Belle Bhavani Rao: The ‘Teacher of Teachers’ and a Great Educationist

By Dr. Eugene DSouza, Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network

Moodubelle, 29 August 2010: As the Teachers’ Day is just a week away on 5 September 2010 which will be celebrated all over India to mark the birth anniversary of one of the great  philosophers,  educationists and statesmen, the second President of India, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, it would be appropriate to remember and recall the services of Belle Bhavani Rao in the field of education. Incidentally, the birth centenary of Belle Bhavani Rao on 1 June 2010 has already crossed. However, it is not too late to pay our respect to this doyen of education, who can be truly considered as ‘The Teacher of Teachers’ and a great educationist.

Belle Bhavani Rao was born on 1 June 1910 as the fifth child of Belle Kuppannayya and Lakshmiamma at their ancestral house at Devaragudde where Belle Sadananda Rao (Sadananda Master) and his family presently reside. While his parents and elder brothers and sisters called him by his name ‘Bhavani’, he was referred fondly as ‘Anna’ by his younger siblings. As he grew up, Bhavani lived at Devaragudde and later as his father moved with his family to Mulikambla, his childhood was spent at that place not very far away from his ancestral place of birth.

From an anecdote narrated by Bhavani’s mother Lakshmiamma to her grandchildren (Bhavani’s children), as a young boy, Belle Bhavani Rao had been quite naughty like any other boy of his age supposed to be, especially when his father who was known as ‘Kuppannayya Shener’ was away from home. One particular incident that Lakshmi Ajji had narrated many decades ago to her grandchildren proves the point.  It was the time when a new well was being dug at Belle home. One day Lakshmiamma was busy washing household clothes next to this new well and Bhavani who was just about four years old ran over to his mother at full speed. However, he missed his mother as she was busy washing clothes and fell straight into the newly dug well nearly 25 feet deep. There was shock and disbelief that the child would fall in such a way into the well.

Lakshmiamma panicked and looked into the well and to her great relief she found that Bhavani had landed right into a small puddle of water at the bottom of the well. It was a lucky escape for Bhavani as any deviation in his fall a few inches away in any direction would have been fatal as he would have hit the hard rock at the edge of the bottom of the well.

Belle Bhavani Rao had his early education in the Christian High School, Udupi.  While studying in this school, Bhavani along with his cousins including Krishna Rao (father of Sadananda Rao), Bhujang Rao and his own elder brother-Vittala Rao were staying at the house of the relatives at Volakkad in Udupi. Having not satisfied with mere matriculation, equivalent to modern SSLC education, Bhavani studied further for graduation and acquired B.A. degree in Mangalore in 1931. After graduation, even though he did have opportunities to seek better and lucrative employment in other fields including banks, Belle Bhavani Rao decided to dedicate himself to the noble profession of teaching and did teachers training course from Chennai (erstwhile Madras) with Licensee of Teaching (LT) degree in 1932.

After being qualified as a teacher, Belle Bhavani Rao taught for two years in St. Anne’s High School, Mangalore before taking up assignment as Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics in   St Anne’s College of Teachers’ Training in Mangalore where he served for nearly 30 years with great dedication and sincerity. He was very popular among the teacher trainees and was called ‘teacher of teachers’.

The fame of Belle Bhavani Rao as a sincere and exemplary teacher spread far and wide. In 1960s, realising his ability to contribute towards the improvement of the teaching profession, Belle Bhavani Rao was appointed as the Coordinator and Director of Extension Services Department that was  jointly sponsored by Central and State Governments along with  the Ford Foundation to conduct  teachers’ training. During this period, spread little over two decades, Belle Bhavani Rao moved from one district of Karnataka to the other  educating school teachers, motivating them to be excellent teachers  and making them aware of the best teaching practices by conducting workshops and training sessions at various schools. During such programmes, he shared the knowledge he gained during National Level Workshops conducted by luminaries in the field of education. When he was considered by the Ford Foundation for visit to USA and other developed countries for interaction with educationists, Belle Bhavani Rao felt that he was too old and in the evening of his career and thus encouraged and recommended other  young teachers and heads of schools for such visits. This is one of the best examples of the totally selfless service of Belle Bhavani Rao.

Belle Bhavani Rao dedicated his entire life and worked in the field of education. Among the teaching fraternity he not only came to be known as  the ‘Teacher of Teachers’ but also he was addressed as “Great Master” Bhavani Rao by all who admired him. He wrote text books on Mathematics for both primary and high school students. Following the centralisation of the text books, Belle Bhavani Rao was appointed as an active member of the Committee formed by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) in which he shared his knowledge in the field of education.

