(viii)

Norah Richards (1876 – 1971): A brief sketch

Norah Mary Hutman was born on 29th October 1876, in
Ireland. She did her formal education in various institutions
in different parts of the world, mainly Belgium, Oxford and
Sydney. At a very young age she took to the stage and
became a successful actress. She got married to Philip
Earnest Richards, an English teacher and a Unitarian
Christian. She came to India in 1908 as her husband
accepted a job to teach English literature at Dyal Singh
College in Lahore (Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, founder of
the college, was an ardent follower of Brahmo Samaj, which
had a synergic relationship with the Unitarian Christian
movement).
Norah Richards got involved in various cultural
activities in the college and her enthusiasm helped stimulate
much serious theatrical activity. Lahore was the home of
Punjabi culture in those days. She brought many Punjabi
themes under her English pen and directed a few plays. More
importantly, she encouraged students to write their own one-
act plays and perform them. She had an interest in theosophy
and was actively involved in the theosophical movement and
home-rule agitation by Dr Annie Besant.
On her husband’s death in 1920, Norah returned to
England. In those days there was a policy to malign India’s
image in England. Norah reacted strongly against it and was
punished for breaking the law. She came back to India in
1924. Events worked out well for her to settle in the
beautiful valley of Kangra and finally made her home in
Andretta.
In those days of British Empire, quite a few Britons had
acquired lands in the hill states of British India. One such
settler who left for England gave away his property to
 (ix)

Norah, which came to be known as the Woodlands Estate.

Living amidst villagers, she chose the same life-style and
made a mud house with a thatched roof for her-self. She
named it Chameli Niwas. Her 15 acres of estate covered by
tall trees and wild flowers professed her love for nature.
Norah also opened a school of drama from which have
emerged many famous names of Punjabi drama like Ishwar
Chand Nanda, Balwant Gargi and Gurcharan Singh.
Every year, in the month of March, Norah organized a
weeklong festival in which students and villagers enacted
her plays in an open-air theatre constructed on the premises
of her estate. Among the guests, Prithvi Raj Kapoor and
Balraj Sahni were the most regular ones. Amongst her other
friends who later settled near Woodland Estate were Prof Jai
Dayal, painter Sobha Singh and Farida Bedi. Norah's plays
were on social reform, displaying wide sympathy with the
people's ways and traditions. She wrote scripts while many
people came and helped with the production. She wrote
newspaper articles, and painted watercolours. Andretta thus
became the hub of cultural and thearetical activities for a
whole generation of artists. One among them was young
Bhabesh Chandra Sanyal, who had already won recognition
as a sculptor and painter and later on became the doyen of
Indian art. He discusses Norah Richards at some length in
his autobiography.
“Usually, she would greet me with a khurpa in her hand
in home-spun khadi kurta and churidar, her white curls
covered with a veil on top of which she donned a straw hat.
This was the pattern of her work-a-day dress, grey, or ochre
brown in colour. A cotton string around her waist carried a
whistle and a suspended pouch carried her spectacles,
bunches of keys, pen and pencil and a writing pad and a
 (x)

watch. She would dig the soil of her vegetable garden, tend
and water the plants herself” ...
“I used to feel amused at her idea of discipline and the
method of its application to her servants. The work-time was
divided between hukka -break, tea-break, rest-break and
meals break. With the aid of an alarm clock in her pouch,
she would blow her whistle and command: "Hukka pio,
hukka pio ", and then whistle again at the determined interval
for their coming back to work. At the end of the day all her
servants would retire to their homes leaving her completely
alone to pursue her literary work, letter writing and reading.
The little kerosene lamp would burn till after midnight and
the tick-tack of her typewriter would begin before dawn”.
Sanyal continuous, “ 'Mem' she was at the core of her
heart and remained critical of the villagers fouling the fields
and not following her example of digging pits for leaf-
closets and do her own scavenging and sanitation work.
"Sooner than immediate" was the mould of her temperament
and she could not tolerate untidiness”.
Norah’s contribution to Punjabi drama was duly
recognised by Punjabi University, Patiala which awarded her
an honorary doctorate. The museum of the university houses
some of her rare belongings. During the later years of her
life, Norah was deeply worried about the future of
Woodlands and her large collection of literature and
manuscripts. “She toyed with the idea of making a will.
Confused in her mind, she made and unmade several.
Though skeptic about governmental control and
administration, she offered the estate to the government of
Himachal Pradesh, but received no response…”. Eventually,
she left most of her estate and valuable collections to the
care of Punjabi University, Patialla.
 (xi)

“In the waning days of her life, she was completely

dependent on the service of the attendants for a meagre meal
and glass of water….”. She was placed to rest on 3rd March
1971. Her gravestone in Woodlands Retreat has these last
words inscribed, “Rest Weary Heart – Thy work is Done”.

Ms Norah Richards during the last days of her life in Andretta, On

her left showing the way is renowned painter Shri Sobha Singh.
Photo courtesy: Harcharan Singh

Excerpts from B C Sanyal’s, ‘The Vertical Woman’, National Gallery of Modern

Art, New Delhi, 1998 and various other internet sources.
(Compiled by Vipan Kumar)