Oldest known College of Calcutta

Presidency College or Hindoo College (presently Presidency University) - Founded 1817

Presidency College has a unique place in history. It was one of the first institutes of Western-type higher education in Asia. In 1817, a group of enlightened Indians and Englishmen set up the Hindoo College. This was taken over the British Government in 1855 as the College of the Bengal Presidency, and placed in 1857 under the newly founded Calcutta University.



Over the next hundred years and more, Presidency College was Bengal’s pre-eminent centre of higher learning. Although a Constituent College of Calcutta University, it preserved a tradition of research matched by few universities in India. This gave a unique dimension to its undergraduate teaching.

The formal establishment of Presidency University in July 2010 allows it to refashion its venerable traditions and continuing strengths into a leading institution of the future.

Brief History of the College

The 'Hindoo College’, established in 1817, was transformed into the ‘Presidency College of Bengal' in 1855. The Hindoo College was the earliest institution of higher learning in the modern sense in Asia. The Presidency College introduced western education in the historical sense of the term and was originally a non-government college meant for the sons of the Hindu community alone. But the Centenary Volume (1955) notes: ‘The most striking feature of the Hindu College was its determined effort to impart secular education.’ In 1855 when the Hindoo College was renamed Presidency College, it became a government institution. The college now represented non-denominational secularism and admitted young men from all communities. However, it was only in 1944 that girls were permitted to join the college. Since then, the college has been a co-educational institution.



The Hindoo-Presidency College, which aimed from the beginning at a liberal, scientific and secular education, stood on the side of the ‘Anglicists’ in the famous Anglicist-Orientalist debate. This meant that the college stood for modern, western education in the English medium. This, however, would not entail a neglect of Indian themes and subjects. This was borne out by the contribution of the students of the college to Bengali language and literature. The subjects taught at the outset were English, Bengali, Sanskrit, History, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Chemistry and some other science subjects. In addition, Law, Commerce and Engineering were taught for some time, but teaching of these was discontinued later. Consequently, the college emerged as the most celebrated institution in India to impart a humanistic and scientific education. The pioneering discoveries of Jagadish Chandra Bose and Praphulla Chandra Ray in Physics / Plant Physiology and Chemistry respectively were made in the laboratories of the college. Teaching of both liberal arts and empirical sciences acquired true excellence in the nineteenth century and the tradition continued even after independence. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Anandaram Barooah, students of the college, enriched Bengali and Assamese literature. S.N.Bose, M.N.Saha, P.C.Mahalanobish, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, Shyamal Sengupta, Ashoke Sen made world-class contribution in the field of basic science. Amartya Sen and Sukhamoy Chakraborty made contributions to economic theory in the decades after independence. These names are merely illustrative, for the alumni of the college have distinguished themselves both nationally and internationally in various fields. The college, amongst whose alumni were a President of India (Dr. Rajendra Prasad), a Prime Minister of Pakistan (Muhammad Ali of Bogra) and a President of Bangladesh (Abu Sayeed Chowdhury), has a challenging past to live up to. This challenge of a glorious history and venerable tradition is perhaps our greatest strength. In recognition of its rich heritage of academic excellence the Legislature of West Bengal conferred the status of a University on Presidency College on 7th July of 2010. This was enacted with a view to enabling Presidency University to function more efficiently as a centre of teaching and research in various branches of learning, especially in Humanities, Social and Basic Sciences, and promoting advancement and dissemination of knowledge and learning in the service of the society and the nation.

Notable Alumnis of past includes (list not exhaustive)

1) Swami Vivekananda - founder of Ramakrishna mission and math

2) Durga Mohan Das - leader of the Bramho Samaj

3) Peary Chand Mitra - Famous for first true Bengali novel, 'Alaaler ghorer dulal' also known as Dickens of Bengal.

4) Surendranath Banerjea - 11th President of the Indian National Congress

5) Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose - 53rd President of the Indian National Congress, Freedom fighter and founder of the Forward Bloc (later expelled)

6) Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bhahadur - Maharaja of Coochbehar

7) Jagdish Chandra Bose - Inventor of wireless communications, Cresco graph and discovered life in plants

8) Satyendra Nath Bose - Discovered Bose-Einstein statistics along with Albert Einstein; Bosons

9) Bankim Chandra Chatterjee - Poet and Novelist

10) Keshab Chandra Sen - Brahmo Reformer; founder of the Nababidhan Samaj

Presidency College Calcutta in the mid nineteenth century, (Photographer: Francis Frith, Date: Between 1850s to 1870s)