Presidency College, Kolkata
Encyclopedia
Presidency University, Kolkata, formerly Hindu College and Presidency College, is a unitary, state aided university, located in Kolkata
, West Bengal
. and one of the premier institutes of learning of liberal arts and sciences in India. In 2002 it was ranked number one by the weekly news magazine India Today
. In 2010, the year the college was upgraded to university status, it was ranked 3rd in India.
Established in 1817, it is the oldest educational institution in India. It was founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and a number of other eminent personalities of Bengal, such as Raja Radhakanta Deb, Maharaja Tejchandra Ray of Burdwan, David Hare
, Justice Sir Edward Hyde East, Prasanna Coomar Tagore
and Babu Buddinath Mukherjee.
Initially established as the Mahapathshala wing of Hindu College, it was renamed Presidency College, i.e. the college of the Bengal Presidency, in 1855. In 2010, under the Chief Ministership of Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
, a former student of the college, it was upgraded to the status of a full university by the Presidency University Act, 2010 passed in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The Governor of West Bengal, Shri M.K. Narayanan, gave his consent to the bill on 7 July 2010.
The longest serving Principal of Presidency College was J. Sutcliff, who was its Principal intermittently for 20 years, from 1852-1875. He was the Principal of the college when the college was renamed in 1855 and the new building at 86/1, College Street was built a few years later. The first Indian (acting) Principal of the college was Prasanna Kumar Ray (1902; 1903 and 1905–1906) and the first Indian (full-time) Principal of the college was B.M.Sen (1931-1934 (acting) and 1934–1942).
Prof. Amita Chatterjee took over as the first vice chancellor of the newly formed university in 2010.
The university offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees as well as Ph.D. degrees in the natural sciences, humanities
and the social sciences
. The first batch of undergraduate students under the new university was admitted in 2011.
showed eagerness to learn the English language. David Hare
, in collaboration with Raja
Radhakanta Deb
had already taken steps introduce English education in Bengal. Babu Buddinath Mukherjee advanced the introduction of English as a medium of instruction further by enlisting the support of Sir
Edward Hyde East, Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court
who called a meeting of 'European and Hindu Gentlemen' in his house in May 1816. The purpose of the meeting was to "discuss the proposal to establish an institution for giving a liberal education to the children of the members of the Hindu Community". The proposal was received with unanimous approbation and a donation of over Rs. 100, 000 was promised for the setting up of the new college. Raja Ram Mohan Roy showed full sympathy for the scheme but chose not to come out in support of the proposal publicly for fear of "alarming the prejudices of his orthodox countrymen and thus marring the whole idea".
The College was formally opened on Monday, January 20, 1817 with 20 'scholars'. The foundation committee of the college, which oversaw its establishment, was headed by Raja Rammohan Roy
. The control of the institution was vested in a body of two Governors and four Directors. The first Governors of the college were Maharaja Tejchandra Bahadur of Burdwan and Babu
Gopee Mohan Thakoor. The first Directors were Babu
Gopeemohan Deb of Sobhabazar, Babu
Joykissen Sinha, Babu
Radha Madhab Banerjee and Babu
Gunganarain Doss. Babu Buddinath Mukherjee was appointed as the first Secretary of the college. The newly established college mostly admitted Hindu students from affluent and progressive families, but also admitted non-Hindu students such as Muslim
s, Jews, Christian
s and Buddhists.
At first the classes were held in a house belonging to Gorachand Bysack of Garanhatta (later renamed 304, Chitpore Road), which was rented by the college. In January 1818 the college moved to 'Feringhi Kamal Bose's house' which was located nearby in Chitpore. From Chitpore, the college moved to Bowbazar
and later to the building that now houses the Sanskrit College
on College Street
.
, Andhra Pradesh
and Orissa
. By 1828 enrolment of students steeply rose to 400. The obvious question, that then arose, was whether it would not be wiser for the Government of Bengal to establish a new 'English College' open to all classes and community of students. The Committee of Managers of Hindu College had soon after the inception of the college become dependent on government subsidy, due to serious shortage of funds. The government had began to play a greater role in the administration of the College.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the college had outgrown the plans made by its founders. Not only did it attract an ever-increasing number of scholars from the province and the rest of the Bengal Presidency, but it had also introduced courses in Law
, Drawing
, and Engineering
, which catered to the needs of all classes of students - Hindus as well as non-Hindus. The government had also to consider whether this growing institution, spending a good deal of public money, could be retained as a non-governmental institution, particularly when Calcutta had no general college managed exclusively by the Council of Education. When other towns in Bengal had government colleges, it was felt in official and non-official circles that Calcutta should also have one.
, the Governor of Bengal
, Bihar
and Orissa
, suggested that
The new name, 'Presidency', referred to the Bengal Presidency
, which was the local administrative unit of British India. Accordingly, the Committee of Management for Hindu College met for the last time on 11 January 1854. The Court of Directors renamed the College as Presidency College. The College started functioning on 15 June 1855. The 'scholars' of the College Department of Hindu College were transferred to Presidency College and 101 new students were freshly admitted. Of these 101 pupils, two were Muslims, while the rest were Hindus.
Initially, the Civil Engineering College and Medical College, that were located nearby, were associated with Presidency College. But with the formation of the University of Calcutta, also located close by, the Council of Education shelved plans for allowing the expansion of the these three premier institutions into a full fledged university. The college was formally placed under the control of the University of Calcutta
in 1857.
The college became an institution preparing candidates for the BA
examination under the aegis of Calcutta University. At the first Entrance Examination, held in 1857, it sent 23 students. The MA
degree was conferred for the first time on six students of this college in 1863.
The College authorities were faced with space shortage even after the expansion of the Sanskrit College building. The process for acquisition of land for building a separate building and grounds started in September 1865 and in 1870 the principal of the college submitted a plan for the construction of a new building on the premises where it is presently located. The new building was opened on March 31, 1874 by the then Lieutenant Governor
Sir
George Campbell
in the presence of His Excellency, the Viceroy of India. The finishing touch was given by Babu Nuffer Chandra Pal Chaudhuri, who provided it with a turret clock, at a cost of nearly Rs. 5000 soon after the new building's inauguration. Professor J. Sutcliffe was the principal of the college when the new building was opened.
The First Arts or F.A. Examination was introduced in 1861. The first candidate to qualify in this examination from the college was Gooroodas Banerji, who later became the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University. The ever-increasing rolls of the college demonstrated the keen interest shown by students from all over the Bengal Presidency. The prestigious award of Gilchrist Scholarship for pursuance of further studies in England went to students of this college for four successive years since its introduction in 1868. Between 1868 and 1900, 25 students of the college were awarded the Premchand Roychand
studentship, the highest honour for academic excellence awarded by Calcutta University. The college soon expanded its premises and the present edifice was officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor on 31 March 1874 in the presence of the Viceroy.
The construction of the new building was beneficial for the science departments which now had adequate space for holding classes and carrying out laboratory work. The chemistry
department introduced practical classes in the new building in 1875. Engineering classes, until then held at the college, were discontinued in 1880 when the Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur (now known as Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur) was set up. In order to augment the Faculty of Science, a professorship in Geology
was instituted in 1892. The Department of Biology was founded eight years later and Subodh Chandra Mahalanabish was made a professor there. The last two decades of the nineteenth century saw the appointment of distinguished scholars to teaching positions in the college. For instance, H.M.Percival joined in 1880, Bipinvihary Gupta in 1883, Jagadish Chandra Bose in 1885, Prafulla Chandra Roy
in 1889, and Monomohun Ghose
in 1896.
In 1897 the colleges admitted female students for the first time.
The Baker Laboratory, named after Edward Norman Baker, the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, was formally opened on 20 January 1913 and the Departments of Physics
, Physiology
, Botany
and Geology
were transferred to the new establishment. One of the biggest rooms in the Baker Laboratory accommodated the science library
(the Peake Library, named after Professor C.W. Peake). Commerce classes were started in 1903.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 interrupted plans for the building of an additional hostel
and other facilities but the college continued to cross important milestones in the advancement of teaching and higher learning. New dimensions were added to the college with the reorganisation of the college library in 1908 and the introduction of a College Union in 1914. The 1920s continued to see eminent teachers such as Professor Wordsworth
, Professor Sterling, Professor Home and Dr. Harrison increase the reputation of the college.
From the early 1930s, Indian principals headed the college, though the Education and English Department formally retained the services of British officers until 1943, Professor Ahmed Ali, the co-founder of the Indian Progressive Writers' Movement and Association (1933–36) and author of the famous Twilight in Delhi
was the first Indian to be appointed Head of the English Department in 1944 up to 1947 when India was divided. From the 1920s to the end of the 1940s the college remained an important centre of nationalist activities. Throughout this period the college continued to enjoy a great deal of popularity and prestige in bhadralok society.
In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the college became a centre of leftist and then far-left politics. Through the 1970s and 1980s the college fought off repeated attempts to control it from outside, especially by the government as well as dominant political parties.
A important change that was brought to the college in the post-independence period includes the appointment of Mamata Roy as the first woman principal of the college in 2005.
, showed the willingness to listen to the demands of the faculty members, but it was still too early to grant full autonomy to the college. In 2007, the state government, under the chief ministership of Sh. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
and Higher Education ministership of Sh. Sudarshan Raychaudhuri, appointed a seven member committee, under the leadership of Justice Chittotosh Mookerjee, and composed of Prof.
Barun De
, Dr. Bimal Jalan
and Prof. Subimal Sen, to look into the possibility of upgrading the status of the college. The report of the committee suggested that the state government should grant the college partial autonomy.
In 2009, the Governing Body of the college unanimosuly adopted the proposal that the college should be given full university status. On 16 December 2009, the Left Front government tabled a Bill, entitled the Presidency University Act, 2009, in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly which granted the college full university status. It was stated in the Bill that once the college becomes a full state-aided university it will be renamed Presidency University.
