At the Sikh Kanya Mahavidyalaya, books written by which of the following Singh…

Concept

A claim of the form “books written by X were taught at institution Y” survives only when two independent conditions both hold:

• X belonged to the reform movement named in the question, so that X’s writing was acceptable within that institution’s ideological frame.

• X was an author whose written works actually entered that institution’s syllabus. Founding, funding, running or teaching at the institution is a different kind of contribution and does not satisfy this second condition.

Membership without authorship fails the second test, and authorship inside a rival movement fails the first. Both tests must be applied to every name before any combination is accepted.

Application

The Sikh Kanya Mahavidyalaya at Ferozepur was opened in 1892 by Bhai Takht Singh, with Harnam Kaur, as a Singh Sabha institution for girls’ education. Its scheme of studies combined religious and secular subjects and prescribed Punjabi didactic literature produced by Singh Sabha writers.

Bhai Veer Singh satisfies both conditions: he was a Singh Sabha poet and novelist, and his Punjabi works — the novel Sundari among them — formed part of the school’s syllabus. Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid of Tarn Taran also satisfies both: a physician and one of the most prolific Singh Sabha tract-writers on health, conduct and household management, his writings on women’s education were used as reading material at the school.

Cross-check

Lala Devraj fails the first condition: he was an Arya Samaj educator who founded the girls’ school at Jalandhar in 1886 that took the name Kanya Maha Vidyalaya in 1896 — a different movement and a different institution. Harnam Kaur fails the second: she drew up the scheme of studies and taught at Ferozepur, but no book of her authorship was prescribed there.

Result

The Singh Sabha stalwarts whose books were taught at the Sikh Kanya Mahavidyalaya are Bhai Veer Singh and Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid — that is, A and D.