Rajni Kumar, British-born Indian educationist, spoke to ANANYA at the 24th Rosalind Wilson Memorial lecture about the search for humanity and more
An English woman, who had heard a lot about India and its culture while studying in Oxford University, travelled to India in 1966 and never went back. The woman is none other than Rosalind Wilson herself. The founder-editor of Target magazine, who was settled in Delhi, died of cancer at the young age of 49.
“I chose the topic In search of Humanity as a tribute to my dear friend Rosalind Wilson because of the impact that she made on all of us and the values she had as the adopted daughter of India,” said Rajni Kumar, the speaker at Wilson’s Memorial lecture.
Rajni Kumar, founder of Springdales School claims to have many similarities with Rosalind which made them good friends. “There was some magical quality of this country which entangled us both to this ancient land with diversity,” said Rajni.
Padma Shri Award winner Rajni Kumar nee Nancie Joyce Margaret Jones, graduate of london School of Economics married her co- student, Yudishter Kumar, a lawyer at the age of 23. She then moved to India and adopted the name of Rajni. “Rosalind moved to India in 1960s and she found her soul-mate after a few years, who was a lawyer as well. It seems as if handsome lawyers, well read and romantically inclined had something in them that drew us towards them,” she said, jokingly.
“While I was a socialist, Rosalind had a liberal outlook. Both of us shared our deep love for India and its people, specially young people. So perhaps, it was destiny. We both took up education as our profession and passion,” said Rajni. “It wasn’t long before Rosalind joined Springdales. First, as a very creative english teacher and then later, she became the head of our English department,” she added.
Rajni tells us about the importance of students in Rosalind’s life. “There are many instances of the contribution that Rosalin made for her students. In 1971, she called the representative of India of the African National congress of South Africa to speak to students on Apartheid,” she added.
Rosalind later changed her profession to journalism, making a name for herself as the dynamic editor of India Today’s magazine ‘Target’. “But even after she left teaching, she never lost the love for education and her interaction with young people. She encouraged them always to look beyond themselves,” said Rajni Kumar.
Coming to the topic, in search of Humanity, Rajni said, “Our world has become more unequal. One percent of the population of 7.2 billion now controls 90 percent of its wealth. It is this inequality and the rising frustration of the aspiring classes that lies at the root of our problems today. This is what causes so much of unhappiness, stress and alienation. Our scientific achievements have also led to depletion of natural resources leading to climate changes and erratic weather patterns which have never been witnessed before.”
The padma Shri award winner also spoke about the Brexit vote. “I was in london during the referendum and millions were shocked at the brexit vote with Britain breaking ties with the euro family after 43 years. So far, Britain has only taken over 20,000 migrants as against over a million in Germany. let me tell you, Isolationism is no solution to the world’s problems,” she said.
“In India, we more than 1,000 million people and everybody is busy social networking with others. Our lives, including mine at 93, are connected to the computer and phone. But in the process, the human factor is being affected,” she said. “With everything digitalized and online, we have lost out the warmth of human relation, a family bonding and human values,” she added, leaving us with a thought-provoking fact.