On 19 March 2010 a new chapter was opened in the history of the college when the West Bengal Government passed the Presidency University Bill, 2009 in the State Legislative Assembly. On 7 July 2010, the governor of West Bengal, Sh.M K Narayanan gave his assent to the Presidency University Bill. On 23 July 2010, the Government of West Bengal published the gazette notification completing all the legal formalities for Presidency to become a full university. Prof.
Amiya Bagchi
was given the responsibility of chairing a committee set up to select and appoint the first vice chancellor of the university. Prof. Amita Chatterjee, a retired professor of philosophy at Jadavpur University
, was appointed as the first vice-chancellor of Presidency University on 5 October 2010.
In 2011, Higher Education Minister, Sh. Bratya Basu
suggested that a mentor group, along the lines of the Nalanda mentor group, would be formed to oversee the work of the university. At the beginning of June 2011, the chief minister of West Bengal, Km. Mamata Banerjee
, announced that a committee would be formed with Prof.
Amartya Sen
as its chief mentor, and Harvard-based Prof.
Sugata Bose
as its chairman to oversee the running of the college and perform the task of appointing all its officials and faculty members. The committee includes as its members Prof.
Bikash Sinha
, Prof.
Sukanta Chaudhuri
, Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia
, Prof. Amal Mukhopadhaya, Prof. Swapan Chakrabarty, Prof. Abhirup Sarkar, Prof.
Sugata Marjit
and Prof. S.P. Mukherjee.
-
Botany
- Chemistry
& Biochemistry
- Civil Engineering
- Economics
-English
- Geography
- Geology
- Hindi
- History
- Law
- Mathematics
- Molecular Biology
& Genetics
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Physiology
- Political Science
- Sanskrit
- Sociology
-Statistics
- Zoology
, Abhijit Banerjee
, Abhirup Sarkar, Alak Ghosh, Amitava Bose
, Amit Mitra
, Amit Bhaduri, Amiya Kumar Bagchi
, Amlan Datta, Anindya Sen
, Arjun Kumar Sengupta
, Ashok Rudra, Bhaskar Dutta, Bibek Debroy
, Bimal Jalan
, Debraj Ray
, Dhires Bhattacharyya, Dhritiman Chatterjee (Sundar Chatterjee), Dilip Mukherjee, Dipak Banerjee, Isher Judge Ahluwalia
, Mihir Kanti Rakshit, Mukul Majumdar, Pranab Bardhan
, Ratan Lal Basu
, Sanjit Bose, Satyen Sen
, Souymen Sikdar, Partha Gangopadhyay, Sugata Marjit
, Sukhamay Chakraborty, Sujoy Mookerjee, Tapan Mitra. Noted film Director Satyajit Ray
used to be a student of this department.
The Department has a long tradition of teaching and research in geology. The notable alumni of this depratment includes several renowned Indian geologists in both academia and industry in India as well as abroad.
Among various distinguished alumni of the department, Hem Chandra Das Gupta, Santosh Kumar Ray, Nirmal Nath Chatterjee, Abani Kumar Dey, Sib Sundar Deb, Ajit Kumar Saha, Ajit Kumar Banerjee, Mihir Kumar Bose, Subir Kumar Ghosh, Dhrubajyoti Mukhopadhyay, M.N. Ghosh, Sarat Chandra Roy Choudhury, Sanjib Kumar Biswas, Gopal Chandra Chatterjee, Bhabesh Chandra Roy are notable.
Some of its eminent students and teachers in the first half of the twentieth century include Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri
, Kiran Shankar Ray, Kuruvilla Zachariah, Susobhan Sarkar
, Hirendranath Mukherjee, Amalesh Tripathi, Pratap Chandra Chunder
, Pratap Chandra Sen and Tapan Raychaudhuri
. Eminent students and teachers of the department in the second half of the twentieth century include Mohit Sen
, Sipra Sarkar, Ashin Dasgupta, Hirendranath Chakrabarty, Parthasarathi Gupta, Benoy Bhushan Chaudhuri, Barun De
, Nitish Sengupta
, Sumit Sarkar
, Rajat Kanta Ray
, Tanika Sarkar
and Sugata Bose
. The department has a Seminar Library of its own with a seminar secretary and a seminar librarian elected by the students of the department from amongst themselves. In 1990, a lecture series entitled P.C. Sen Memorial Lecture, named after Pratap Chandra Sen, another former student of the department, was started with an endowment given by the members of his family. In 2004, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who had just become the Governor
of West Bengal
, attended a class taken by Rajat Kanta Ray
.
The Department runs undergraduate (40 seats) and postgraduate courses (as constituent college under the University of Calcutta)
(2 seats).
Once most prestigious course to adhere in India was Presidency College Mathemetics. This is comparitvely small department providig the base to all other department from early age of the college. Most notable student of this department was Satyendra Nath Bose
.
, Meghnad Saha
, Ranadeb Chaudhuri, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri
, Bikash Sinha
and Ashoke Sen
. The Baker Laboratory and the Physics Lecture Theatre, in the majestic new building built in 1913 are two of the most famous features of the college. Since 2004 the department started an autonomous post-graduate course in physics recognised by Calcutta University. Earlier, the department's course in post graduate studies was carried out at the University College of Science and Technology of Calcutta University in Rajabazar. On 27 February 2009, the department organized a one-day symposium on the 150th birth anniversary of Sir J.C. Bose.
the department is running on shortage of faculty.
and Sudipta Kaviraj
, both extremely well known in Indian political studies. Yet another student was Amal Mukhopadhyaya, who was a Professor and Head of this department and also one of the better known Principals of the college at the time of its 175th birth anniversary.The department celebrates yet another milestone on the 12th of March, 2011 for its completion of 50 glorious years of existence.
in the decade of 1940's to cater under graduation studies in Statistics. The department is the oldest among its counterparts in this country and is the pioneering department in introducing Statistics as a separate and distinct descipline of study at under graduation level. From the inception, it has always been one of the premier undergrad statistics departments in the country.
Through the second half of the twentieth century, the department grew in stature under the tutelage of Professor Bhattacharyya and Professor Atindra Mohan Gun. Some of its famous alumni include Jayanta Kumar Ghosh, Pranab K. Sen
, Malay Ghosh, Rahul Mukerjee
, Distinguished Professor Bani Kumar Mallick and the 2011 Mortimer Spiegelman award winner Sudipto Banerjee among others.
was an associate professor in this department in the late 19s.
As of 2010, there were 18 full time faculty members in this department. The department is well-equipped to carry out research in frontier areas of Chemistry & Biochemistry in the newly upgraded university.
The Hindu School, initially the pathshala wing of Hindu College, was the college's school when it was established, although it is now independent. The Hare School
has been from the middle of the nineteenth century located inside the premises of the college and has been traditionally associated with it. Its students used to complete their higher education in this college in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A large majority of the students of these two schools came from the landed aristocracy and the urban upper middle classes. The importance of these two schools is evident in a verse written by Phani Bhushan Chakrabarty, a former student of the college and the first Indian Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. He wrote: Prathom jakhon collegey elam/Bollam bahabaharey/Aschi hotey Hindu-Hare/Koriney care kaharey (When I first came to college,/I said, "Oh! Wow,/Have come from Hindu-Hare,/Don't care for the high-brow).
The Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur was founded in this college as its engineering department. It remained in the college from 1865 to 1879. The Indian Statistical Institute
, Calcutta was founded in the Statistical Laboratory of this college by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
in 1931.
, which was started in 1886. It started functioning fully from 1895-96. It stands on Peary Charan Sarkar Street, which separates the college's premises to the south from the hostel, which is next to the central premises of the University of Calcutta, called the Ashutosh Shiksha Prangan, that includes the Ashutosh Building and Darbhanga Building. After 1990, the college administration also built a girls' hostel in Salt Lake
in Calcutta.
It plays a constructive role in the day-to-day running of the students' affairs. It is pertinent to note that the Union has always been controlled by elected students' groups that seek to challenge and question policies framed and actions taken by the establishment, both inside and outside the college, especially at the state level. In the first decade after independence, when the college was starting off as a centre of excellence, wholly managed by Indians, and more specifically by Bengalis, the Union was firmly in the hands of forces not always friendly towards the Students Federation (SF). From the sixties until the end of the eighties, the Union was controlled by the Marxist-Leninists. After a brief period of students' apathy and indifference towards politics in the late eighties, the Union, in 1989, came under the control of a loosely formed group called the Independents' Consolidation (IC), covertly formed by an assortment of progressive democratic elements, owing allegiance to left-of-center and Marxist-Leninist parties which are hostile to the Students Federation of India
(SFI). Barring a brief spell of a few years at the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, the IC has kept control of the student body. The Union is now under the control of the SFI, which returned to power in 2009.
The college has a long association with Mohun Bagan AC, the first Bengali football club, whose history is closely linked to the rise of the Indian national movement. One of the preliminary matches played by Mohun Bagan was against Eden Hindu Hostel's team. Some students of the college who had joined this club earlier invited Professor F.J. Row, a grammatologist, to visit the club ground, then at Mohun Bagan Villa, on the day it was founded, i.e. 15 August 1889. At this occasion Row suggested that the Club could be called 'Athletic', due to its excellent infrastructural facilities.
In the 1970s the college organised a past vs. present cricket match, where Shri Siddhartha Shankar Ray played for the former students of the college.
Presently, the Presidency University Public Speaking Society conducts debates on campus and organises the Derozio Memorial Debate annually.
. Dr. Shyamaprasad Mookherjee
was a past Vice President of the Association. The Association publishes an yearly journal entitled the 'Autumn Annual'. Professor Subodh Chandra Sengupta was the longest serving editor-in-chief of the journal.
, the Commonwealth Scholarship
, Inlaks Scholarship, Radhakrishnan Scholarship and Government of India and State Scholarship to study in either Oxford
or Cambridge
.
The college started with the expressed objective of encouraging boys of landed and aristocratic families of the Bengal Presidency to join it, but has also traditionally attracted extremely meritorious students from district schools and colleges to it since the nineteenth century. It has the distinction of being the college where Academy Award winner Satyajit Ray
and the Nobel Laureate Professor
Amartya Sen
studied. Rabindranath Tagore
was admitted into the college, but spent only one day there.
