Vira Kapur

A pioneering Indian social reformer who championed women's education and led anti-colonial movements in undivided Punjab

Dr. Vira Kapur (1898-1967) was a visionary educator and activist whose work laid the foundation for modern women's education in northern India. Born into a progressive Sikh family in Lahore, she defied societal norms by completing her PhD in education at London University during the height of British colonial rule. Returning to India in 1923, she established the first girls' hostel at Forman Christian College, later expanding it into a full-fledged women's university.

During the 1947 partition of India, Dr. Kapur organized relief efforts that saved over 15,000 women and children, later establishing rehabilitation centers across Punjab. Her archival records at the British Library document her innovative teaching methods combining Western pedagogy with Gandhian principles. The Kapur Scholarship Fund she founded in 1953 still supports female students in Pakistan and India today.

Less known is her role in the 1930 Salt March, where she developed mobile schools to educate marchers. Her 1941 book <《Education for Freedom》 became a clandestine bestseller among independence activists. The National Museum of Women in Delhi currently features her 1927 teaching diaries in a permanent exhibit.