Bahá’í World/Volume 18/The Rabbani School at Gwalior, India
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INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF CURRENT BAHA’!’ ACTIVITIES
233
8. THE RABBANI SCHOOL AT GWALIOR, INDIA
STEPHEN H. WAITE
THE Rabbani School at Gwalior stands today as one of a growing number of Bahá’í schools in India and throughout the world. In India, the New Era School at Panchgani was established in 1945, followed by Rabbani in 1977; and now in the first part of this decade, many new schools throughout India and Sikkim are beginning. They all follow in the footsteps of the famous Tarbiyat Bahá’í Schools in Iran. Interestingly, many of the present Bahá’í schools. Rabbani prominently among them, are more than simple academic
institutions; they are a new type of model through which the transforming influence of Bahá’u’lláh’s World Order flows; they are not only schools but centres of community development, social service projects and adult literacy and training programmes. All reach out to the surrounding communities. They are among the ‘agencies of this Administrative Order that have combined to bring into focus new possibilities in the evolution of the Bahá’í world’.1
THE MANDATE OF THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
The Rabbani School is being deyeloped under the loving and careful guidance of the Universal House of Justice and the National Spiritual Assembly of India. Its purpose is unique. The House of Justice, in its letter of 28 July 1974, stated that ‘. . . the primary purpose for establishing the Rabbani School, beyond offering needed services to many Bahá’í families, is to assist the teaching and consolidation work in India through training potential village teachers’. The school’s fundamental aim is thus to train a substantial number of staunch and deepened Bahá’í teachers. Towards this end, the curriculum has three major aspects: academic, vocational and Bahá’í. In the words of the Universal
House of Justice, the students, after their years at the school, ‘. . . will have had the opportunity to achieve competence in the required academic subjects and will also have participated in a supervised work plan which will have provided real experience in valuable skills. In addition, during this period they will have become imbued with the Bahá’í life of worship and service as observed in the school, and will have become involved in direct Bahá’í teaching.’
The development of the Rabbani School was included as one of India’s goals during the Five Year Plan (1974—1979), and its further development is a goal of the present Seven Year Plan.
THREE ASPECTS OF THE CURRICULUM: MORAL, VOCATIONAL, ACADEMIC
The most distinctive feature of education at the Rabbani School is that boys live for six years in a Bahá’í environment that helps them to become members of ‘a new race of men’, of high moral fibre, strength of character and resourcefulness. They rise each morning with Bahá’í prayers, and live according to the Bahá’í calendar of Holy Days, Feasts, the Fast and other festivals and Observances. They learn how to conduct Bahá’í meetings and to consult properly; study Bahá’í administration extensively, and experience first-hand its func tions in mock assembly meetings, on school committees, and in actual Riḍván elections. Through memorization of Bahá’í texts and prayers, as well as important excerpts from other Holy Scriptures, they develop a wide range of knowledge and acquire a store of songs, literature and teaching albums to take to their villages.
The entire student body has been divided
into teams of ten students. The teams travel
1 The Universal House of Justice, 20 October 1983.
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on selected Sundays to nearby villages to conduct children’s schools and deepening classes. Members of the faculty accompany them on these trips. As the school expands into village development activities, students will become more directly involved in the dissemination of technical skills which will be of direct economic, social and health benefit to the surrounding villages. This training should equip the students to function as deepened, experienced Bahá’í teachers of good character with sufficient skills at their disposal to help both technically and spiritually in the advancement of their villages.
The development of a full-fiedged six-year Bahá’í academic curriculum where boys study daily the Bahá’í Faith, their mother religionHinduism—and other great religions, as well as moral principles, has proven to be a very great challenge. Faculty members and various committees at the school have attempted to develop materials in Hindi. Much work remains to be done.
The vocational emphasis at the school derives from the mandate letter of 28 July 1974 from the Universal House of Justice in which it is specified that the school ‘. . . will ultimately be strongly vocational in its atmosphere and curriculum’. This is essential since
THE BAHA’
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the school aims primarily to train boys to return to their villages. The vocational curriculum now includes agriculture, animal husbandry and poultry; and will include fish farming, sanitation, village technologies and basic building trades. Interested students may also be trained in small-scale industrial skills. Presently, vocational skills are taught in several hours of practical work per week to complement the theory taught in class. For example, boys take responsibility for a small plot of land where they grow and harvest crops, or for a small poultry unit where all aspects of work are under their supervision.
Development of a vocational programme has proven to be difficult mainly because of the high capital investments required at the beginning, although substantial amounts of the school’s acreage have been brought under cultivation, a large poultry farm is in operation, a dairy has been started, and carpentry training will soon be introduced.
The most highly developed aspect of the programme is the academic school. In 1983 Rabbani became a fully recognized Higher Secondary School, with classes six through eleven. Approximately twenty per cent of all Rabbani boys taking the State middle board examination have attained merit positions,
Faculty and students of Rabbani School; 1983.