In politics, it has amongst its students, some of the biggest names of the Indian national movement, such as five Presidents of the Indian National Congress, including Surendranath Banerjea
, Romesh Chunder Dutt
, Bhupendra Nath Bose
, Lord
Satyendra Prasanno Sinha and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad
studied in this college. The Speaker
of the Indian Lok Sabha
, Somnath Chatterjee
was a student of this college. The first President of Bangladesh, Abu Sayeed Chowdhury
and another President of Bangladesh, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem
also studied in this college. The college has had one Governor of an Indian state, Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh
, as its student also. Since elections were first held in Indian provinces in 1937, and after independence, it has had three Prime Ministers, one each of Pakistan, Bengal and Assam, five Chief Ministers of West Bengal and one Chief Minister of Assam
as its former students. They are the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Bogra, first Prime Minister of Bengal
, A.K. Fazlul Huq, the first Prime Minister of Assam
, Saiyid Mohammed Saadullah, the first and second Chief Ministers of West Bengal
, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh
and Dr. Bidhan Chandra Ray, later Chief Ministers of the same state, Siddhartha Shankar Ray
, Jyoti Basu
and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
and the second Chief Minister of Assam
, Bishnu Ram Medhi. The first Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar
, Anugrah Narayan Sinha
was a student of this college. The college has had as its students a host of other politicians including central and state level ministers.
Scions of former Indian Princely States and substantial landholding families also studied in this college, such as the former Maharaja
of Coochbehar, HH Maharaja
Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur and the former Maharaja
of Burdwan, Maharaja
Uday Chand Mahtab. Other zamindari families from where boys came to study in this college included Burdwan, Susanga, Cossimbazar, Natore, Gouripur, Kalipur, Jhargram, Kirtipasha, and Teota in Bengal, Gauripur in Assam and Sonepur and Jarasingha in Orissa.
There are several senior judges, such as the first Indian judge of the High Court of Calcutta, Gooroodas Banerjee
and a Chief Justice of India, Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee who were students of this college. Several senior civilians, such as the first Indian member of the ICS, Satyendranath Tagore
and the first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen, studied in this college.
This college has also performed equally well in industry. Rajen Mookerjee
was its student and Rama Prasad Goenka also studied in this college.
In academics too, other than Amartya Sen
, eminent intellectuals and vice chancellors, such as the scientist, Sir
Jagadish Chandra Bose, the pre-eminent vice chancellor of Calcutta University, Ashutosh Mukherjee
, Sir Azizul Haque
, the famous lawyer and intellectual, the doyen of Indian history, Sir Jadunath Sarkar
, and India's first planner, Professor
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
, have been students of this college. In literature, it has amongst its students, Michael Madhusudan Dutt
, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sukumar Ray
and Jibanananda Das
. Eminent journalists such as Avik Sarkar, M. J. Akbar
and Pritish Nandy
studied here.
In the entertainment industry, especially in films and theatre, other than Satyajit Ray
, this college can boast of figures such as Bikash Roy
, Pramathesh Barua
, Ashok Kumar
, Dhritiman Chatterjee (Sundar Chatterjee) and Aparna Sen
.
Amongst eminent sportsmen, Vece Paes
, a member of India's hockey team, studied in this college.
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. and one of the premier institutes of learning of liberal arts and sciences in India. In 2002 it was ranked number one by the weekly news magazine India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
. In 2010, the year the college was upgraded to university status, it was ranked 3rd in India.
Established in 1817, it is the oldest educational institution in India. It was founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and a number of other eminent personalities of Bengal, such as Raja Radhakanta Deb, Maharaja Tejchandra Ray of Burdwan, David Hare
David Hare (philanthropist)
David Hare was a Scottish watchmaker and philanthropist in Bengal. He founded many important and prestigious educational institutions in Kolkata, such as the Hindu School, and Hare School and helped in founding Presidency College.-Early life:...
, Justice Sir Edward Hyde East, Prasanna Coomar Tagore
Prasanna Coomar Tagore
See Tagore for disambiguationPrasanna Coomar Tagore was son of Gopi Mohan Tagore, one of the founders of Hindu College. He belonged to the Pathuriaghata branch of the Tagore family and was one of the leaders of the conservative branch of Hindu society...
and Babu Buddinath Mukherjee.
Initially established as the Mahapathshala wing of Hindu College, it was renamed Presidency College, i.e. the college of the Bengal Presidency, in 1855. In 2010, under the Chief Ministership of Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is an Indian politician and a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India . He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011...
, a former student of the college, it was upgraded to the status of a full university by the Presidency University Act, 2010 passed in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The Governor of West Bengal, Shri M.K. Narayanan, gave his consent to the bill on 7 July 2010.
The longest serving Principal of Presidency College was J. Sutcliff, who was its Principal intermittently for 20 years, from 1852-1875. He was the Principal of the college when the college was renamed in 1855 and the new building at 86/1, College Street was built a few years later. The first Indian (acting) Principal of the college was Prasanna Kumar Ray (1902; 1903 and 1905–1906) and the first Indian (full-time) Principal of the college was B.M.Sen (1931-1934 (acting) and 1934–1942).
Prof. Amita Chatterjee took over as the first vice chancellor of the newly formed university in 2010.
The university offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees as well as Ph.D. degrees in the natural sciences, humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
. The first batch of undergraduate students under the new university was admitted in 2011.
History
| Principals |
|---|
|
| Vice Chancellor |
|---|
|
|
Origin
With the creation of the Supreme Court of Calcutta in 1773 many Hindus of BengalBengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
showed eagerness to learn the English language. David Hare
David Hare (philanthropist)
David Hare was a Scottish watchmaker and philanthropist in Bengal. He founded many important and prestigious educational institutions in Kolkata, such as the Hindu School, and Hare School and helped in founding Presidency College.-Early life:...
, in collaboration with Raja
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
Radhakanta Deb
Radhakanta Deb
Radhakanta Deb , a scholar and a leader of the Calcutta conservative Hindu society, was the son of Gopimohan Deb, the adopted son and heir of Maharaja Nabakrishna Deb. Nabakrishna, a man of obscure origin, was well versed in Persian language and with him actually the prosperity of the family began...
had already taken steps introduce English education in Bengal. Babu Buddinath Mukherjee advanced the introduction of English as a medium of instruction further by enlisting the support of Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Edward Hyde East, Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of the Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
who called a meeting of 'European and Hindu Gentlemen' in his house in May 1816. The purpose of the meeting was to "discuss the proposal to establish an institution for giving a liberal education to the children of the members of the Hindu Community". The proposal was received with unanimous approbation and a donation of over Rs. 100, 000 was promised for the setting up of the new college. Raja Ram Mohan Roy showed full sympathy for the scheme but chose not to come out in support of the proposal publicly for fear of "alarming the prejudices of his orthodox countrymen and thus marring the whole idea".
The College was formally opened on Monday, January 20, 1817 with 20 'scholars'. The foundation committee of the college, which oversaw its establishment, was headed by Raja Rammohan Roy
Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India...
. The control of the institution was vested in a body of two Governors and four Directors. The first Governors of the college were Maharaja Tejchandra Bahadur of Burdwan and Babu
Babu
Babu may refer to:Place:* Babu District, in Hezhou, Guangxi, ChinaTitle* Babu , South Asian term of respect People*Babu , list of people with this name* Babù, Anderson Rodney de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer...
Gopee Mohan Thakoor. The first Directors were Babu
Babu
Babu may refer to:Place:* Babu District, in Hezhou, Guangxi, ChinaTitle* Babu , South Asian term of respect People*Babu , list of people with this name* Babù, Anderson Rodney de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer...
Gopeemohan Deb of Sobhabazar, Babu
Babu
Babu may refer to:Place:* Babu District, in Hezhou, Guangxi, ChinaTitle* Babu , South Asian term of respect People*Babu , list of people with this name* Babù, Anderson Rodney de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer...
Joykissen Sinha, Babu
Babu
Babu may refer to:Place:* Babu District, in Hezhou, Guangxi, ChinaTitle* Babu , South Asian term of respect People*Babu , list of people with this name* Babù, Anderson Rodney de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer...
Radha Madhab Banerjee and Babu
Babu
Babu may refer to:Place:* Babu District, in Hezhou, Guangxi, ChinaTitle* Babu , South Asian term of respect People*Babu , list of people with this name* Babù, Anderson Rodney de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer...
Gunganarain Doss. Babu Buddinath Mukherjee was appointed as the first Secretary of the college. The newly established college mostly admitted Hindu students from affluent and progressive families, but also admitted non-Hindu students such as Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, Jews, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s and Buddhists.
At first the classes were held in a house belonging to Gorachand Bysack of Garanhatta (later renamed 304, Chitpore Road), which was rented by the college. In January 1818 the college moved to 'Feringhi Kamal Bose's house' which was located nearby in Chitpore. From Chitpore, the college moved to Bowbazar
Bowbazar
Bowbazar is a neighbourhood and police stationin central Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal...
and later to the building that now houses the Sanskrit College
Sanskrit College
Sanskrit College is a specialized state-government administered liberal arts college offering an undergraduate degree in Sanskrit language, Pali language, linguistics, and ancient Indian and world history. It is one of the affiliated colleges of the University of Calcutta. Founded on 1 January...
on College Street
College Street
College Street may refer to:*College Street *College Street *College Street *College Street -- A road in Dublin City Centre....
.
