(KC Kalkura)
In the second decade of the 20th Century, a lad from Kurnool passed his SSLC Examination from the Municipal High School, Kurnool, then in Madras Province and now in Andhra Pradesh. The examination was conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Madras. He went to Madras, seeking admission to a college. . He requested an application in the Presidency College, Madras (now Chennai). Presidency College, is an art, commerce, and science college. On October 16, 1840, this school was established as the Madras Preparatory School and was later upgraded to High School, and then a graduate College. The Presidency College is one of the oldest government arts colleges in India. It is one of the two Presidency colleges established by the British in India, the other being the Presidency College, Kolkata.
Notable Alumni of Madras Presidency College included Bharat Ratnas, (Rajagopalachari and C.Subrahmanyam), Nobel Laureates (C.V.Raman and S, Chandrasekhar), Judges of the Supreme Court Venkjataramana Ayer and K.S.Hegde, Chief Justices of High Court (P.V.Rajamannar, M.M.Ismail, and P.S.Kailasam), Chief Ministers (Kasu Brahmananda Reddy – Andhra Pradesh and M.K.Stalin – Tamil Nadu), Statesmen. Bureaucrats, administrators, literateatuers, film personalities, advocates, industrialists etc flourished in all walks of public life. The students’ status of different colleges in Madras were popular by their behavior and dignity of the institution namely Lords of Law, Butterflies of Queen Mary’s, Slaves of Loyola, Gentlemen of Christian, and Yogis of Vivekananda. Musclemen of Pachaiyappa and Princes of Presidency.
The Kurnool lad was denied an application in the Presidency College, with a sarcastic comment by the clerk: This is a College meant for Princes and not for beggars; no application for you, clear from here at once. The disappointed lad pursued his education at Muhammadan College. After completing his graduation, he went to England, obtained a postgraduate degree from Oxford University, successfully submitted his doctoral thesis at the same University, and returned to India to join as a lecturer in the same Presidency College and rose to become its Principal. Later he was the Chairman of the Madras Public Service Commission. The academician, educationist, administrator, and scholar was none other than Dr Abdul Haq. Having been insulted, Dr. Haq felt that the future generation should not suffer humiliation and the deserving should not be denied higher education in the place of his birth. He conceived the idea of a college in Kurnool. He approached some like-minded philanthropists and spirited social activists and solicited their cooperation. In 1946, a delegation called on the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan for help. The Nizam offered a munificent donation of Rs. 2 lakhs on the condition that the College would be named after him. Thus came into existence on 2nd July 1947, Osmania College, Kurnool. Similar is the saga of every private educational institution in British India.
Hurt by the lukewarm attitude of the British toward the spread of literacy and education, patriotic and philanthropic Rajas, Nawabs, Nobles, Jamindars, and Industrialists came forward with land and donations to encourage the government to start institutions.
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is a Public Central University at present. It is an institute of national importance as declared under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India at its commencement. It was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. Following the Aligarh Muslim University Act, of 1920 it became a University.
Tatas promoted and financed the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The Maharaja of Mysore donated about 400 acres of land to the Institut, popularly known as Tata Institute (established in 1909), and Tata Memorial Cancer Institute in Mumbai (1925). The Birlas established the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, in 1964.
Banaras Hindu University was funded and founded in 1916 jointly by Madan Mohan Malaviya, the Maharaja of Darbhanga, Rameswar Singh, Maharaja of Banaras, Prabhu Narayan Singh, Sundar Lal, and British theosophist Annie Besant. The Mysore University, initiated by Sir M.Visvesvaraya, the Diwan was founded during the reign of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, benevolent and the Enlightened Maharaja of Mysore, on 27 July 1916. The University was the first to be established outside British India and the sixth one in India as a whole.
Mir Osman Ali Khan, the VII Nizam of Hyderbad, donated land and funds to start the Osmania University in 1918. King Vikram Deo Verma, the Maharaja of Jeypore (Orissa) was one of the biggest donors of the Andhra University, in 1926. He donated lands and two million rupees for the establishment of the university.
Similarly, Jamia Millia Islamia was established, among others by Dr. Zakir Hussain, in October 1920 at Aligarh and moved to Delhi in 1925. It was established mainly in response to the demand of some students for a new National Muslim University which would be free from government influence. It was conceived as a national institution that would offer an emphasis on Indian Nationalism to students from all communities, particularly Muslims.
Zakir Hussain described this as, “the movement of Jamia Millia Islamia as a struggle for education and cultural renaissance that aims to prepare a blueprint for Indian Muslims which may focus on Islam but simultaneously evolve a national culture for common Indian. It will lay the foundation of the thinking that true religious education will promote patriotism and national integration among Indian Muslims, who will be proud to take part in the future progress of India, which will play its part in the comity of nations for peace and development. The objective of the establishment of Jamia Millia Islamia will be to lay down the common curriculum for Indian Muslims taking into account the future challenges and will prepare the children to be masters of the future.”
The emergence of Jamia was supported by Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore who felt that ‘Jamia Millia Islamia could shape lives of hundreds and thousands of students on the basis of a shared culture and worldview.’ The University Grants Commission gave Jamia Millia Islamia the deemed status in 1962. Jamia Millia Islamia became a central university by an act of the Indian Parliament on 26 December 1988.
On the side-line, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the present National Institutes of Technology (NIT and earlier Regional Engineering Colleges RECs) were brainchildren of Prof.Thacker, a member of the Planning Commission, during the First and Second Five Year Plans in post-independent India.
Osmania College, Kurnool was the fourth-degree college in the present Rayalaseema. The first three were: 1. Besant Theosophical College, Madanapalle, 19th July 1915. It was the pioneering efforts of Dr.Annie Wood Besant; 2. On 8th July 1916, the Ceded Districts College or Govt Arts College, Anantapur and 3. Sri Venkateswara Arts College, Tirupati in 1946.
When Sri Venkateswara University was started in September 1954, there were hardly ten colleges affiliated with it in the five districts of Chittoor, Nellore, Kadapa, Anantapur, and Kurnool. Only three, the Govt Arts College, Anantapur, the Govt College Kadapa, and the Govt Engineering College, Anantapur were managed by the Govt. Others were Aided Colleges.
Regarding School education, at the dawn of the 20th Century, there were only two High Schools in Kurnool Dist; Municipal High School, Kurnool (1858) and SPG High School, Nandyal (1875). All over the country, there were only Municipal, Board, and Mission High Schools; all of them in towns. As the National Movement picked up steam, charitable institutions, with National spirit started Colleges and Schools in semi-urban and rural areas also. With the launching of the Panchayat Raj in 1959, flood gates were opened. e.g In Kurnool Dist Zilla Parishad inherited 32 Board High schools. By 1962 there were 135 more Zilla Parishad High Schools in the District within two years. (To be concluded)(Opinions expressed are personal)
(K.C.Kalkura, Advocate and Social Activist, Kurnool)
Read Part-2 here