Ontario Friends Club preserving Punjabi language; orgainsed event on Qaida Noor
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
“This week, Ontario Friends Club (OFC) had organized a special session of short stories on the education system of Maharaj Ranjit Singh and his Qaida Noor” as informed by Ravinder Singh Kang, president OFC.
“Members from various countries-Canada, USA, Greece, India etc participated in this online fortnightly event orgainsed by the Ontario Friends Club (OFC)” said Ajaib Singh Chattha, chairman of the OFC.
In this short stories event, around ten participants read their short stories on the prevalent education system in the Maharaja Ranjit Singh regime. The writers highlighted the vision of Maharaj Ranjit Singh towards establishing an education system, at that time, tough he himself was not so educated and had received little formal education as he choose the path of warrior and a leader while still in his teens.
The writers highlighted that Maharaja Ranjit Singh always patronized education. They highlighted the importance of Qaida Noor (a booklet) amongst the children of that era.
The writers who read the short stories in this event of Ontario Friends Club (OFC) are- Onkar Chautala, Bakshish Devi, Kawaldeep Kaur, Pritpal kaur, Jagdish Kaur, Devinder Khush, Mohinder Singh Jaggi, Malwinder Shayar, Deep Ratti, Tirlok Singh Dhillon. Naib Singh Mander did the analysis of these ten short stories. Dr Amanpreet Kaur Kang hosted the event.
Ontario Friends Club preserving Punjabi language; orgainsed event on Qaida Noor . Ravinder Singh Kang said the purpose of Ontario Friends Club (OFC) is to promote and preserve Punjabi as a language and every fortnight they organize events on short stories, literature, songs, poems recitation etc.
QAIDA NOOR
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, also known as “Sher-E-Punjab”, was a very powerful king with the largest empire in the 18th Century.
Qaida means an elementary book and Noor means light (Roshni). Tough he himself was not so educated and had received little formal education, Maharaja Ranjit Singh was a great visionary, and thus wanted to educate the masses through the Qaida method.
The Maharaja printed 5,000 booklets (Qaidas) with strict instructions to start his educational campaign and ordered his “Lambardars” (Head of the Village) to implement and read the Qaida within three months. They were asked to write a letter to the Maharaja Ranjit Singh, that he had read the Qaida and is able to read and write. They were then required to pass on this Qaida to 5 other people of the village and continue this chain.
In a few years 87% of the people of the Lahore area and 78% of the neighbouring areas became educated.
Ahead of its times, this Qaida was made compulsory for women. As a result, the women in Ranjit Singh’s empire were fully educated.
October 24,2021
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