Early 19th century
The increasing realization of the value of western education made the college a coveted destination for scholars from all over the subcontinent. Pupils have come from almost all parts of the country, most notably from BiharBihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
and Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
. By 1828 enrolment of students steeply rose to 400. The obvious question, that then arose, was whether it would not be wiser for the Government of Bengal to establish a new 'English College' open to all classes and community of students. The Committee of Managers of Hindu College had soon after the inception of the college become dependent on government subsidy, due to serious shortage of funds. The government had began to play a greater role in the administration of the College.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the college had outgrown the plans made by its founders. Not only did it attract an ever-increasing number of scholars from the province and the rest of the Bengal Presidency, but it had also introduced courses in Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, Drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, and Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, which catered to the needs of all classes of students - Hindus as well as non-Hindus. The government had also to consider whether this growing institution, spending a good deal of public money, could be retained as a non-governmental institution, particularly when Calcutta had no general college managed exclusively by the Council of Education. When other towns in Bengal had government colleges, it was felt in official and non-official circles that Calcutta should also have one.
From Hindu College to Presidency College
The proposal to set up a new college called the Calcutta College, or the Metropolitan College, open to students from all communities had already been mooted, but this would have meant greater financial liability for the government, which would also have to provide it with a competent faculty. A viable alternative seemed to be the conversion of Hindu College into a general institution open to all communities, managed by the government. On 21 October 1853, Lord DalhousieJames Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie KT, PC was a Scottish statesman, and a colonial administrator in British India....
, the Governor of Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
and Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
, suggested that
The new name, 'Presidency', referred to the Bengal Presidency
Bengal Presidency
The Bengal Presidency originally comprising east and west Bengal, was a colonial region of the British Empire in South-Asia and beyond it. It comprised areas which are now within Bangladesh, and the present day Indian States of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Orissa and Tripura.Penang and...
, which was the local administrative unit of British India. Accordingly, the Committee of Management for Hindu College met for the last time on 11 January 1854. The Court of Directors renamed the College as Presidency College. The College started functioning on 15 June 1855. The 'scholars' of the College Department of Hindu College were transferred to Presidency College and 101 new students were freshly admitted. Of these 101 pupils, two were Muslims, while the rest were Hindus.
Initially, the Civil Engineering College and Medical College, that were located nearby, were associated with Presidency College. But with the formation of the University of Calcutta, also located close by, the Council of Education shelved plans for allowing the expansion of the these three premier institutions into a full fledged university. The college was formally placed under the control of the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
in 1857.
Expansion of Presidency
The college continued to grow rapidly after its renaming and relocation. In 1856, it had 132 students on its rolls. 94 students were in the General Branch and 38 students were in the Legal Branch. Of them, 82 students had paid tuition fees, 43 were scholarship holders, and 7 enjoyed free studentships. The Legal Branch was given a measure of autonomy: its students were subject to examination by held by the branch itself. Two years later Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, a student of the Law Department earned the distinction of being one of the first two graduates in Arts of the University of Calcutta.The college became an institution preparing candidates for the BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
examination under the aegis of Calcutta University. At the first Entrance Examination, held in 1857, it sent 23 students. The MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree was conferred for the first time on six students of this college in 1863.
The College authorities were faced with space shortage even after the expansion of the Sanskrit College building. The process for acquisition of land for building a separate building and grounds started in September 1865 and in 1870 the principal of the college submitted a plan for the construction of a new building on the premises where it is presently located. The new building was opened on March 31, 1874 by the then Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
George Campbell
George Campbell (1824-1892)
Sir George Campbell was educated at Hamilton Academy and was a Scottish Liberal Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy Burghs from 1875 to 1892....
in the presence of His Excellency, the Viceroy of India. The finishing touch was given by Babu Nuffer Chandra Pal Chaudhuri, who provided it with a turret clock, at a cost of nearly Rs. 5000 soon after the new building's inauguration. Professor J. Sutcliffe was the principal of the college when the new building was opened.
The First Arts or F.A. Examination was introduced in 1861. The first candidate to qualify in this examination from the college was Gooroodas Banerji, who later became the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University. The ever-increasing rolls of the college demonstrated the keen interest shown by students from all over the Bengal Presidency. The prestigious award of Gilchrist Scholarship for pursuance of further studies in England went to students of this college for four successive years since its introduction in 1868. Between 1868 and 1900, 25 students of the college were awarded the Premchand Roychand
Premchand Roychand
Premchand Roychand was a 19th-century Indian businessman known as the "Cotton King" and "Bullion King".Born in 1831 he was the son of Roychand Dipchand, a merchant from Surat. The Roychand family moved to Bombay when Premchand was a young boy. Recorded as the first Indian broker to speak, read and...
studentship, the highest honour for academic excellence awarded by Calcutta University. The college soon expanded its premises and the present edifice was officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor on 31 March 1874 in the presence of the Viceroy.
The construction of the new building was beneficial for the science departments which now had adequate space for holding classes and carrying out laboratory work. The chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
department introduced practical classes in the new building in 1875. Engineering classes, until then held at the college, were discontinued in 1880 when the Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur (now known as Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur) was set up. In order to augment the Faculty of Science, a professorship in Geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
was instituted in 1892. The Department of Biology was founded eight years later and Subodh Chandra Mahalanabish was made a professor there. The last two decades of the nineteenth century saw the appointment of distinguished scholars to teaching positions in the college. For instance, H.M.Percival joined in 1880, Bipinvihary Gupta in 1883, Jagadish Chandra Bose in 1885, Prafulla Chandra Roy
Prafulla Chandra Roy
Prafulla Chandra Ray was a Indian academician, a chemist and entrepreneur. He was the founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India's first pharmaceutical company...
in 1889, and Monomohun Ghose
Monomohun Ghose
Monomohun Ghose was the first practicing barrister of Indian origin. He is notable for his contributions towards the fields of women’s education, for arousing the patriotic feeling of his countrymen and for being one of the earliest persons in the country in organised national politics...
in 1896.
In 1897 the colleges admitted female students for the first time.
The Baker Laboratory, named after Edward Norman Baker, the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, was formally opened on 20 January 1913 and the Departments of Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, Physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
, Botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
and Geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
were transferred to the new establishment. One of the biggest rooms in the Baker Laboratory accommodated the science library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
(the Peake Library, named after Professor C.W. Peake). Commerce classes were started in 1903.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 interrupted plans for the building of an additional hostel
Hostel
Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...
and other facilities but the college continued to cross important milestones in the advancement of teaching and higher learning. New dimensions were added to the college with the reorganisation of the college library in 1908 and the introduction of a College Union in 1914. The 1920s continued to see eminent teachers such as Professor Wordsworth
William Christopher Wordsworth
William Christopher Wordsworth CIE was a British academic and journalist in India.-Life:Wordsworth was educated at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and Jesus College, Oxford...
, Professor Sterling, Professor Home and Dr. Harrison increase the reputation of the college.
Presidency during the Indian freedom struggle
During the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement J.R.Barrow was the principal of the college. He set the highest standards of discipline and academic excellence, but also meted out punitive action to students participating in the National Movement. His objective, of increasing the academic standards of the college and its reputation, however, was never in doubt, and he earned the deep respect and appreciation of teachers as well as students. This was the period when the Oaten Affair, in which Subhas Chandra Bose, then a student of the college, insulted by Professor Oaten, happened. Bose, responding angrily to a racial insult made by Oaten, had pushed the professor down the main building's staircase.From the early 1930s, Indian principals headed the college, though the Education and English Department formally retained the services of British officers until 1943, Professor Ahmed Ali, the co-founder of the Indian Progressive Writers' Movement and Association (1933–36) and author of the famous Twilight in Delhi
Twilight in Delhi
Twilight in Delhi is Ahmed Ali's first novel, originally published in English in Britain, 1940. The novel addresses India's changing social, political, and cultural climate following colonialism....
was the first Indian to be appointed Head of the English Department in 1944 up to 1947 when India was divided. From the 1920s to the end of the 1940s the college remained an important centre of nationalist activities. Throughout this period the college continued to enjoy a great deal of popularity and prestige in bhadralok society.
Presidency after independence
The college's continued presence in Bengal's higher education was evident in its predominance as an undergraduate and postgraduate institution even at the time of India's independence. Before 1947 and soon after, especially in the 1950s the college was still the numero uno of Indian education. Anybody who was somebody in India had to be a student of this college. In 1956 the centenary celebrations of the college were organised. The building in which the economics, political science and sociology departments as well as the Derozio Hall are presently located was built during the centenary celebrations under the stewardship of the then principal, Professor J.C. Sengupta.In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the college became a centre of leftist and then far-left politics. Through the 1970s and 1980s the college fought off repeated attempts to control it from outside, especially by the government as well as dominant political parties.
A important change that was brought to the college in the post-independence period includes the appointment of Mamata Roy as the first woman principal of the college in 2005.
Becoming a University
In 1972, an unsigned article was released by the faculty members of the college demanding that the college should be given full university status. It is an open secret that the author of the article was Prof. Dipak Banerjee, the legendary economics professor of the college. The state government, then under the chief ministership of Sh. Siddhartha Shankar RaySiddhartha Shankar Ray
Siddhartha Shankar Ray was an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He was a prominent barrister, Punjab Governor and Education minister of India...
, showed the willingness to listen to the demands of the faculty members, but it was still too early to grant full autonomy to the college. In 2007, the state government, under the chief ministership of Sh. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is an Indian politician and a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India . He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011...
and Higher Education ministership of Sh. Sudarshan Raychaudhuri, appointed a seven member committee, under the leadership of Justice Chittotosh Mookerjee, and composed of Prof.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Barun De
Barun De
Barun De is an Indian historian whose main area of research is Modern India. He has specialised in the social and economic history of India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Bengal Renaissance, and British constitutional history.-Background:He was born in a Brahmo family of Calcutta...
, Dr. Bimal Jalan
Bimal Jalan
Bimal Jalan is a former Governor of India's Reserve Bank anda nominated member of the Upper House of India's Parliament, the Rajya Sabha during 2003-2009.- Education and career :...
and Prof. Subimal Sen, to look into the possibility of upgrading the status of the college. The report of the committee suggested that the state government should grant the college partial autonomy.
In 2009, the Governing Body of the college unanimosuly adopted the proposal that the college should be given full university status. On 16 December 2009, the Left Front government tabled a Bill, entitled the Presidency University Act, 2009, in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly which granted the college full university status. It was stated in the Bill that once the college becomes a full state-aided university it will be renamed Presidency University.
