By John B Monteiro

Mangaluru, Nov 28: Canara Girls’ High School at Urva, Mangaluru, is all set to mark its Platinum Jubilee on November 29, 2019 with a variety of programs. It was started by Ammembal Subraya Pai (who signed as A. Subba Rao) who became a pioneer in the field of education and banking – to the immense benefit of Goud Saraswat Brahmins and people at large in Tulunadu and beyond. He had started Canara High School for boys in 1891. It is interesting to recall that but for repeated gout attacks when he was in Madras, he would have remote-controlled his forays into education and banking from that presidency capital, now renamed Chennai. But, the story should start at the beginning.

Having qualified to be a lawyer, Rao was apprenticing under H H Shepherd who later became Judge of Madras High Court. He also had an offer from Justice H Holloway who had mentored Rao even while he was a law student, to go to England for higher studies. But, this could not be entertained in the orthodox atmosphere in his community then.

Rao had a good law practice in Mangaluru. His brother thought his talents would shine better in Madras High Court. Accordingly he established himself in the profession in Madras. However, suffering repeated attacks of painful gout, his doctors advised him to return to Mangaluru. This adversity turned out to be a gain for Mangaluru which confirms Shakespeare’s lines from 'As You Like It':

“Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Rao now lives on in the realm of people’s grateful memory and hearts, through the institutions he founded – Canara group of educational institutions which have emerged as a powerhouse of education and Canara Bank, now a leading nationalised bank with other banks merged with it recently.

Ammembal Subraya Pai was born at Mulki on November 19, 1852. His father, Upendra, who had started as a pleader at Kaup, shifted his practice to Mulki several years earlier to Rao’s birth. Upendra shifted to Mangalore in 1864 for the sake of his children’s education. Rao was admitted to Government College High School – started in 1865. He stood high in Matriculation and FA (Fellow of Arts) exams. His father sent him for degree course in Madras.

In 1870 Rao got admission to Presidency College, Madras. After passing BA, with second rank in the Presidency, he joined Madras Law College where he topped the list of successful candidates of BL exam. After returning and staying for a short time in Mangaluru, Rao went back to Madras for his law apprenticeship and at the end of it enrolled at the Madras High Court with the idea of settling down there. However, the untimely death of his father in 1876 brought him back to Mangaluru where he set up practice.

After ten years of practice in Mangaluru, Rao went back to Madras in 1887 to resume his practice there. It is there that one day four young men from Canara, who were studying in Madras, called on Rao to put before him their idea of starting a high school in Mangaluru. He readily pledged his support which was to be remote-controlled from Madras. But, as it turned out, Rao had to return to Mangaluru in 1889 due to his gout problem. With him now in Mangaluru, Canara High School located at the main Canara educational complex at Dongerkeri, was started in 1891. Incidentally, first such school, Ganapathi High School was started on the road now named after it, in 1870.

In 1894, Rao started Canara Girls High School at Urva – which now celebrates its Platinum Jubilee. (Incidentally, the first girls high school, St. Ann’s Girls High School, was started by AC Sisters at Bolar in 1870). The rest is history with Canara Engineering College at Benjanpadau as the jewel in the crown. Earlier, a branch of Canara was started at Urwa and PU and graduate colleges were started along with expansion at the base of the educational pyramid.

A passing reference to Rao’s tryst with banking is relevant. In the early 1900s, Arbuthnot Company, which collected deposits from the public and gave loans, crashed and caused widespread distress in Canara. Many families lost all their savings in the crash. The smaller merchants found it very difficult to get credit except at prohibitive rates of interest. Rao foresaw disaster ahead if the community did not mobilise its own resources to help itself. The result was the starting in 1906 of the Canara Hindu Permanent Fund Limited, which was later to become Canara Bank. The venture proved an instant success. That so soon after the crash of Arbuthnot, the people entrusted their savings to the newly started institution is an eloquent testimony of the trust people had in Rao. Incidentally, the first such bank in Tulunadu, today’s Corporation Bank, was started in Udupi, a few months earlier the same year.

Finally, repeated and severe attacks of gout led to the sudden death of Rao on July 25, 1909. The news of the death spread like wild fire and plunged the district in grief. People thronged the corridors of his house and filed into the room where his body was laid. People wept and many related how Rao had helped them in their distress. As for education, generations of students passing out of Canara educational conglomerate would shine in the world, often without fully knowing who founded it. The latest jubilee celebration would bring him into well-deserved focus once again.