935 with her students
Born1897 (1897)
Lalitpur, Nepal
Died1986 (aged 88–89)
Nepal
NationalityNepali
Other namesChandra Kanta Devi
RelativesShukraraj Shastri (brother)

In 1897, Malla was born in Lalitpur, Nepal to Hindu reformist Madhavraj Joshi.[1][2] She is also the sister of Shukraraj Shastri, a democracy activist, and a martyr.[3][4]

At the age of 18, she married Umeshwar Lal Malla, later he left her.[1] She worked at Kaiser Mahal as a maid.[1]

In 1933, Malla received permission from the Ranas to open a girls' school.[5] She later recalled that "while walking to the school and coming back home, people used to stare at me, as if I was a princess".[1] The school was inaugurated by Juddha Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana.[1] In 1941, her brother Shukraraj was sentenced to death by hanging by the state, which devastated Malla.[1]

In 1961, she opened Shukraraj Shastri School, named after her brother.[1] She died in 1986.[1]

Malla is also referred to as the first guruama (feminine guru) in Nepal.[6][7]

References
  1. Rana, Jagadish (1 January 2011). Women Writers of Nepal Profiles and Perspectiver. Rajesh Rana Publications. p. 49. ISBN 9788184654189.
  2. Einsiedel, Sebastian von; Malone, David M.; Pradhan, Suman (12 March 2012). Nepal in Transition: From People's War to Fragile Peace. Cambridge University Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-107-00567-9.
  3. Nepal Press Digest. Regmi Research Project. 2001. p. 130.
  4. Subedi, Prativa (1993). Nepali Women Rising. Women Awareness Centre. p. 111.
  5. Asian Women. Research Center for Asian Women, the Sookmyung Women's University Press. 1995. p. 186.
  6. "Voices that Nobody Heard". The Indian Express. 24 February 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  7. "The public life of women". The Kathmandu Post. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
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