On 19 March 2010 a new chapter was opened in the history of the college when the West Bengal Government passed the Presidency University Bill, 2009 in the State Legislative Assembly. On 7 July 2010, the governor of West Bengal, Sh.M K Narayanan gave his assent to the Presidency University Bill. On 23 July 2010, the Government of West Bengal published the gazette notification completing all the legal formalities for Presidency to become a full university. Prof.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Amiya Bagchi
Amiya Kumar Bagchi
Amiya Kumar Bagchi is a distinguished Indian political economist. His contributions have spanned economic history, the economics of industrialization and de-industrialization, and development studies from an overall Marxist perspective, incorporating insights from other schools of radical...
was given the responsibility of chairing a committee set up to select and appoint the first vice chancellor of the university. Prof. Amita Chatterjee, a retired professor of philosophy at Jadavpur University
Jadavpur University
Jadavpur University , is a premier educational and research institution in India.It is located in Kolkata, West Bengal and comprises two campuses - the main campus at Jadavpur and the new campus at Salt Lake...
, was appointed as the first vice-chancellor of Presidency University on 5 October 2010.
In 2011, Higher Education Minister, Sh. Bratya Basu
Bratya Basu
Bratya Basu is a Bengali professor, dramatist, director, actor and a politician. Basu is currently the West Bengal's minister for higher education. He was elected a MLA, from the Dum Dum constituency in 2011 Assembly Election of West Bengal.-Early life:Bratya Basu was born in Calcutta to noted...
suggested that a mentor group, along the lines of the Nalanda mentor group, would be formed to oversee the work of the university. At the beginning of June 2011, the chief minister of West Bengal, Km. Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee is the 11th and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress...
, announced that a committee would be formed with Prof.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
as its chief mentor, and Harvard-based Prof.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.-Early life:Sugata Bose was born in Calcutta, India. He studied at the Presidency College, Kolkata. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge under Eric Stokes...
as its chairman to oversee the running of the college and perform the task of appointing all its officials and faculty members. The committee includes as its members Prof.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Bikash Sinha
Bikash Sinha
Bikash Sinha is an eminent Indian physicist, active in the fields of nuclear physics and high energy physics. Prof. Bikash Sinha was the director of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of...
, Prof.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Sukanta Chaudhuri
Sukanta Chaudhuri
Sukanta Chaudhuri is an internationally renowned Bengali Indian scholar of English literature of the Renaissance period. He was educated at Presidency College, Kolkata and the University of Oxford. He taught at Presidency College from January 1973 to December 1991 and at Jadavpur University from...
, Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia is currently Vice Chairperson, Planning Board, Punjab, and Member, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Government of India. She served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi from...
, Prof. Amal Mukhopadhaya, Prof. Swapan Chakrabarty, Prof. Abhirup Sarkar, Prof.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Sugata Marjit
Sugata Marjit
Sugata Marjit is the Director and Reserve Bank of India Professor of Industrial Economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. He is a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and currently edits India Macroeconomics Annual.-Books/Monographs:...
and Prof. S.P. Mukherjee.
Departments
BengaliBengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
-
Botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
- Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
& Biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
- Civil Engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
- Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
-English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
- Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
- Geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
- Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
- History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
- Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
- Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
- Molecular Biology
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
& Genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
- Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
- Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
- Physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
- Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
- Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
- Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
-Statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
- Zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
Department of Economics
It is one of the most illustrious departments of the college. Many former students and teachers of this department are internationally renowned. Some of them are: Amartya SenAmartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
, Abhijit Banerjee
Abhijit Banerjee
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an Indian economist. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
, Abhirup Sarkar, Alak Ghosh, Amitava Bose
Amitava Bose
Amitava Bose is a Professor of Economics at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is also a former Director of IIM-C.Bose received his B.A. degree in Economics from Presidency College of the University of Calcutta, in 1967, and MA degree in Economics with First Rank from the Delhi School of...
, Amit Mitra
Amit Mitra
Amit Mitra is an Indian economist and politician representing All India Trinamool Congress and the current Finance Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal. He is the incumbent MLA in the West Bengal state assembly from the Khardaha state assembly constituency...
, Amit Bhaduri, Amiya Kumar Bagchi
Amiya Kumar Bagchi
Amiya Kumar Bagchi is a distinguished Indian political economist. His contributions have spanned economic history, the economics of industrialization and de-industrialization, and development studies from an overall Marxist perspective, incorporating insights from other schools of radical...
, Amlan Datta, Anindya Sen
Anindya Sen
Anindya Sen is a Professor of Economics at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.Sen received his B.A. degree from Presidency College, Kolkata, MA degree from the University of Calcutta, and Ph.D...
, Arjun Kumar Sengupta
Arjun Kumar Sengupta
Arjun Kumar Sengupta was a Member of the Parliament of India, representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha from 2006 until his death...
, Ashok Rudra, Bhaskar Dutta, Bibek Debroy
Bibek Debroy
Bibek Debroy is an Indian economist. Since March 2007, he has been professor at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. He has also been Visiting Honorary Senior Research Fellow for Institute for South Asian Studies in National University of Singapore from May 2009.Debroy studied at Ramakrishna...
, Bimal Jalan
Bimal Jalan
Bimal Jalan is a former Governor of India's Reserve Bank anda nominated member of the Upper House of India's Parliament, the Rajya Sabha during 2003-2009.- Education and career :...
, Debraj Ray
Debraj Ray
Debraj Ray graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of Calcutta in 1977.Ray is presently , and Professor of Economics at New York University. He is Co-Editor of the American Economic Review....
, Dhires Bhattacharyya, Dhritiman Chatterjee (Sundar Chatterjee), Dilip Mukherjee, Dipak Banerjee, Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Isher Judge Ahluwalia
Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia is currently Vice Chairperson, Planning Board, Punjab, and Member, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Government of India. She served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi from...
, Mihir Kanti Rakshit, Mukul Majumdar, Pranab Bardhan
Pranab Bardhan
Pranab Kumar Bardhan is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley . Educated in Presidency College, Kolkata and Cambridge University, England, he had been on the faculty of MIT, Delhi School of Economics, and Indian Statistical Institute, before joining Berkeley...
, Ratan Lal Basu
Ratan Lal Basu
Ratan Lal Basu is an economist and English fiction author from Kolkata, India.-Childhood and parents:...
, Sanjit Bose, Satyen Sen
Satyen Sen
Satyen Sen , , an author of Bengali literature, of Bangladesh, was a famous novelist.-Novels:*Bhorer Bihongi *Obhishopto Nogori *Paper Sontan...
, Souymen Sikdar, Partha Gangopadhyay, Sugata Marjit
Sugata Marjit
Sugata Marjit is the Director and Reserve Bank of India Professor of Industrial Economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. He is a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and currently edits India Macroeconomics Annual.-Books/Monographs:...
, Sukhamay Chakraborty, Sujoy Mookerjee, Tapan Mitra. Noted film Director Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
used to be a student of this department.
Department of Geology
Geology Department of Presidency College was founded in 1892. This was the first Geology department of India as well as in South-East Asia. Founded on July 17, 1892, it is the earliest independent department of teaching and learning geology in any educational institution in India with only the Madras Presidency College teaching geology earlier, albeit as a part of its courses of the Botany Department.The Department has a long tradition of teaching and research in geology. The notable alumni of this depratment includes several renowned Indian geologists in both academia and industry in India as well as abroad.
Among various distinguished alumni of the department, Hem Chandra Das Gupta, Santosh Kumar Ray, Nirmal Nath Chatterjee, Abani Kumar Dey, Sib Sundar Deb, Ajit Kumar Saha, Ajit Kumar Banerjee, Mihir Kumar Bose, Subir Kumar Ghosh, Dhrubajyoti Mukhopadhyay, M.N. Ghosh, Sarat Chandra Roy Choudhury, Sanjib Kumar Biswas, Gopal Chandra Chatterjee, Bhabesh Chandra Roy are notable.
Department of History
This is one of the most notable departments of the college.Some of its eminent students and teachers in the first half of the twentieth century include Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri
Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri
Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri was an Indian historian, known for his studies on ancient India.-Early life and education:...
, Kiran Shankar Ray, Kuruvilla Zachariah, Susobhan Sarkar
Susobhan Sarkar
-Background and education:Sarkar was born into a Brahmo family of Dhaka. After attending Dhaka Collegiate School and then studying history at Presidency College, Calcutta, he continued his studies at Jesus College, Oxford from 1923 to 1925. His daughter was Sipra Sarkar, a brilliant student of...
, Hirendranath Mukherjee, Amalesh Tripathi, Pratap Chandra Chunder
Pratap Chandra Chunder
Pratap Chandra Chunder was a union minister of India, educationist and author. He served in Morarji Desai Ministry from 1977 to 1980 as a cabinet minister with education and social welfare portfolios.-Family and education:...
, Pratap Chandra Sen and Tapan Raychaudhuri
Tapan Raychaudhuri
Tapan Raychaudhuri is an Indian historian specialising in British Indian history, Indian economic history and the History of Bengal.-Background:...
. Eminent students and teachers of the department in the second half of the twentieth century include Mohit Sen
Mohit Sen
Mohit Sen born on March 24, 1929, in Calcutta, and died in Hyderabad on May 3, 2003 was a well-known communist intellectual. He was general secretary of the United Communist Party of India at the time of his death.-Early life and education:...
, Sipra Sarkar, Ashin Dasgupta, Hirendranath Chakrabarty, Parthasarathi Gupta, Benoy Bhushan Chaudhuri, Barun De
Barun De
Barun De is an Indian historian whose main area of research is Modern India. He has specialised in the social and economic history of India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Bengal Renaissance, and British constitutional history.-Background:He was born in a Brahmo family of Calcutta...
