Bangabasi College, Kolkata

About Bangabasi College, Kolkata

An educational institution of national importance, Bangabasi College had its genesis in the prophetic vision and spirit of sacrificial dedication of Late Acharya Girish Chandra Bose. Founded under private management in 1887, it had as its guiding inspiration the genius of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. The aim of the institution was two fold: first, to cater to the growing demand for higher education and second, to nurture the spirit of nationalism in the minds of young learners under colonial yoke. At the same time, it marked an indirect protest challenging the narrow educational policy of the Hunter Commission.

This historic institution emerged seminally from Bangabasi School, founded by Acharya Girish Chandra Bose in 1885, in a rented house in Bowbazar Street with six teachers and twelve students. Offering at the outset, the F.A. Course, this college obtained affiliation for the B.A., B.L. and M.A. courses to meet the requirements of an ever-growing institution. In 1930, the college moved into its present premises at 19, Scott Lane (now Raj Kumar Chakraborty Sarani). After that, there was a steady advance in academic pursuits with the introduction of the Honours course in various subjects. In the early 1920s, the urgent need for scientific education was met by a strong contingent of Science teachers who, together with a powerful Arts faculty, set standards of higher education which even Government-run colleges found hard to match. Soon after Independence in 1947, three new branches of the Institution were opened which, later, through the Phase Reduction Scheme of the University Grants Commission, emerged as Bangabasi Morning College, Bangabasi Evening College housed in the same building and Bangabasi College of Commerce in a separate building on 11th April, 1960. Broadening its perspectives, the college became co-educational in 1979 with Bangabasi College opening another Commerce Department. A new feather was added in 2005 through the introduction of Post Graduate studies in Zoology. The year of India's Independence coincided with the Diamond Jubilee Year of the College. The celebrations were inaugurated by Chakraborty Rajagopalachari. Keeping aloft the rich tradition of excellence and generations of humanistic education, Bangabasi College completed 100 years of its existence in 1987. The list of alumni, who attended the year-long celebration, provides impressive reading. Swami Lokeshwarananda, Senior Monk, Ramakrishna Mission; Shri Tushar Kanti Ghosh, Editor, Amrita Bazar Patrika; Dr. A.P. Mitra, Director General, CSIR; Prof. Yashpal, Chairman, UGC; Prof. P.K. Bose, former Principal and Oxford Scholar, son of the Illustrious founder Acharya Girish Chandra Bose.

The Institution has left a deep imprint in the history of the sub-continent through socio-political and cultural activities in many spheres. As a matter of fact, it was a National College during the days of alien rule - serving as an asylum for political sufferers - students and teachers. The nationalist spirit nurtured by the college was amply evident in the active participation of students and teachers in the Disobedience Movement in 1930 culminating in the supreme sacrifice of Shri Jatindra Nath Das, an undergraduate student of the college, in his epic fast unto death in Lahore jail on September 13, 1929.

Bangabasi, with its glorious tradition in teaching and scholarship, continues in its task of disseminating higher and progressive education, holding high the ideals of Pranipatena - Reverence, Pariprashnena - Search for Truth, Sevaya -Service to Humanity - the inner motive force of this Institution.