Vidyasagar College
 | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established |
1872: Metropolitan Institution 1917: Vidyasagar College |
| Location | Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
| Campus | Urban |
| Affiliations | University of Calcutta |
| Website | Vidyasagar College |
Vidyasagar College (Bengali: বিদ্যাসাগর মহাবিদ্যালয়), named after Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, is a government-sponsored morning, day and evening college, affiliated to the University of Calcutta in Kolkata, India. It was formerly known as Metropolitan Institution.
History
Vidyasagar College was founded in the year 1872.[1] The college had its origin in the Calcutta Training School that was founded by Thakurdas Chakraborty in 1859. In 1864, the school came to be known as the Metropolitan Institution. In1872, the University of Calcutta granted affiliation to the Institution for the First Arts (FA) standard. The birth of the first private and truly secular college in the Presidency of Bengal was hailed as a landmark in the academic and cultural ethos of India. It was the great Indian educationalist and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who was associated with the College from its very inception in 1872. The college is a living monument of the untiring labours of Vidyasagar who is known to be the founder of the college. After the passing away of the founder in 1891, the name, Metropolitan Institute, was changed to Vidyasagar College in 1917. Since then the College entered a phase of rapid growth which made it expand its academic curriculum by introducinga commerce department in 1922 and a morning section for women in 1931. In the course of its expansion the institution had as its alumni Swami Vivekananda, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Acharya Jadunath Sarkar, Ram Manohar Lohia, Babu Jagjiban Ram and many others who made immence contribution in various walks of life. The institution also had the services of such great luminaries as Rashtraguru Surendranath Banerjee, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Professor Sisir Kumar Bhaduri, Nabin Chandra Vidyaratna and even Rabindranath Tagore in various capacities. The commerce Department of the college, established in 1922, has the distinction of being the oldest commerce teaching department in India. It had its affiliation up to B.Com standard in 1928 and attracted students from different parts of India. It was due to the untiring effort of Prof. J.C. Mitra, the then Vice-Principal of the College the Commerce Department made such repaid growth in terms of faculty and student strength that a separate wing devoted to commerce teaching in evening hours was established in 1951. The evening section and morning section are known as Vidyasagar Metropolitan College and Vidyasagar Morning College respectively.
Departments
Science
- Geography
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Botany
- Zoology
- Mathematics
- Biochemistry
- Physiology
- Computer Science
- Economics
- Electronics
- Nutrition
Notable alumni
- Keshab Chunder Sen, Brahmo reformer
- Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, scientist
- Jatindra Nath Das, freedom fighter
- Ram Manohar Lohia, freedom fighter
- Ananda Chandra Agarwala, Assamese writer, poet
- Ganesh Man Singh, Nepalese freedom fighter, politician
- Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, religious leader
- Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, novelist
- Manna Dey, singer
- Ram Sunder Das, freedom fighter, politician
- Brojen Das, swimmer
- Paoli Dam, actress
- Tarachand Barjatya, Eminent Film Producer
Alumni Association
- Vidyasagar College Praktani
Notable faculty
References
- ↑ About the college