, Nitish Sengupta
Nitish Sengupta
Nitish Kumar Sengupta IAS studied history in Presidency College, Calcutta and belonged to the famous batch of 1953. He joined the IAS in 1957 and has held positions such as the Revenue Secretary of the Government of India and Member Secretary, the Indian Planning Commission...
, Sumit Sarkar
Sumit Sarkar
-Background:He belongs to one of Bengal's most enlightened and progressive Brahmo families. His father was Professor Susobhan Chandra Sarkar, a Head of Department of History at Presidency College, Calcutta and the founder Head of Department of the Department of History, []...
, Rajat Kanta Ray
Rajat Kanta Ray
Rajat Kanta Ray is a historian of South Asian history, specializing in Modern Indian history.-Background:He is the son of Kumud Kanta Ray, ICS who was a Home Secretary of West Bengal in the 1960s...
, Tanika Sarkar
Tanika Sarkar
Tanika Sarkar is a historian of modern India. Professor Sarkar's work focuses on the intersections of religion, gender, and politics in both colonial and postcolonial South Asia, in particular on women and the Hindu Right...
and Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.-Early life:Sugata Bose was born in Calcutta, India. He studied at the Presidency College, Kolkata. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge under Eric Stokes...
. The department has a Seminar Library of its own with a seminar secretary and a seminar librarian elected by the students of the department from amongst themselves. In 1990, a lecture series entitled P.C. Sen Memorial Lecture, named after Pratap Chandra Sen, another former student of the department, was started with an endowment given by the members of his family. In 2004, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who had just become the Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, attended a class taken by Rajat Kanta Ray
Rajat Kanta Ray
Rajat Kanta Ray is a historian of South Asian history, specializing in Modern Indian history.-Background:He is the son of Kumud Kanta Ray, ICS who was a Home Secretary of West Bengal in the 1960s...
.
Department of Mathemetics
This department, since the inception of the Hindoo College in 1817 has produced brilliant teachers and excellent students.The Department runs undergraduate (40 seats) and postgraduate courses (as constituent college under the University of Calcutta)
(2 seats).
Once most prestigious course to adhere in India was Presidency College Mathemetics. This is comparitvely small department providig the base to all other department from early age of the college. Most notable student of this department was Satyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose FRS was an Indian mathematician and physicist noted for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in developing a theory regarding the gaslike qualities of electromagnetic radiation. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation...
.
Department of Law
The college until the beginning of the twentieth century had a separate Department of Law. This was not one of its original departments, but as mentioned above it had been started soon after the inception of Hindu College. Two of its more prominent students were Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and HH Maharaja Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur of Coochbehar.Department of Physics
This department is one of the best known departments of the college. The department has had as students or as teachers several eminent people, including Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, Satyendra Nath BoseSatyendra Nath Bose
Satyendra Nath Bose FRS was an Indian mathematician and physicist noted for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in developing a theory regarding the gaslike qualities of electromagnetic radiation. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation...
, Meghnad Saha
Meghnad Saha
Meghnad Saha FRS was an Indian astrophysicist best known for his development of the Saha equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars.-Early life:...
, Ranadeb Chaudhuri, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri
Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri
Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri was a leading physicist well known for his contributions to relativistic cosmology, particularly Raychaudhuri's equation, which is a key ingredient in proving the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems of general relativity...
, Bikash Sinha
Bikash Sinha
Bikash Sinha is an eminent Indian physicist, active in the fields of nuclear physics and high energy physics. Prof. Bikash Sinha was the director of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of...
and Ashoke Sen
Ashoke Sen
Ashoke Sen , FRS, is an Indian theoretical physicist. He has made a number of major original contributions to the subject of string theory, including his landmark paper on strong-weak coupling duality or S-duality, which was influential in changing the course of research in the field...
. The Baker Laboratory and the Physics Lecture Theatre, in the majestic new building built in 1913 are two of the most famous features of the college. Since 2004 the department started an autonomous post-graduate course in physics recognised by Calcutta University. Earlier, the department's course in post graduate studies was carried out at the University College of Science and Technology of Calcutta University in Rajabazar. On 27 February 2009, the department organized a one-day symposium on the 150th birth anniversary of Sir J.C. Bose.
the department is running on shortage of faculty.
Department of Physiology
This department was founded in 1900. The first phase of the development of this department which coincided with the founding of physiology as a discipline in India took place between 1900 and 1913. Subodh Chandra Mahalanobis returned to India from England in 1900 and joined the Bengal Education Service. He was posted at Presidency College as the Head of the Department of Biology, which was at that time composed of Human Physiology and Botany, in the same year. In 1902, study of Human Physiology started as a separate course at this college, which was officially recognized in 1903 by the University of Calcutta. On the Founders’ Day, i.e. 20 January, in 1913, the new building for science subjects, later named as Baker Laboratories, was formally inaugurated and the Department of Human Physiology was shifted to the second floor of the new building. In 1915, the Calcutta University started the M.Sc. in Human Physiology in this department. In 1923, during the tenure of Dr. N.M.Basu as Head of the Department, E. H. Starling visited this department. In 1939, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, as Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, convened a historic meeting and passed two important resolutions in favour of this department: (a) PG teaching in Physiology at Presidency College should continue as before; and (b) the university should not open Honours course in Physiology as this was running at its best at Presidency College. In 1944, Sir A.V. Hill visited the department. From 1947 to 1959, the department was guided under the able stewardship of Prof. Sachchidananda Banerjee, the first D.Sc. in Physiology from Calcutta University. In 1960, Dr. Achintya Kumar Mukherjee joined as Professor and Head of Department. Dr. Haripada Chattopadhyay worked as an interim Head of Department from 1984-1987. In 1988, Dr. Chandan Mitra joined as Professor and Head of Department. In 2001, the department celebrated 100 years of UG teaching. The Centenary Postgraduate Wing was inaugurated during that celebration and in the same year the department was affiliated for independent postgraduate teaching by Calcutta University. In 2004, the department was given full academic autonomy for postgraduate teaching. The department organized The XVIII Annual Conference of the Physiological Society of India between 8–10 December 2006.Department of Political Science
This department emerged out of the Department of Economics and is in the early twenty-first century one of the finest departments of Political Science in India. A creation of the second half of the twentieth century, it already boasts of an alumus which is world famous. Among its ex-students are Partha ChatterjeePartha Chatterjee
Partha Chatterjee is a Subaltern Studies and Postcolonial scholar. He is a multi-disciplinary scholar, with special emphasis on political science, anthropology and history. Chatterjee received Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2009 for his contributions in Academics.-Education:He completed a B.A...
and Sudipta Kaviraj
Sudipta Kaviraj
Sudipta Kaviraj is a scholar of South Asian Politics and Intellectual History, often associated with Postcolonial and Subaltern Studies...
, both extremely well known in Indian political studies. Yet another student was Amal Mukhopadhyaya, who was a Professor and Head of this department and also one of the better known Principals of the college at the time of its 175th birth anniversary.The department celebrates yet another milestone on the 12th of March, 2011 for its completion of 50 glorious years of existence.
Department of Statistics
Department of Statistics was established by Prasanta Chandra MahalanobisPrasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis FRS was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India...
in the decade of 1940's to cater under graduation studies in Statistics. The department is the oldest among its counterparts in this country and is the pioneering department in introducing Statistics as a separate and distinct descipline of study at under graduation level. From the inception, it has always been one of the premier undergrad statistics departments in the country.
Through the second half of the twentieth century, the department grew in stature under the tutelage of Professor Bhattacharyya and Professor Atindra Mohan Gun. Some of its famous alumni include Jayanta Kumar Ghosh, Pranab K. Sen
Pranab K. Sen
Pranab Kumar Sen is a statistician, a professor of statistics and the Cary C. Boshamer Professor of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.-Academic biography:...
, Malay Ghosh, Rahul Mukerjee
Rahul Mukerjee
Rahul Mukerjee is a Professor of Statistics, in the higher academic grade, at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.-Biography:Mukerjee completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Statistics at the University of Calcutta in 1975 and 1977 respectively, finishing at the top of his class in each...
, Distinguished Professor Bani Kumar Mallick and the 2011 Mortimer Spiegelman award winner Sudipto Banerjee among others.
Department of Zoology
It is one of the best departments in the college with a rich museum and well equipped laboratories. It has both postgraduate and undergraduate courses. Research fellows are also recruited through various examinations. The department was built by Sibatosh Mookerjee. The present Head of Department is Dr. Kamal Kumar Banerjee. The department has a good teacher-student ratio. Well-equipped laboratories, rich faculties and educational excellence are the three main characteristics of this department. It has a Central Computer Room with ultra-modern servers, a rich-with-books Seminar Library and an state-of-the-art laboratory for modern researches. All forms of modern biochemical and biotechnological researches can be done in these laboratories.Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
The department of chemistry in this University holds some prestigious history. It is situated at the Derozio Building of the university. Currently this department is headed by Professor Dipak Mondal. This department started in earlier Presidency College in the mid 19th century. There are 52 seats (42 in chemistry and 10 in biochemistry) in undergraduate course and few lesser seats in post graduate course currently. The admission to undergraduate courses is in particular, very competitive. Legendary scientist Prafulla Chandra RoyPrafulla Chandra Roy
Prafulla Chandra Ray was a Indian academician, a chemist and entrepreneur. He was the founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India's first pharmaceutical company...
was an associate professor in this department in the late 19s.
As of 2010, there were 18 full time faculty members in this department. The department is well-equipped to carry out research in frontier areas of Chemistry & Biochemistry in the newly upgraded university.
Institutions that were started in Presidency
This college, being the oldest educational institution in the country, boasts of a number of prestigious institutions of primary, secondary and higher learning that were started under its aegis.The Hindu School, initially the pathshala wing of Hindu College, was the college's school when it was established, although it is now independent. The Hare School
Hare School
Hare School is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, India, teaching grades 1 to 12 under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. The boys-only school was established by the Scottish watch-maker David Hare with the help of social...
has been from the middle of the nineteenth century located inside the premises of the college and has been traditionally associated with it. Its students used to complete their higher education in this college in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A large majority of the students of these two schools came from the landed aristocracy and the urban upper middle classes. The importance of these two schools is evident in a verse written by Phani Bhushan Chakrabarty, a former student of the college and the first Indian Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. He wrote: Prathom jakhon collegey elam/Bollam bahabaharey/Aschi hotey Hindu-Hare/Koriney care kaharey (When I first came to college,/I said, "Oh! Wow,/Have come from Hindu-Hare,/Don't care for the high-brow).
The Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur was founded in this college as its engineering department. It remained in the college from 1865 to 1879. The Indian Statistical Institute
Indian Statistical Institute
Indian Statistical Institute is a public research institute and university in Kolkata's northern outskirt of Baranagar, India founded by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1931...
, Calcutta was founded in the Statistical Laboratory of this college by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis FRS was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India...
in 1931.
Administration
The college is administered on a daily basis by a principal, a burser, a deputy controller of examinations and the respective heads of departments. It offers several scholarships to meritorious students, such as B.C.Law Free Studentship (185), Book Prizes (50), Cash Prizes (33), FAEA Scholarships (5), Hindi Scholarship (6), Hostel Stipend (14), Lump Grant (9), Medals (19), National Scholarship (14), Presidency College Graduate Scholarships (6), T.S.Sterling Onetime Grant (17), T.S.Sterling Scholarships (16).Hostel facilities
The college has two halls of residence, one each for boys and girls. The boys hostel is the famous Eden Hindu HostelEden Hindu Hostel
Eden Hindu Hostel , established in 1886, was primarily built for Hindu students of Presidency College, Calcutta. The hostel is now open for students of all religions. It is now meant for students who come from outside Calcutta to study in the Presidency University, Kolkata, and all affiliated...
, which was started in 1886. It started functioning fully from 1895-96. It stands on Peary Charan Sarkar Street, which separates the college's premises to the south from the hostel, which is next to the central premises of the University of Calcutta, called the Ashutosh Shiksha Prangan, that includes the Ashutosh Building and Darbhanga Building. After 1990, the college administration also built a girls' hostel in Salt Lake
Salt Lake
For a lake containing a high concentration of salt, see salt lake.More specifically, Salt Lake may refer to:- Cities, counties, towns etc. :* Salt Lake, Hawaii, a neighborhood on the island of Oahu...
in Calcutta.
Students' Union
The Students' Union room is located behind the main building. The Union has been active since the first half of the twentieth century. It is run by a President and a General Secretary.It plays a constructive role in the day-to-day running of the students' affairs. It is pertinent to note that the Union has always been controlled by elected students' groups that seek to challenge and question policies framed and actions taken by the establishment, both inside and outside the college, especially at the state level. In the first decade after independence, when the college was starting off as a centre of excellence, wholly managed by Indians, and more specifically by Bengalis, the Union was firmly in the hands of forces not always friendly towards the Students Federation (SF). From the sixties until the end of the eighties, the Union was controlled by the Marxist-Leninists. After a brief period of students' apathy and indifference towards politics in the late eighties, the Union, in 1989, came under the control of a loosely formed group called the Independents' Consolidation (IC), covertly formed by an assortment of progressive democratic elements, owing allegiance to left-of-center and Marxist-Leninist parties which are hostile to the Students Federation of India
Students Federation of India
Students Federation of India is one of the major student organisations in India. SFI is politically linked to the Communist Party of India . Founded in 1970, it claimed a membership strength of nearly 4.2 million school and university students as of 2010.SFI is currently led at the All India level...
(SFI). Barring a brief spell of a few years at the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, the IC has kept control of the student body. The Union is now under the control of the SFI, which returned to power in 2009.
Sports
The college has a long history of excellence in sports, especially in cricket and lawn tennis. Until date it has a strong cricket team. Until the mid-1950s the college used to have a lawn tennis court to the west of the premises, which was later replaced by the new building housing the economics, political science and sociology departments as well the college's auditorium, Derozio Hall. Until the mid-twentieth century the college's sporting facilities were managed and maintained by a Sports Secretary elected from the student body. There is a table tennis board in the Junior Common Room of the college on the ground floor and a badminton court in a room close to the Student's Union Room.The college has a long association with Mohun Bagan AC, the first Bengali football club, whose history is closely linked to the rise of the Indian national movement. One of the preliminary matches played by Mohun Bagan was against Eden Hindu Hostel's team. Some students of the college who had joined this club earlier invited Professor F.J. Row, a grammatologist, to visit the club ground, then at Mohun Bagan Villa, on the day it was founded, i.e. 15 August 1889. At this occasion Row suggested that the Club could be called 'Athletic', due to its excellent infrastructural facilities.
In the 1970s the college organised a past vs. present cricket match, where Shri Siddhartha Shankar Ray played for the former students of the college.
Cultural events
Presidency has an annual festival organised by the students union called the 'Milieu' which hosts events in which students of all other colleges and universities of West Bengal participate. The events of the festival comprise of a wide variety of activities such as outdoor sports and literary events including debates and quizzes.Debates
The college always had a great tradition of debates. Amartya Sen's first lecture entitled 'Bigyaponer Arthoniti' ('The Economics of Advertisement') was delivered at a debate organised by the Student's Union, when the Debate Secretary of the college was Barun De, soon after Sen joined the college in 1951.Presently, the Presidency University Public Speaking Society conducts debates on campus and organises the Derozio Memorial Debate annually.
Canteen
The college also has a students' canteen situated at the back of the main building, beyond the Students' Union room and next to the badminton Court. In the 1940s the college's canteen was called "Ray Babur Canteen". A decade later in the 1950s the students of the college frequently visited the neighbouring Coffee House, on the lane that is now called Bankim Chatterjee Street, which soon became a hub of both academic and political activities and discussions and is now famous for its debates. Several eminent academics of the second half of the twentieth century, many of whom joined the government and/or have or still are teaching in the finest world universities were regulars at the Coffee House. Later, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, the students of the college began to return to the college's canteen, which has been run by Pramodda since the 1980s and is now called "Pramoddar Canteen".Building and Grounds
The main building, housing the English, History, Geography, Bengali and Philosophy Departments of the college, which also has a clock tower, was built in the nineteenth century and is representative of the architecture of the middle of that century. It has a quadrangle in the middle, next to the central library of the college which is located on the ground floor. The science building, which has the Physics Lecture Theatre in it, is situated to the south of the college premises and opens out on to Peary Charan Sarkar Street. It was built in 1913. The new building housing the Economics, Political Science and Sociology Departments and the Derozio Hall was built in 1956, while the newest building built to the west of the main building for the holding of post-graduate classes, was built in 1990.Alumni Association
The college has an active Alumni Association. It works from within the main building of the college. Some of the eminent past Presidents of the Association were Radhabinod Pal and Pratap Chandra ChunderPratap Chandra Chunder
Pratap Chandra Chunder was a union minister of India, educationist and author. He served in Morarji Desai Ministry from 1977 to 1980 as a cabinet minister with education and social welfare portfolios.-Family and education:...
. Dr. Shyamaprasad Mookherjee
Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was a minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's Cabinet as a Minister for Industry and Supply....
was a past Vice President of the Association. The Association publishes an yearly journal entitled the 'Autumn Annual'. Professor Subodh Chandra Sengupta was the longest serving editor-in-chief of the journal.
Notable alumni
Until the middle of the twentieth century this college was widely considered to be the very best in higher education in the country. In the second half of the twentieth century it can still claim to be among the top five colleges in the country and is clearly still the most famous of all the Indian colleges. That the college continues to be the alma mater of eminent professionals, including senior politicians and industrialists, who are still working gives evidence of its relevance today and also shows that it is still at the height of its powers. Students of this college have continued to be awarded all the major scholarships, such as the Rhodes ScholarshipRhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
, the Commonwealth Scholarship
Commonwealth Scholarship
The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries.-History:...
, Inlaks Scholarship, Radhakrishnan Scholarship and Government of India and State Scholarship to study in either Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
or Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
.
The college started with the expressed objective of encouraging boys of landed and aristocratic families of the Bengal Presidency to join it, but has also traditionally attracted extremely meritorious students from district schools and colleges to it since the nineteenth century. It has the distinction of being the college where Academy Award winner Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
and the Nobel Laureate Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
studied. Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
was admitted into the college, but spent only one day there.
In politics, it has amongst its students, some of the biggest names of the Indian national movement, such as five Presidents of the Indian National Congress, including Surendranath Banerjea
Surendranath Banerjea
Sir Surendranath Banerjee was one of the earliest Indian political leaders during the British Raj. He founded the Indian National Association, one of the earliest Indian political organizations, and later became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress...
, Romesh Chunder Dutt
Romesh Chunder Dutt
Romesh Chunder Dutt, CIE was an Indian civil servant, economic historian, writer, and translator of Ramayana and Mahabharata.- Formative years :...
, Bhupendra Nath Bose
Bhupendra Nath Bose
Bhupendra Nath Bose was an Indian politician and President of the Indian National Congress in 1914.Bose was born in Krishnanagar, West Bengal in 1859. He graduated from the Presidency College, Calcutta in 1880. He completed his master's degree in 1881 and his law degree in 1883.From 1904 to 1910,...
, Lord
Lord
Lord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
Satyendra Prasanno Sinha and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was an Indian politician and educator. He was one of the architects of the Indian Republic, having drafted its first constitution and serving as the first president of independent India...
studied in this college. The Speaker
Speaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
of the Indian Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
, Somnath Chatterjee
Somnath Chatterjee
Somnath Chatterjee is an Indian politician who had been associated with the Communist Party of India for most of his life, though he is currently an independent...
was a student of this college. The first President of Bangladesh, Abu Sayeed Chowdhury
Abu Sayeed Chowdhury
Abu Sayeed Chowdhury was a jurist and the President of Bangladesh. Abu Sayeed Choudhury was born on January 05, 1921 in a Zamindar family of Nagbari in Tangail District...
and another President of Bangladesh, Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem
Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem
Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem was the sixth president of Bangladesh between 6 November, 1975 and 21 April, 1977. He was also the first chief justice of Bangladesh.Hometown= Rangpur,Residence= Road 32, Dhanmondi, Dhaka-References:...
also studied in this college. The college has had one Governor of an Indian state, Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh
Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh
Sir Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh was India's first ambassador to Nepal and later an ambassador to Japan and also the second Governor of Punjab in 1953 and then governor of Uttar Pradesh from 1980 to 1985. A distinguished educator, an able administrator and an inspiring leadership interpreter...
