Hindu College, Delhi

Hindu College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi in New Delhi, India. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest for arts and sciences in India.[1][2] It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in sciences, humanities, social sciences and commerce. In 2020, it is ranked 3rd nationally by National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) under Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India).[3] It has been awarded 'Star College' status for its Department of Biotechnology by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Government of India).[4] The college has produced many notable alumni in the fields of Law, Economics, Science, Psychology, Business, Philosophy, Literature, Media, Cinema, Military, Sports and Politics. Notwithstanding its name, students from all religions are admitted to Hindu College.

Hindu College
MottoMusic of Truth
TypePublic
Established1899 (1899)
PrincipalDr. Anju Srivastava
Academic staff
120
Students2500
Location
Delhi
,
National Capital Territory of Delhi
,
India
CampusNorth Campus, University of Delhi
AffiliationsUniversity of Delhi
Websitehinducollege.ac.in

History
A 1999 stamp dedicated to Hindu College

Hindu College was founded in 1899 by Krishan Dassji Gurwale[5] in the backdrop of the nationalist struggle against the British Raj. Some prominent citizens, including Rai bahadur Amba Prasad, Gurwale Ji, decided to start a college that would provide nationalist education to the youth, while being non-elitist and non-sectarian. Originally, the college was housed in a humble building in Kinari Bazar, Chandni Chowk, and it was affiliated to Punjab University as there was no university in Delhi at that time. As the college grew, it faced a major crisis in 1902. The Punjab University warned the college that the university would disaffiliate the college if the college failed to get a proper building of its own. Rai Bahadur Lala Sultan Singh came to rescue the college from this crisis. He donated a part of his historic property, which originally belonged to Colonel James Skinner, at Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, to the college. The college functioned from there till 1953.[6] When the University of Delhi took birth in 1922, Hindu College along with Ramjas College and St. Stephen's College were subsequently affiliated to the University of Delhi, making them the first three institutions to be affiliated with the university.[7]

Hindu College was a centre for intellectual and political debate during India's freedom struggle, especially during the Quit India Movement. It is the only college in Delhi to have a students' parliament since 1935, which provided a platform to many national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Subhash Chandra Bose for motivating the youth. Responding to Gandhi's Quit India Movement in 1942, the college played a substantial role in India's freedom struggle and some of this college's teachers and students courted arrest.[8] The college also closed its gates for several months.[9]

Principals
  1. B.B. Mookerji, 1899–1906
  2. N.N. Roy, 1906–1911
  3. P.B. Adhikari, 1911–1915
  4. S. Sen, 1915–1917
  5. N.V. Thadani, 1917–1928
  6. S.K. Sen, 1928–1934
  7. N.V. Thadani, 1935–1950
  8. A. Bhattacharya, 1950–1957
  9. R.N. Mathur, 1958–1964
  10. B.M. Bhatia*, 1964–1971, 1973–1980
  11. P.C. Verma, 1980–1995
  12. S.N. Maheshwari, 1995–1997
  13. Kavita A. Sharma, 1998–2008
  14. S. Choudhary, 2008–2010
  15. Vinay K Srivastava, 2010–2012
  16. Pradumn Kumar 2012–2014
  17. Anju Srivastava 2014–present


*Dr. B.M. Bhatia was on leave for two years, 1971–1973. During this period, Dr. P.C. Sood was the substituting principal. [10]

Campus

The college is spread across a 25-acre campus. It has one auditorium, a seminar room and maintains a playground and a sports complex.[11] Basketball, cricket, and table tennis are organised under the supervision of the director of physical education. The college has physics and chemistry laboratories, NCC and NSS rooms, a computer room, photocopier and stationery shop. A Students' Centre offers a bank and a canteen.

Library

Hindu College's library is among the oldest college libraries in the University of Delhi. It was set up in 1899, along with the foundation of the college. Also students as well as teachers can refer to various books in library.

