Kitty Shiva Rao (born 1903 – died after 1974), was a Montessori teacher and

theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

from Austria who, by

India's independence The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...

, had led a committee of women to draft an ''Indian Women's Charter of Rights and Duties'' for the new

constitution of India The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...

. She studied child education and served on several women's movement and education boards including the

All India Women's Conference The All India Women's Conference (AIWC) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Delhi. It was founded in 1927 by Margaret Cousins in order to improve educational efforts for women and children and has expanded its scope to also tackle ...

(AIWC),

All India Handicrafts Board The All India Handicrafts Board (AIHB), was an organisation in India established in 1952, which aimed to advise the Ministry of Textiles on development programmes for handicrafts. It's early key figures included Pupul Jayakar, Kamaladevi Chattopad ...

, Indian Council for Child Welfare and

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

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 The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...

at Adyar, India, and decided to stay and head a Montessori school in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, before then establishing a Montessori in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

. In 1929, she married the journalist and Congress politician Benegal Shiva Rao. In 1947, with

Fori Nehru Shobha Nehru, commonly known as Fori Nehru and Auntie Fori (born Magdolna Friedmann; 5 December 1908 – 25 April 2017) was a Hungarian-born Indian social worker and the wife of the Indian civil servant Braj Kumar Nehru of the Nehru family. In 1 ...

, she helped set up the "Refugee Handicrafts" employment campaign in Delhi for refugee women in the camps following the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

. Later, she co-founded a national programme for the development of

handicrafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

and handloom products, and continued to promote Indian made crafts later in her career.

Early life

Kitty Verständig was born in 1903 into an upper middle-class Jewish family, and studied

Montessori education The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

. In her early career she taught at the Vienna House of Children, a Montessori school, and attended the

Career

1920s-30s

In 1925, after attending the 50th anniversary of the

at Adyar, India, 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

. In 1927 she required assistance in establishing a Montessori school in

and invited her friend, . There, both women mingled among the elite

Nehru family Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India du ...

. Herbatschek stayed for two-years and taught Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter

Indira __NOTOC__ Indira may refer to: People * Indira (name) Films and books * ''Indira'', an 1873 novella by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee * Indira (film), ''Indira'' (film), directed by Suhasini Manirathnam * Indira (1989 film), ''Indira'' (1989 film), a ...

, and was assisted by his sister

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

. Verständig married the journalist and Congress politician Benegal Shiva Rao in 1929 and became Kitty Shiva Rao. Her friends included

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti (; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was a philosopher, speaker and writer. In his early life, he was groomed to be the new World Teacher, an advanced spiritual position in the theosophical tradition, but later rejected thi ...

, who had been taught by her husband and theosophists. In 1931, like other new educationists, she travelled to Germany and visited schools such as the

Odenwaldschule The Odenwaldschule was a German school located in Heppenheim in the Odenwald. Founded in 1910, it was Germany's oldest '' Landerziehungsheim'', a private boarding school located in a rural setting. Edith and Paul Geheeb established it using ...

Paul Geheeb Paul Geheeb (1870–1961) was a German pedagogue in the German rural boarding school movement known for co-founding the boarding schools Wickersdorf Free School Community, Odenwaldschule, and Ecole d'Humanité The Ecole d'Humanité is an i ...

, to update on developments in education. After

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

, she helped Herbatschek, who had by then married Rudolf Braun, escape to India. Her connections allowed her to assist other Jews fleeing persecution to settle in India.

1940s-50s

Shiva Rao studied child education in depth and served on several education boards and committees, including the

Board and the All-India Education Fund Association. 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. Shiva Rao became involved in the Indian women's movement, and joined the

(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." 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. By 1946, she had become an important member of the AIWC, which made decisions that could be ratified by then new

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

and which revealed contradictions in the proposed

Hindu code bills The Hindu code bills were several laws passed in the 1950s that aimed to codify and reform Hindu personal law in India, abolishing religious law in favor of a common law code. Following India's independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress g ...

. 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. Shiva Rao was appointed head of a committee to work out what Indian women expected from the new

. By India's independence, she had led women to draft an ''

Indian Women's Charter of Rights and Duties Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asi ...

'' for the new constitution. Other members included

Lakshmi N. Menon Lakshmi N. Menon (29 March 1899 – 30 November 1994) was an Indian Indian independence movement, freedom fighter and politician. She was Minister of State from 1962 to 1966. As delegate she held a speech at the United Nations General Assem ...

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (3 April 1903 – 29 October 1988) was an Indian social reformer and freedom activist. She was most remembered for her contribution to the Indian independence movement; for being the driving force behind the renaissance ...

Renuka Ray Renuka Ray (1904–1997) was a noted freedom-fighter, social activist and politician of India. She was a descendant of Brahmo reformer, Nibaran Chandra Mukherjee, and daughter of Satish Chandra Mukherjee, an ICS officer, and Charulata Mukherj ...

and

Hannah Sen Hannah Sen (1894–1957) was an Indian educator, politician, and feminist. She was a member of the first Indian Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament) from 1952 to 1957 and the president of the All India Women's Conference in 1951-52. She was a f ...

. Along with

and Prem Bery, she helped set up an employment campaign, 'Refugee Handicrafts', for refugee women in the 1947 Delhi camps following partition. After 1947 she pioneered the

Indian Council for Child Welfare Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

. In July 1948, Shiva Rao reported that the AIWC was urging a swift passing of the

by lobbying ministers and the prime minister. 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. 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". In 1952, she co-founded a national programme for the development of handicrafts and handloom products. She also became vice president of the

. The Indian artist

Anjolie Ela Menon Anjolie Ela Menon (born 17 July 1940) is one of India's leading contemporary artists. Her paintings are in several major collections, including the NGMA, the Chandigarh Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum. In 2006, her triptych work "Yatra" w ...

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

Death

She lived until at least 1975.

Early life

Career

1920s-30s

1940s-50s

Death

Publications

References

Further reading