, as its student also. Since elections were first held in Indian provinces in 1937, and after independence, it has had three Prime Ministers, one each of Pakistan, Bengal and Assam, five Chief Ministers of West Bengal and one Chief Minister of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
as its former students. They are the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Bogra, first Prime Minister of Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
, A.K. Fazlul Huq, the first Prime Minister of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
, Saiyid Mohammed Saadullah, the first and second Chief Ministers of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh
Prafulla Chandra Ghosh
Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh was the first Chief Minister of West Bengal, India. He was Chief Minister in three West Bengal governments, first in the Indian National Congress government from August 15, 1947 to August 14, 1948, then in the Progressive Democratic Alliance Front government from...
and Dr. Bidhan Chandra Ray, later Chief Ministers of the same state, Siddhartha Shankar Ray
Siddhartha Shankar Ray
Siddhartha Shankar Ray was an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He was a prominent barrister, Punjab Governor and Education minister of India...
, Jyoti Basu
Jyoti Basu
Jyoti Basu was an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India from West Bengal, India. He served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, making him the longest-serving Chief Minister of any Indian state. Basu was a member of the CPI Politburo from the time of the...
and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is an Indian politician and a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India . He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011...
and the second Chief Minister of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
, Bishnu Ram Medhi. The first Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Anugrah Narayan Sinha
Anugrah Narayan Sinha
Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha , known as Bihar Vibhuti, was an Indian statesman who was the first Deputy Chief Minister cum Finance Minister of the Indian state of Bihar...
was a student of this college. The college has had as its students a host of other politicians including central and state level ministers.
Scions of former Indian Princely States and substantial landholding families also studied in this college, such as the former Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
of Coochbehar, HH Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur and the former Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
of Burdwan, Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
Uday Chand Mahtab. Other zamindari families from where boys came to study in this college included Burdwan, Susanga, Cossimbazar, Natore, Gouripur, Kalipur, Jhargram, Kirtipasha, and Teota in Bengal, Gauripur in Assam and Sonepur and Jarasingha in Orissa.
There are several senior judges, such as the first Indian judge of the High Court of Calcutta, Gooroodas Banerjee
Gooroodas Banerjee
Sir Gooroodas Banerjee, KCIE was a Bengali Indian judge of the Calcutta High Court. In 1890, he also became the first Indian Vice-Chancellor of University of Calcutta...
and a Chief Justice of India, Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee who were students of this college. Several senior civilians, such as the first Indian member of the ICS, Satyendranath Tagore
Satyendranath Tagore
Satyendranath Tagore was the first Indian to join the Indian Civil Service. He was an author, song composer, linguist and made significant contribution towards the emancipation of women in Indian society during the British Raj.-Formative years:...
and the first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen, studied in this college.
This college has also performed equally well in industry. Rajen Mookerjee
Rajen Mookerjee
Sir Rajen Mookerjee, KCIE, KCVO was a pioneering Indian industrialist.-Early life:...
was its student and Rama Prasad Goenka also studied in this college.
In academics too, other than Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
, eminent intellectuals and vice chancellors, such as the scientist, Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Jagadish Chandra Bose, the pre-eminent vice chancellor of Calcutta University, Ashutosh Mukherjee
Ashutosh Mukherjee
Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, CIE was a prolific Bengali educator and the first Indian Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta from 1906 to 1924. Perhaps the most emphatic figure of Indian education, he was a man of great personality, high self-respect, courage and towering administrative ability...
, Sir Azizul Haque
Sir Azizul Haque
Sir Azizul Haque , was a Bengali lawyer, writer and politician. He studied at Presidency College and University Law College in Calcutta...
, the famous lawyer and intellectual, the doyen of Indian history, Sir Jadunath Sarkar
Jadunath Sarkar
Sir Jadunath Sarkar was a prominent Indian Bengali aristocrat and historian.-Background:Born in Singra, Natore. He was the son of Rajkumar Sarkar, the Zamindar of Karchamaria in Natore in Bengal.-Education:...
, and India's first planner, Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis FRS was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India...
, have been students of this college. In literature, it has amongst its students, Michael Madhusudan Dutt
Michael Madhusudan Dutt
Michael Madhusudan Dutt or Michael Madhusudan Dutta was a popular 19th century Bengali poet and dramatist. He was born in Sagardari , on the bank of Kopotaksho [কপোতাক্ষ] River, a village in Keshobpur Upozila, Jessore District, East Bengal . His father was Rajnarayan Dutt, an eminent lawyer, and...
, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
and Jibanananda Das
Jibanananda Das
Jibanananda Das was a noted Bengali poet. He is considered one of the precursors who introduced modernist poetry to Bengali Literature, at a period when it was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore's Romantic poetry....
. Eminent journalists such as Avik Sarkar, M. J. Akbar
M. J. Akbar
Mobashar Jawed "M.J." Akbar is a leading Indian journalist and author. He has recently taken charge as Editorial Director of India Today, India's leading weekly English news magazine published by the Living Media group...
and Pritish Nandy
Pritish Nandy
Pritish Nandy is a Indian poet, painter, journalist, politician, media and television personality, animal activist and film producer. He is Bengali by ethnicity. He was member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament representing Maharashtra based party Shiv Sena...
studied here.
In the entertainment industry, especially in films and theatre, other than Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
, this college can boast of figures such as Bikash Roy
Bikash Roy
Bikash Roy was a character actor in Bengali cinema. He attended the Presidency College of the University of Calcutta. He was a natural actor bringing out different shades and subtle nuances of different characters quite effortlessly...
, Pramathesh Barua
Pramathesh Barua
Pramathesh Chandra Barua was a famous actor, director, and screenwriter of Indian films in the pre-independence era.-Early life:...
, Ashok Kumar
Ashok Kumar
Ashok Kumar also fondly called Dadamoni was an Indian film actor. Born Kumudlal Ganguly in Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency he attained iconic status in Indian cinema...
, Dhritiman Chatterjee (Sundar Chatterjee) and Aparna Sen
Aparna Sen
Aparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...
.
Amongst eminent sportsmen, Vece Paes
Vece Paes
Vece Paes was a former Indian hockey midfielder, and representing the Indian team in the 1972 Munich Olympics, that won the bronze medal. He is the father of India's tennis player Leander Paes. He is also a doctor in sports medicine....
, a member of India's hockey team, studied in this college.
Fictions
- Shei Somay (Those Days) by Sunil Gangopadhyaya, a novel on nineteenth century Bengali society, mentions the college.
Films
- Harbert (in Bengali), starring Subhasish Mukherjee. Parts of the movie were shot inside the college campus.
- AutographAutographAn autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...
(in Bengali), starring Nandana SenNandana Sen-Early life:Sen was born in Kolkata, West Bengal to a Bengali Hindu family. She is the daughter of Nobel Laureate and Bharat Ratna economist Amartya Sen and Padma Shri winner Nabanita Dev Sen, one of the most prominent authors in the contemporary Bengali literature....
and Indraneil SenguptaIndraneil SenguptaIndraneil Sengupta is an Indian model and actor, born in Assam and schooled and brought up in Ahmedabad. He was a finalist in the Gladrags Manhunt Contest 1999. In 2000 he moved to Mumbai to pursue modelling. He modelled for designers like Rohit Bal and also worked for choreographers like Marc...
, shows a couple as students of this college. Parts of the movie were shot inside the college campus. - YuvaYuvaYuva , originally titled Howrah Bridge is a feature film directed by Indian director Mani Ratnam and released in 2004. Simultaneously made in Hindi and Tamil , the prime objective of the movie was to motivate educated Indian youths to enter politics.The film tells the stories of three young men...
(in Hindi), starring Ajay DevganAjay DevganAjay Devgan , born Vishal Veeru Devgan on 2 April 1969, is an Indian film actor, director, and producer.He made his film debut with Phool Aur Kaante in 1991 and received a Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut for his performance in the film and for which he won a Filmfare Best Debut Award...
, Abhishek BachchanAbhishek BachchanAbhishek Bachchan is an Indian actor and producer. He is the son of Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan and is married to actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai....
and Rani Mukherjee shows Devgan, as Michael, as a student leader involved in politics. - 15 Park Avenue (in English), starring Shabana AzmiShabana AzmiShabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
, who teaches in a class of the PhysicsPhysicsPhysics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
department of the college. - KaalbelaKaalbelakaalbela is a 2009 Bengali film directed by Goutam Ghosh .The film is starring Parambrata Chatterjee, Paoli Dam, Santu Mukherjee and Soumitra Chatterjee. This film is set against the background of the Naxalite movement...
(in Bengali), starring Parambrata ChatterjeeParambrata ChatterjeeParambrata Chatterjee is a Bengali Indian male actor and director of television and films.-Career:His directorial debut feature film is [Jiyo Kaka] starred by Rituparna Sengupta and Rudranil Ghosh....
and Paoli DamPaoli DamPaoli Dam is an Indian Bengali actress. She is from Golf Road, Kolkata and came into prominence with her 2009 Bengali film - Kaalbela, directed by notable Director Gautam Ghose.-Education:...
contains scenes shot inside the college campus. The movie, based on a 1980s novel by Samaresh MajumdarSamaresh MajumdarSamaresh Majumdar is a well known contemporary Bengali writer. He spent his childhood years in the tea gardens of Duars, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India. He was a student of the Jalpaiguri Zilla School, Jalpaiguri. He completed his bachelors in Bengali from Scottish Church College, Kolkata. His...
, is set against the background of the Naxalite movement.