1. Norah Richards was an Irish actress and theatre practitioner, who was later called the Lady Gregory of the Punjab.
13 Facts About Norah Richards
1. 2.
Norah Richards devoted 60 years of her life towards enriching the culture of the area.
3.
Norah Richards came to the Punjab in 1911 and produced the first Punjabi play, Dulhan, written by her pupil I C Nanda in 1914.
4.
Norah Richards received her formal education in institutions in around the world, mainly Belgium, Oxford University and Sydney.
5.
Norah Richards married Philip Ernest Richards, an English teacher and a Unitarian Christian.
6.
Norah Richards came to India in 1908 as her husband accepted a job to teach English literature at Dyal Singh College in Lahore.
7.
Norah Richards brought many Punjabi themes under her English pen and directed a few plays.
8.
Norah Richards had an interest in theosophy and was actively involved in the theosophical movement and home-rule agitation by Dr Annie Besant.
9.
One such settler who left for England gave away his property to Norah Richards, which came to be known as the Woodlands Estate.
10.
Norah Richards opened a school of drama from which have emerged many famous names of Punjabi drama like Ishwar Chand Nanda, Dr Harcharan Singh, Balwant Gargi and Gurcharan Singh.
11.
Norah Richards' plays were on social reform, displaying wide sympathy with the people's ways and traditions.
12.
Norah Richards wrote scripts while many people came and helped with the production.
13.
Norah Richards discusses Norah Richards at some length in his autobiography.