Vidyasagar College

A 1998 stamp dedicated to the 125th anniversary of Vidyasagar College

Vidyasagar College was founded in the year 1872.[2] The college had its origin in the Calcutta Training School that was founded by Thakurdas Chakraborty in 1859. In 1864, the school came to be known as the Metropolitan Institution. In 1872, the University of Calcutta granted affiliation to the Institution for the First Arts (FA) standard. The birth of the first private and truly secular college in the Presidency of Bengal was hailed as a landmark in the academic and cultural ethos of India. It was the great Indian educationalist and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who was associated with the College from its very inception in 1872. The college is a living monument of the untiring labours of Vidyasagar who is known to be the founder of the college. After the passing away of the founder in 1891, the name, Metropolitan Institute, was changed to Vidyasagar College in 1917. Saradaranjan Ray, who taught Sanskrit and Mathematics, was a professor and principal of the college. His third brother, Muktidaranjan Ray, who taught Mathematics, was also a professor of this college. The 143 years voyage commenced with only 5 departments i.e. Sanskrit, English, Philosophy, Economics, History (General). Since 1917 the College entered a phase of rapid growth which made it expand its academic curriculum by introducing a commerce department in 1922 and a morning section for women in 1931. Some of its famous alumni include Swami Vivekananda, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Keshub Chandra Sen, Acharya Jadunath Sarkar, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jagjivan Ram and many others who made immense contribution in various walks of life. The institution also had the services of such great luminaries as Surendranath Banerjee, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Professor Sisir Kumar Bhaduri, Nabin Chandra Vidyaratna and even Rabindranath Tagore in various capacities. The Commerce Department of the college, established in 1922, has the distinction of being the oldest commerce teaching department in India. It had its affiliation up to B.Com. standard in 1928 and attracted students from different parts of India. It was due to the untiring effort of Prof. J.C. Mitra, the then Vice-Principal of the College the Commerce Department made such rapid growth in terms of faculty and student strength that a separate wing had to be devoted to commerce teaching.

• Swami Vivekananda, philosopher and Hindu monk[3]
• Keshub Chandra Sen, Brahmo reformer
• Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, scientist
• Jatindra Nath Das, freedom fighter
• Ram Manohar Lohia, freedom fighter
• Chhabi Biswas, Notable Bengali actor and theatre artist
• Ananda Chandra Agarwala, Assamese writer, poet
• Ganesh Man Singh, Nepalese freedom fighter, politician
• Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, religious leader, philosopher and founder of Ananda marga spiritual organization also founder of PROUT, author of Neohumanism, Prabhat Samgiita, etc
• Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, novelist
• Biswanath Mukherjee, Politician, Social Worker
• Manna Dey, singer
• Ram Sunder Das, freedom fighter, politician
• Brojen Das, swimmer

• List of colleges affiliated to the University of Calcutta
• Education in India
• Education in West Bengal

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• Vidyasagar College