A Thoughtful Teacher
She
is a noted educationist and a dedicated social activist, who hail from Chennai.
She is sagacious, straight forward, her life is simple but be social, allots
specific time to do her duties.
According to her, motivation should come from within and self-questioning
is the right path to liberate one’s mind.
She practices discipline, patience and endurance to motivate
herself. She is secular, keeps away from
negative thinkers, gentle with the gentle people and tough with the tough. Her curiosity, dedication and deep
involvement in studies took her to top position in the academic world at the
Collegiate level. She is a polyglot who
can speak and write three languages namely Tamil, English and Hindi. Her
personal rapport with students is power and strength to her. Apart from her teaching ability namely
conveying a message in brief and simple way to the students, equally she
applies her sharpness in simplifying the complicated issues in the governing
bodies. Rarely we do come across the
combination of both academic and administrative ability in one person. She is none other than Dr. M. Raziya Parvin,
a multitalented personality, who is presently heading the Department of
Historical Studies at the Queen Mary’s College, Chennai. A gold medalist in her graduation with
History subject as major she had completed her post-graduation, took her M.Phil
research degree on Tourism with reference to the city of Chennai. Her wide
historical knowledge especially about the part played by a few brave women on
the Indian soil and her personal observation about the problems pertaining to
womenfolk emboldened her to search for more pragmatic ideas to uplift the women
community. So, she went a step forward
to know more about the social issues by doing her post-graduation in Sociology
which was a wise and timely decision.
She had chosen a topic on “Empowerment of Women with special reference
to Tamil Nadu” for her Ph.D research work, successfully completed her Doctorate
degree in 1999 and took to teaching line at the Collegiate level. Since then she has been striving hard to take
topics on women related subject and solutions.
Within a span of 25 years, Dr. M. Raziya Parvin had acquired with all
the admirable qualities of academic as well as administrative abilities. With regard to teaching techniques among the
have-nots of the student’s world, she is affectionately hailed as herald of
hope.
A
peep into her brief bio-data uphold her achievements at the academic level.
Evidence point out that she presented nearly 53 papers on subject related to
women issues in Conferences, participated in nearly 32 Seminars and many of her
articles published in the proceedings of the same. Her bio-data reveals that her 11 articles
have been published in the national journals and 5 in the international
journals. She has contributed 13 articles in “Penmani”, a monthly Tamil
magazine. She has organized more than 25
Seminars/Workshops for the benefit of the student community. Apart from acting as one of the members of
the Doctoral Committee, she had conducted 17 Ph.D viva-voce examinations. She herself produced many M.Phil and Ph.D
scholars and her academic involvement include IDE Study materials, UGC Major
Research Project and contributed herself to the Tamil Nadu State Text Book
Committee. She has been acting as Question paper setter to nearly 25 colleges
and Universities in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Her service includes acting as the TNPSC subject expert, University
nominee for Board of Studies in many colleges and many others. She has been honoured as an important
resource person in many academic bodies.
She authored four important works on Empowerment of Women, the
latest being a book entitled, “Saluting Women in Indian History” which touches
the courageous activities of many women rulers of the Indian soil. Many awards have been conferred on Dr.
Raziya, the most important is Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Award, Arignar Anna Award,
IOS Award and others for her teaching excellence and social work. In the year 2024, she has won the Golden Book
Award for her latest work “Saluting Women in Indian History”. While serving as NSS and YRC officer, she
captured the hearts of innumerable students by her direct and relentless
service to the society. There is nothing
dearer to her than her students. When
she enters the door of her Department, she is beseized with a batch of students
only to listen to her voice…..a voice that carries love and affection. She doesn’t hesitate to visit schools only to
give lectures. She has been invited as a Chief Guest by various educational
institutions. Her colleagues comment
that she is of majestic type, avoids conflicts, stick to her statement,
stubborn and strives to safeguard the interests of the poor students. Her friends opine that she is a unique by
herself, who filters all she hears on a screen of truth in her own way.
When
a question is posed to Dr. Raziya about the secret of success, she smiled and
said that she believes in the attitude of always be active and take life as it
comes. To another question about the
empowerment of women, Dr. Raziya empathetically replies that women should think
of their duties and responsibilities before claiming their rights. In this connection, she is highly critical of
few feminists, who always talk of freedom for women and not their duties. She further believes that the haughty and
irritable attitude of few feminists is doing more damage to the women community
itself. She said that hers is a middle
path and adds that a rational approach is required to realize the ground
reality. She continues to say that
through constructive education, men would definitely support the cause for
women. She reminds us that many male
social reformers initiated their slogan namely the wrongs of men and the rights
of women. She recalls that though she hails
from a orthodox Muslim family, but for her father’s full moral support she
couldn’t have come to high position in the academic field. Her dynamism was seen during the recent
Cultural Fest of Queen Mary’s College, Chennai.
The gigantic personality, Dr. Raziya reminds us of the great women ruler
of the past on the Indian soil, Sultan Razia who in spite of many odds became a
powerful women ruler, earned a great name and fame, called as a just,
beneficial, a patron of learned, a dispenser of justice…..endowed with all the
great qualities of a ruler.
By
Dr.
G. Ashok
Formerly Associate
Professor of History
Presidency College (A)
Chennai – 600 005
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