Pictured here is Ms Mangat Rai who was principal of Kinnaird College, Lahore from 1950 to 1969. She was born in 1911 in Abbottabad and went to the Convent in Rawalpindi, onwards to St Deny’s High School in Murree, and then Kinnaird in 1928. She did her MA from Harvard University in 1942. This was followed by further study at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was awarded the Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam in 1958 and Sitara-e-Khidmat in 1971 for her services to the cause of education in Pakistan. She retired from Kinnaird College in 1969.
She is photographed here at the Anglican Congress in 1963 in Toronto. She was professor of History when she was photographed along with Ms Isabelle McNair, who was Principal in the 1940s. Ms Mangat Rai’s father was Edward Nirmal Mangat Rai, who hailed from a prominent Khatri family from Multan. He converted to Christianity and married a Bengali Christian doctor. They had four children, all of whom attained some measure of distinction. Priobala was their eldest and became the first Indian-Pakistani principal of Kinnaird College, Lahore. Her brother Charles Rajinder, rose to be a brigadier in the Indian army. Her sister Sheila, married Arthur Lal of the ICS. Priobala Mangat Rai was mentioned in the the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion in the context of her work. In the 1970s, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s socialist government made efforts to nationalise church institutions. But a strong missionary vein ran through Pakistan’s church. Kinnaird College for Women was part of “strong Christian hallmarks on the education of thousands of Pakistanis,” the Companion noted, “creating environments of learning and mutual respect. Women such as Ms Mangat Rai and Mrs Mira Phailbus have shown a quality of leadership at Kinnaird for which the church can be proud.”
