https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Constance_Prem_Nath_DassConstance Prem Nath Dass - Revision history2026-10-24T15:27:06ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Constance_Prem_Nath_Dass&diff=494862&oldid=prevJulianaThurston: Added!2025-08-25T05:04:06Z<p>Added!</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian academic administrator (1886–1971)}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=March 2019}}<br />
{{Infobox officeholder<br />
| name = Constance Prem Nath Dass<br />
| office = President of [[Isabella Thoburn College]]<br />
| image = Photo of Constance Prem Nath Dass.jpg<br />
| caption = <br />
| birth_date = 1886<br />
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1971|1886}}<br />
| relations = [[Mohini Maya Das]] (sister)<br />
| alma_mater = [[Goucher College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[University of Allahabad]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]]) <br>[[Columbia Teacher's College]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]])<br />
| profession = [[College administrator]]<br />
| birth_name = Constance Maya Das<br />
| term_start = {{Start date|1939}}<br />
| term_end = {{End date|1945}}<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Constance Prem Nath Dass''' ({{nee}}<br />
Constance Maya Das; 1886 – 1971) was an Indian educator and college administrator. She was president of [[Isabella Thoburn College]] (IT College), a women's college in [[Lucknow]], which made her the first Indian woman to serve as the principal of a [[Christian college]] in [[India]].<br />
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== Early life and education ==<br />
Constance Maya Das was born in 1886 to Rai Bahadur Maya Das and Mohini Chandulal, prominent [[Punjabis|Punjabi]] second generation-Presbyterians from [[Firozpur]], northwest British India.<ref name="Webster 2013" /><ref name="Bhattacharji 2018">{{Cite news|url=https://rindas.ryukoku.ac.jp/research/upfile/RINDAS%20series%20of%20working%20paper16%20.pdf|title=Hundred years of Higher Education for Indian Women: 1913-2013, with a focus on the Methodist Christian Contribution|last=Bhattacharji|first=Shobhana|work=RINDAS Series of Working Papers 16|access-date=2018-09-24|archive-date=25 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925025751/https://rindas.ryukoku.ac.jp/research/upfile/RINDAS%20series%20of%20working%20paper16%20.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> <br />
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Rai Bahadur Maya Das sent his older daughters, including [[Mohini Maya Das]], to America and Edinburgh to have a western education but chose to have Constance educated at home before attending schools in [[Lahore]] and later, in 1904, at [[Isabella Thoburn College]]. While at IT College, she met [[John Goucher]] who paid for her to study at [[Goucher College]] from 1909 to 1911.<ref name="Bhattacharji 2018" /> From Goucher, she earned a Bachelor of Arts she graduated [[Phi Beta Kappa]].<ref name="Webster 2013" /> She returned to Isabella Thoburn College where she taught and later earned a Master of Arts in English literature from the [[University of Allahabad]].<ref name="Webster 2013">{{Cite journal|last=Webster|first=John C. B.|date=2013-07-01|title=Book Review: Constance Prem Nath Dass: An Extraordinary History, 1886–1971|journal=International Bulletin of Missionary Research|language=en|volume=37|issue=3|pages=187–188|doi=10.1177/239693931303700323|s2cid=149421120|issn=0272-6122}}</ref><br />
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== Career ==<br />
In 1931, Dass became the vice principal of Thoburn College. While on a sabbatical between 1938 and 1939, she earned a master's degree, Phi Beta Kappa, in education from [[Columbia Teacher's College]]. She was appointed as the president of the college upon return, becoming the first Indian woman to serve as the principal of a Christian College in India. She retired in 1945.<ref name="Webster 2013" /> In 1946, she gave the commencement address at the invitation of Goucher College. She then went to Ontario for a peace conference organized by [[John Mott]] for war refugees. She remained closely associated with IT College throughout her retirement, including serving on its Board of Governors until her death.<ref name="Bhattacharji 2018" /><br />
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== Awards and honors ==<br />
Dass was awarded honorary doctorates from Goucher College and [[Boston University]]. She is the subject of the biography ''Constance Prem Nath Dass: An Extraordinary History, 1886–1971'', co-written by her granddaughter, Amrita Dass, with Nina David.<ref name="Webster 2013" /><br />
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== Personal life ==<br />
While studying at IT College, she met her future husband, Prem Nath Dass, who proposed to her in 1906. She told him that she wanted to study in America, so he waited for her to return.<ref name="Bhattacharji 2018" /> Prem Nath Dass was from a prominent Christian family in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]]. The couple had six children between 1915 and 1924. She was a nationalist and a political moderate. Widowed in 1931, she died in 1971, aged 84 or 85.<ref name="Webster 2013" /><br />
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== References ==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dass, Constance Prem Nath}}<br />
[[Category:1886 births]]<br />
[[Category:1971 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Goucher College alumni]]<br />
[[Category:University of Allahabad alumni]]<br />
[[Category:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women academics]]<br />
[[Category:Isabella Thoburn College alumni]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Indian people]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian women educators]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian educators]]<br />
[[Category:People from Punjab Province (British India)]]<br />
[[Category:Date of birth missing]]<br />
[[Category:Date of death missing]]</div>JulianaThurston