EducationEast India Company rule

First girls' school opens in Tirunelveli

· Tirunelveli

First girls' school opens in Tirunelveli
Theni.M.Subramani, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The first school for girls in the Tirunelveli region was opened in 1821.

Tirunelveli had long had traditional centres of learning, but schooling for girls was rare. The first girls' school in the district was opened in 1821. This came during a period of expanding missionary activity in the region. The British later introduced a two-tier system of district schools teaching English and sub-district schools teaching in vernacular languages.

Related events

  1. 1813

    1. 1813 to 1859Kanyakumari districtSocial Reform

      Channar revolt over the upper cloth

      Nadar women in southern Travancore, including today's Kanyakumari district, struggled for decades for the right to cover their upper bodies.

  2. 1814

    1. 1814ChennaiReligion

      Church Missionary Society begins work in Madras

      After the Charter Act of 1813 allowed missionaries into India, the Church Missionary Society placed its first missionaries at Madras in 1814.

  3. 1818

    1. 1818NagercoilEducation

      LMS seminary moves to Nagercoil

      Charles Mead shifted the London Missionary Society's seminary from Mylaudy to Nagercoil, where it grew into Scott Christian College.

  4. 1820

    1. 7 Jul 1820PalayamkottaiReligion

      Rhenius begins CMS mission in Tirunelveli

      Church Mission Society missionary C. T. E. Rhenius arrived in Tirunelveli and built a large Protestant mission based at Palayamkottai.

  5. 1837

    1. 1837George Town, ChennaiEducation

      General Assembly's School, origin of Madras Christian College

      Scottish missionary John Anderson opened the General Assembly's School in Madras, which grew into Madras Christian College.

  6. 1881

    1. 1881TirunelveliLiterature

      Caldwell's History of Tinnevelly published

      The Madras government published Bishop Robert Caldwell's history of Tirunelveli district, drawn from manuscripts, Sangam texts and his own digs.

Open in the timeline explorer