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for the eleventh standard Higher Secondary Examination in 1983.
while most of the others have done very well. The first graduating class stood successfully
SELF-HELP TOWARDS SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Incorporating the vocations within the academic and theoretical programme is emphasized in such a way as to make Rabbani a self—help school; that is, it will ‘. . . embody a self—help component whereby the village students will undertake a measure of the work of farm and school’, as envisioned by the Universal House of Justice. Taking such responsibility for the physical work and contributing towards the cost of their education helps foster self—reliance in these youths. In 1983 a graduated system of fees based on the parents’ ability to pay was introduced. The fees vary from family to family. Bahá’í funds and direct donations to the school provide scholarships.
The school’s scholarship fund has developed steadily as Bahá’í’s around the world have offered increasing support. Annually, twentyfive to forty per cent of the school’s operating budget has been received through the scholarship fund. In addition to fees and farm income, the remaining amount needed to
operate the school has come from the national and international funds of the Faith. Approximately $225 (U.S.) per year covers full fees for each boy. In 1977 parents paid only eight per cent of this. In the 1983—1984 school year they paid nearly thirty-eight per cent, and the boys’ labour amounted to twenty-two per cent.
Self—help is part of a larger effort to render the school self—sufficient. Economic activities at the school are presently aimed at offsetting operating costs with profit from the sales of eggs and hens and some produce from agriculture. Plans are being considered for other activities which will not only support the school’s operating costs but will make substantial contributions to the capitalization costs. Until the 1983—1984 school year, however, capitalization was made possible by the national and international funds and by contributions from individuals.
HISTORY AND STAGES OF GROWTH
The Rabbani School is located on the plains of north-central India just outside the city of Gwalior. Its seventy-two acres of farmland, a large main building and several auxiliary buildings were purchased on 20 February 1964 by the National Spiritual Assembly of India. The property is beautiful, with large trees and many date palms that make it a virtual oasis amidst the surrounding scrub forest. The previous owner, the Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior, had used it as a lodge when hunting wild boar. The school was established near Gwalior because continuous teaching efforts, begun in that area in 1962, resulted in a large Bahá’í population. Nearly 3,100 Local Spiritual Assemblies exist in this region of Northern Madhya Pradesh. The potential of this property to serve the development of the Faith in the heart of this area was clearly seen by the Hand of the Cause Dr. Rahmatu’lláh Muhájir who encouraged its purchase and is
credited with giving it the name ‘Rabbani’. Presently, many of the students come from this region as well as from five other StatesUttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kamataka, Manipur and Sikkim—and from the neighbouring country of Nepal.
During the early years, a number of institutes were held at Rabbani, as well as large conferences called in honour of visits by five Hands of the Cause. Two very large conferences were held in 1964 and 1968 when the Hand of the Cause Amatu’l-Bahá Rfihl’yyih fliénum visited. The Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga, and his wife, visited in 1967. In 1969 Rabbani was host to the Hands of the Cause Tarézu’llah Samandari and Dr. Adelbert Mühlschlegel who were accompanied by Mr. Hushmand Fatheazam. The Hand of the Cause Dr. Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir visited several times; his last visit was in 1978.
The operation of a school on the Rabbani
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property has not been continuous since it first started in 1967. A boarding school was in operation from 1967 to 1970, the students numbering nearly seventy, sixteen of whom were from Tibetan refugee families. Regular academic activities were held in standards five through nine. From 1970 to 1977, however, the school ceased to function, and boys were taken to a boarding hostel in Gwalior. They received academic training at other schools and moral training at the hostel. In 1974 the hostel, with the twelve remaining students, was shifted to Indore for one year.
During the period from 1970 to 1974 the National Spiritual Assembly supervised a subcommittee that studied the requirements for re-establishing the Rabbani School and clarifying its objectives. Also during this time, because of the urgent need to find a qualified Bahá’í to serve as the school’s Director, contact was made with two American believers, Dr. Stephen Waite and Mrs. Sherman Waite. Dr. Waite visited the school in April 1974 and decided to accept the challenge of its restoration. Shortly after completing his doctoral thesis in education at the University of Massachusetts Dr. Waite, together with his wife, arrived to stay in December 1975. The Waites were joined at that time by Mr. Ray Betts, a seventy-one-year-old pioneer from the United States and Belize who had had several years of experience in tropical agriculture. Mr. Betts spent nearly a year at the Rabbani School improving the soil and fruit trees, introducing composting and the use of natural fertilizers and mulching. With great humour he persevered through the trials of inspection by curious villagers and of being hard of hearing, which made learning a new language quite difficult. Mr. Betts recently passed on to the Abhá Kingdom.
Before the school could reopen there were the problems of obtaining electricity, plumb THE BAHA‘I’ WORLD
ing and adequate living space. By organizing the villagers to make agricultural proposals for electricity, and helping them to arrange for, bank loans, it was possible to obtain an electrical connection that had been sought unsuccessfully in that area for five years. In addition, a work crew came from Panchgani, site of the New Era Bahá’í School, to help build a shower and toilet facility, dining hall, gobar gas plant to produce methane, and to install all the plumbing.