Hostel

Hindu College's boys hostel is situated next to the sports complex of college. It has 119 rooms enclosing four lawns with rose beds and hedges (charbagh style). The hostel provides residential facilities to about two hundred undergraduate and postgraduate male students. A common room provides the residents recreational facilities such as Carrom-board, chess, and a separate TV room apart from the newspapers and magazines. Due to its limited capacity, only the highly meritorious among the college students get admission to the hostel. The college has a girls hostel, which has been working from 2017 strength of 190 students .

Organisation and administration

Departments
  • Department of Botany
  • Department of Commerce
  • Department of Economics
  • Department of English
  • Department of Hindi
  • Department of History
  • Department of Mathematics
  • Department of Philosophy
  • Department of Physics
  • Department of Political Science
  • Department of Sanskrit
  • Department of Sociology
  • Department of Statistics
  • Department of Zoology
  • Department of Chemistry
  • Department of Physical Science – Chemistry
  • Department of Physical Science-Electronics

Academics

Rankings
College rankings
General – India
NIRF (Colleges) (2019)[12]2

Hindu College is ranked third among colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2020.[12]

Student life

Student Societies

Every department has its own society which is tasked with organising the department-specific co-curricular activities. Ibtida is the dramatics society of Hindu College which performs both stage and street plays. It was formed by Imtiaz Ali while he was a student at the college.[13] The women's development cell of the college has been very active in gender sensitisation and after the scrapping of section 377 successfully led pride parades to create awareness about LGBTQ+ rights.

The Indian music society, Alankar, holds its annual festival Harmony every year.[14] The English debating society, popularly known as the Desboc, is representative of an inquiring and active intellectual life on campus. Debsoc is the only debating society in Delhi University to organise four major debates in an academic year.[15]

Other societies include Abhyas- The Internship Cell; The Finance & Investment Cell; Abhirang, the Hindi Dramatic Society; Abstraction, the Fine Arts Society; Aria, the Western Music Society; Manthan, the Quiz Society; Srijya, the Contemporary Dance Society; ; Masque, The English Dramatic Society; Vagmi, the Hindi Debating Society; and Vivre, The Film and Photography Society.[16]

Students’ Parliament

The college has a Students' Parliament. The Hindu College Parliament is a unique student organisation in the country. All the students and teachers of the College are its members. The students elect the Prime Minister from amongst themselves at the beginning of the year. There is also a Leader of the Opposition. The Speaker of the Parliament is a teacher nominated by the Principal in his/her capacity as the President of the Hindu College Republic.[17] The College Parliament is a forum for discussions on academic and other issues. It allocates funds to the various societies. The parliament is in continuous operation since 1935. Members of Cabinet of students' Parliament are elected by students. The students' parliament takes care of student demands.[18]

Notable alumni


The alumni of Hindu College are called Hinduites.

References
  1. "List of Colleges".
  2. "Cut-off List" (PDF).
  3. "HRD Rankings".
  4. "Hindu College Delhi". globaleducates.com. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  5. Smith, R. V. (31 August 2014). "A legendary doc". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 1 August 2020. committee of Hindu College, Dr. Sen played a leading role in youth education along with Lala Shri Krishna Dass Gurwala (one of the founders of the college)
  6. "Eduage – Hindu College". eduage.org. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  7. "About University of Delhi – University of Delhi". du.ac.in. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  8. Hindu College, Delhi. toptalent.in
  9. Introduction to Hindu College, Delhi University. The Hindu-college.learnhub.com
  10. "::: Hindu College ::: – About Us". hinducollege.org. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  11. "Hindu College". dubeat.com. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  12. "National Institutional Ranking Framework 2019 (Colleges)". National Institutional Ranking Framework. Ministry of Education. 2019.
  13. Singh, Prashant (18 August 2015). "Realised I liked direction while working in theatre: Imtiaz". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  14. "HARMONY 2015- Music Festival : Hindu college – Heyevent.com". heyevent.com. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  15. "Hindu College photography festival". The Times of India. 24 April 2014.
  16. Hindu College, University of Delhi. universityexpress.co.in. 5 June 2013.
  17. "::: Hindu College ::: – Campus Life". hinducollege.org. Archived from the original on 14 December 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  18. http://www.studiebay.com/experiences-hindu-college-du/
  19. "Arnab Goswami quits Times Now". The Hindu. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.