Rabindra Mahavidyalaya, Hooghly

About Rabindra Mahavidyalaya, Hooghly

Champadanga, an affluent village under the Trarakeswar Block, is a very famous hub of good trade and commerce. Old Benaras Road passes through Champadanga. There was a time when the narrow-gauged Martin Railways connected this village with Howrah. However, that railway network is no longer functioning. From very early on, Champadanga had a steady economy based on the opulent vegetation of the area. But sadly for the local people, they missed out on educational opportunities because of the absence of desired number of schools and institutions in an around the area. Even will into the fifth decade of the twentieth century, the locals could boast of only three high-schools within the radius of 3-4 kms. of their village. And the hope of establishing a college within a 20sp. km area was still a distant dream. It was in 1961 and on the memorable birth-centenary of Rabindranath Tagore when the people of Tarakeswar and Pursurah P.S. ably led by a group of social workers, made a start of the Tarakeswar-Pursurah Co-operative Cold Storage at Champadanga that the dream of opening a degree-college in the locality was conceived at all. Mostly, the local elders had the desire to meet the demand for higher education that was growing daily in the minds of the youths. They also planned to provide the college with fund from the Co-operative Society's profit for its all-round development.

The college now has the student population of nearly three thousand and for their part, the students are offered quite a remarkable list of 16 'Honours' and 17 'Pass' subjects to choose from. In the realm of higher education of the district. Rabindra Mahavidyalaya has already carved a niche for itself. A good many number of students, who mainly hail from the community of local peasantry, ably overcome the normal constraints of their rural backwardness to make glorious marks at various levels of the university examination. They excel at other sorts of competitive tests also. The phenomenon of regular 'achievements' have already placed their 'almamater' very high in the eyes of the others. For the locals, it is a matter of great pride In fact, for the last two decades, the history of the college charts only a steady progression from the days of a humble but honest beginning to that of a strong and vibrant present. In the improvement of the surrounding social atmosphere in making it more informed and less superstitious - the college has played a pivotal role. Frankly, the college has slowly emerged as a centre of academic and cultural excellence that can be used as a solid, starting platform by an average ruralite who generally tends to suffer from the malady of 'scarce opportunities' in his or her life.The founder- father of the college worked with a missionary zeal to reach out to almost each home and every family of the locality with the holy message of learning. Though we have miles to go towards the fullest attainment of the goal, but honestly speaking, we have already registered some positive steps taken in the rightful direction. Had they been living they would have been delighted to see their 'enlightment programme' now taking solid root into their own home-soil.