The Rabbani School was reopened in July 1977 with forty-seven boys in the sixth grade and a faculty of four. All students were housed in the main building which contained classrooms, offices and staff rooms. Each year after that a new group of students was admitted in the sixth standard until, in the 1982—1983 academic year, one hundred and eighty-seven studentswere in attendance.
In 1977 a second pioneering family joined the newly-reopened school, Mr. and Mrs. Feroze and Elizabeth Dallas from the United Kingdom, and their two children. Mr. Dallas served as Director of Agriculture and Mrs. Dallas served as School Nurse. Mr. Dallas’s knowledge of Hindi revived from his childhood days in Bombay, coupled with his extensive training abroad, made him well qualified for the position he filled. The farm was gradually established and a fishery begun. An agriculture curriculum was developed combining theoretical study with practical activities.
During these years faculty members joined the staff, both as teachers, and in agriculture and other capacities. In 1982—1983 a teaching staff of fourteen, and a support staff of over thirty, served at the school. Rabbani’s teachers come from several different Hindispeaking States in India. Also from 1982 to 1984 a number of Iranian friends served on the staff in various positions.
GROWTH OF THE PHYSICAL PLANT: PROJECTING RABBANI INTO THE FUTURE
During the initial years of the school’s operation existing buildings were modified to meet all school needs. Only a few major structures such as kitchen-dining and bathroom facilities were added during those years. Further expansion was planned with the
adoption of an architectural master plan which was made possible by the voluntary efforts of two dedicated Bahá’í architects, Mr. Thomas Kubala and Mr. Allen Washatko, of Cedarberg, Wisconsin, U.S.AA. They designed all the required facilities for a school vof five
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Ploughing with the Rabbani School’s team of water-buffalo (used in addition to a tractor).
hundred students, taking advantage where possible of modern innovations in solar and wind technology. The first dormitory for sixtyfour boys, the cornerstone of which was laid on 4 November 1981 by Mr. and Mrs. Hushmand Fatheazam, was completed in July of 1983. An additional dormitory will be completed in 1984. The master plan includes dormitories, classrooms, staff apartments, a Bahá’í deepening institute, vocational facilities, additional animal husbandry areas, sports grounds, public service buildings (such as the community development project building currently under construction) and at the centre will be a prayer hall located on an island in the heart of the campus.
Recently, with the assistance of Bahá’í’ funds and grants from the Canadian International Development Agency.(CIDA), several community development projects have been initiated at Rabbani. They will be merged within several years. The first is the Rabbani Rural Health Project functioning in three communities to train villagers as voluntary health care workers. Their job is to promote immunization, sanitation, prenatal, intranatal and postnatal care, improved maternal and child nutrition and to provide
knowledge and treatment of selected illnesses, with referral of more serious cases.
In mid-1983 a second grant was given to Rabbani by the Canadian International Development Agency, with one-third of the funds provided by the Bahá’í community and two-thirds by CIDA. Work began in December 1983 with plans for the development of twenty villages.» Initially, assessments are being made in the villages to ascertain what is needed and what the people can contribute themselves. In many of the adopted villages no schools exist, yet considerable interest in education has been expressed. Part of the plan, therefore, is to assist in the establishment of Bahá’í primary day schools. In many cases inactive and untrained Local Spiritual Assemblies are being assisted to learn to manage these schools in co-operation with the project personnel. Great emphasis is being placed on training each Local Spiritual Assembly and community, as this will be the means for ensuring a balanced development of the village. It has been noted that villagers often find it easier to organize around practical, daily issues, so such an undertaking will provide the substance for the Local Assembly’s consultation and deepening. The school
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will provide a primary school education for the young children of the village, and adult literacy programmes. Bahá’í deepening programmes will be channelled through each school as a centre for community activities. The Rabbani School premises are being developed for vocational training for both Rabbani students and for people from these villages. Many government programmes recognize the value of such training and provide loans to the villagers for the development of a poultry unit or a small-scale industrial unit. Within a few years the training of community health workers will also be integrated into this larger project.
The ultimate aim of this community development project is to assist the adopted communities to develop spiritually, economically, socially, educationally and in health so that they become distinctive Bahá’í villages. These villages in turn will provide an example for other villages nearby. Also, as develop A class on the Writings of the Báb conducted for eighth grade boys of Rabb
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ment efforts are undertaken all over India, the experience gained at Rabbani will be of use to others. The community development programmes will gradually be integrated into the school programme, allowing a total shift in the emphasis of the school away from the academic to the practical. Boys will receive on-the-job training in these villages as they are called upon to teach or to help establish a programme or industry in a village. Rabbani boys will also play a more involved role in the Bahá’í deepening work conducted in each village.
Rabbani is gradually becoming much more than a school as it integrates itself into the surrounding Bahá’í communities. It will retain its academic programme for both students and adults, the Bahá’í deepening programme for individuals, Assemblies, children and youth, and the community development programmes, including public services such as health care and adult literacy training.
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