Besides being a hard core educationist, Belle Bhavani Rao was totally involved in to philanthropy. He was one of the founder Members of Sri Subramanya Sabha, Mangalore and Sri Subramanya Sabha Co-operative Bank, Mangalore, both of which were established for the welfare of the community. He devoted his life time and resources wholeheartedly for the progress of these institutions. He was also one of the members of the Pavanje Subramanya Temple Administrative Committee. He was a well-known social worker of his times and dedicated his life for the betterment of the society.

Belle Bhavani Rao had concern for the poorer section of the society. This anecdote sheds light on his helpful nature at the cost of giving up some of his own pleasures. As any youngsters of the period, he used to smoke cigarettes. One day while he was enjoying a puff, a poor girl came over to him and pleaded for financial help to pay the examination fee. However, without realising the true nature of her need, Belle Bhavani Rao turned her away. Later, at the end of the day he recalled the incident of the poor girl approaching him for financial help to pay her examination fee and had a thorough introspection.  After spending some restless moments, Belle Bhavani Rao realised that he was burning away a fair amount of money because of his indulgence in smoking whereas poor people did not have money even to pay their examination fee. It is said that Belle Bhavani Rao got so much disgusted about his smoking that he decided to quit the habit and utilised the money such saved to sponsor deserving students for their higher studies.

A strong believer in simple and disciplined life, Belle Bhavani Rao used to walk all the way from his residence at Kadri to Hoyge Bazar where St. Anne’s Teachers’ Training College was situated, roughly a distance of around five kilometres one way making ten kilometres both ways per day. This exercise helped him to maintain good health and remain fit.

In spite of his busy schedules and hectic professional life,  Belle Bhavani Rao was a family man. He married  Sharadha Devi in 1935, and was blessed with four sons-Deva Rao Belle, who joined the Indian Air force and rose to the rank of Wing Commander. He retired as Deputy Director of Defence Research and Development Organisation and presently resides in his paternal house at Kadri Mangalore. Kuppuswamy who joined the Indian Army and retired as Colonel. He stays with his family at Hosur near Bangalore.  Rammohan has been serving as the General Manager of the State Bank of India in Mumbai and Karunakar has been a farmer and businessman in Mangalore. The three daughters Belle Bhavani Rao are: Snehalatha, Padma and Srilatha.

Belle Bhavani Rao’s house at Kadri, Mangalore named ‘Hema Mandir’ became his home since 1951. This house was also home for a large number of his nieces and nephews and others from villages who came to Mangalore for pursuing their education. His wife, Sharadha was his life companion, friend, philosopher and guide. They had quite a long stint of married life and even celebrated their Golden Marriage Anniversary.
Unfortunately, Belle Bhavani Rao’s wife Sharadha became blind  in her second half of life due to some unknown reasons. However, instead of neglecting,  he took good care of her. He would escort her wherever she wanted to go and explain to her everything he saw and thus became her eyes to see this world. Every day he would spend quality time with her reading loudly from newspapers, periodicals and books for her to be abreast with the happenings. This he did right through till she passed away in the year 1995. Belle Bhavani Rao himself departed to his heavenly abode on 11 February 1999, a contented man, a devoted husband, a loving and caring father and above all a role model teacher and a great educationist.

In this centenary year of the birth of Belle Bhavani Rao, his nephew Belle Ravindranath Rao, a great philanthropist from Bangalore thought it fit to perpetuate the memory of his great educationist uncle by sponsoring cash prizes to the first three highest distinction scorers in SSLC and three faculties-arts, commerce and science in PUC among the students of St. Lawrence Composite PU College, Moodubelle each year from this year. This year the programme to distribute these cash awards was held on 10 July 2010 during which Rs.76.000 was awarded to those students who figured in the list of meritorious students. Besides, Belle Ravindranath Rao, sons of late Belle Bhavani Rao-Dev Rao Belle and his wife Mrs. Vaijayanthi  Dev Rao and Kuppuswamy Rao; daughter of late Belle Bhavani Rao-Mrs. Snehalatha  Diwakar and her husband Dr. S. Diwakar Rao;  Mrs. Sujataha Karunakar, wife of Karunakar Rao- another son of late Belle Bhavani Rao were present.

The people Belle are very proud of Belle Bhavani Rao and his entire family who have had their roots in this village. By affixing the name of the village ‘Belle’ to his name, Belle Bhavani Rao had given an identity to the village and made it famous with his great achievements in the field of education. As the nation celebrates the teachers’ day in a week’s time Belleans salute the memory of the ‘Teacher of Teachers’ and a great educationist.

(I am grateful to Wing Commander (Retd.) Deva Rao Belle,, the eldest son of Belle Bhavani Rao for providing most of the information and pictures on which this profile is based. I also thank Belle Sadananda Rao (Sadananda Master) for additional input
-Dr. Eugene D’Souza).