Kamla Chowdhry
Kamla Chowdhry was an Indian educator who was the first faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and a key member in its founding and functioning in its early years.
Early life and education
Kamla Chowdhry, née Kapur, was born on 17 December 1920 in Lahore to a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family. Her father, Ganesh Das Kapur, was a leading surgeon in Lahore; her mother, Lilavati Khanna, came from a family of engineers involved in the building of the Sukkur barrage on the Indus river in Sindh. She pursued her early education at Shantiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore, also learning music and how to play the sitar. After matriculating from Punjab University with a first-class degree in 1936, she earned a BA in mathematics and philosophy from Calcutta University in 1940.She married a civil services officer named Khem Chowdhry; however, the marriage was short-lived. As during
her husband's posting in North-West Frontier Province, he was murdered by a Pashtun tribesman as the couple slept. The tribesman mostly likely bore a grievance. By the time the trial was concluded, a traumatized Kamla had fallen into depression.
However, inspired by a condolence letter that she received from Tagore, she enrolled in the MA program in philosophy at Punjab University, graduating in 1943, having stood first in her class. Between 1944 and 1945, she taught intermediate and BA-level classes at Mahila College, Lahore. She then joined the Michigan State University, graduating in 1949 with a MA and PhD in social psychology. Her PhD was completed under the supervision of Theodore Newcomb who would come to be recognized as one of the most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century.