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Midnapore Collegiate School
(Page2)
During his tenure of service the school was raised to the Entrance standard of the
Calcutta University which was established in 1857. Perhaps no students were sent up for the
Entrance Examination either in 1857 or in 1858. But in 1859 seven candidates of the Entrance
Examination of the University came out successful all being placed in the second Division.
The names of those candidates occur in the University calendar as the following:
1) Aughorenath Dutla
2) Madhusudan Roy
3) Nandalal Ghosh
4) Oojocdhyalal Pal
5) Bissalla Churn Mullik
6) Ishan Chandra Bera
7) Tarini Charan Mookherjee
As the Head or a High English School and the same time an undaunted social religious reformer Rajnarayan became the centre of attraction in Midnapore. His inspiration created a number of movements for eradicating social evils like drinking, illiteracy drive, women's education and establishing public library, workers' education. One of the ‘Societies he set up aimed at promoting national feeling amongst the educated natives. He sowed the seed of national education and propagated nationalism in every sphere of social life. His spirit must have powerfully moved the people, especially the intellegentia and have roused among them a yearning for higher education. As a result the standard of the School was elevated and in near future a proposal for the establishment of a college was mooted. During his time K.artik chandra Mitra, a scholar of no mean order, stood first in the entrance examination of the Calcutta University in 1864. Some of the boys who were regarded as jewels of the school are I) Nilkamal Dey 2) Eshan chanda Banerjee 3) MangobindaAich 4) Baburam Banerjee.
The Tamluk Hamilton School was founded in 1852 and it served as a feeder school to the Zilla School , being reckoned as an ‘attached' school. Calcutta was then the centre for public Examinations.
In 1860 —61 two additional rooms had been erected by the Government for the School.
A momentous school function was organised by Rajnarayan on the occasion of his eldest daughter's marriage ceremony in 1864, when eminent personalities from Calcutta like Maharshi DthendraNath Tagore, Keshab chandra Sen, frjoy krishna Goswami,Sibnath Shastri, Azodhyanath Pakrashi caine ever to Midnapore and visited the School. (Swarnalata and Dr. K. D. Ghosh were the parents of Sri Aurobindo and Barin Ghosh).
An unexpected event took place. Rajnarayan fell ill and on March 6, 1866, he was compelled to leave his beloved Midnapore for treatment, but was never able to resume his service here. People of Midnapore felt utterly sad and disappointed.
Babu Gangadhar Acharya was appointed the next Head Master in 1869. The Government spent an amount of Rs.l200/- for repairs and extension to the school building. it is also interesting to learn that to each of the teachers a handsome present was made from surplus income in recogn ition of meretorious Service.
It was certainly a galla day in February, 1870, when His Honour the Leiutenant Governor of Bengal paid a kind visit to the School and the question of opening College classes fee . First Arts, was placed before His Highness. On that very day the residents of the District had promised to endow such a school with an amount of Rs. 60,000/- for its up gradation. Donations and subscriptions were collected within next two years, and the school was permitted by the Calcutta University to start F. A. classes early in 1873, though the nomenclature of the school remained unchanged as a High school or Zilla school. Babu Navin Chandra Nag of Jakpur village, Midnapore, made a princely donation of Rs. 20,000/- to the Endowment fund.
A brief report about the Midnapore College appeared for the first time in the University Calendar for 1878. It was as follows
This Institution was founded as a Zilla School in 1834, and was converted into a High
School in 1873. Since Govt. orders of the 16th October, 1877, changing the nomenclature of
Govt. School , it has been called Midnapore 2nd Grade College . It is supported partly by
Government and partly by the interest of an Endowment Fund, raised by the people of the
District of Midnapore. Like all other Government Institutions of the kind, it is under the
control of the Director of Public Instructions and a District School Committee.
It consists of a College and a School Department. Into the former such students are admitted as have passed the University Entrance Examination and intended to study for the First Examination in Arts. The schooling fee in the College Department is Rs. 5/- a month and that in the school Department varies from one rupee in the lowest to three rupees in the highest class.
A Law Department was also opened in 1873, and a Law Lecturer was appointed.
Instructive Staff
Head Master—Babu Gangadhr Acharya
2nd Head Master — Babu Shyama charan Das
3rd Head Master — Babu Ishan chanda Datta M.A.,B.L.
Head Pundit— Babu Bholanath Chakraborty.
Thus, the College at the initial stage was no more than an extension of the High school under the same University. The Head Master of the High School was the Head of both the College and School Departments. The management was thus common for both, and the integrated two units functioned in the same campus.
Babu Kartik Chandra Mitra (of Jakpur village) M. A., B. L.. P.R.S. (who stood first in the Entrance Examination ; 1864 from this school) was appointed Law Lecturer. But the syndicate of the C. U. refused to affiliate the High School in Law. So the District School Committee resolved that as the Vice-Precedent Mr. H. I. Harrison. Inspector of Schools, Midnapore, (afterwards an Officer in the Calcutta Corporation in whose name Harrison Road existed) had already written to the Commissioner of Burdwan to request the Government to move the High Court to accept the Law Lecturer's certification as qualif9ing for admission to the Pleader ship Examination, no further step was necessary for the orders of the Government. So the Law classes continued. In 1876 when Kartik Chandra Mitra resigned. Ishan Chandra Datta, who had practiced for some time before entering the Education Deportment, was appointed Law Lecturer.
Names of some of the brilhant scholars of the school of this period are as follows
1. 1 shan Chandra Majumdar (father of Nilkantha Majumdar)
2. Nilkanlha Majumdar, Principal Cuttack Ravenshaw College .
3. Akhil Chandra Datta
4. Radhamadhab Datta
5. Keder Nath Das
6. Karalicharan Dey
7. Shyama Charan Das
8 Chandra Sekhar Das (father of Justice Gopendra Nath Das of Cal. High Court)
9. Nilambar Nag
10. Bepin Behari Nag
11. Md, Derasatulla
12. Md. Ali Suhrwordi
13. Mobarak Ali
14. Md. Raetulla
15. Sa. Ohjedi (Later on a professor of Dacca College )
16. Sir Abdulla Ali Majun Sohrawordi
17. Hossain Sohrawordi ( V. C. Calcutta University )
18. Md. Sohrawardi
19. Abdul Based
20. Abdul Rob
21. Md. Irafan Ali
22. Bhagabati Chakraborty
23. Puran Chandra Chakraborty (of Debra)
24. Kaliprasanna Choudhury (of Debra)
25. Sivaprasad Ghosli (of Pingla)
In pursuance of the Bengal Municipal Act of 1884, the Management of the School with its attached College Classes was, under a Deed of Agreement, transferred to the Midnapore Municipality (estd in 1865) ‘not as a measure of economy, but as fl measure promising useful political results'. The Education Commission of 1882 also recommended the transfer of Government Colleges to non-official agencies and ‘following this policy the College at Midnapore was transferred to the control of Municipality in 1887 and that at J3erhampore to the Control of the Maharaja of Kasimbazar'
(Radha Krishnan Commission Report, Page No. 484)
Report of this changeover in the control of the High School was also incorporated in the Calcutta University Calender, 1889, as follows
'…………….The management of this College and the attached Collegiate School which was under the control of the Director of Public Instruction and of a District School Committee, has been made over by Government to the local Municipality since the 1st of July last on the Grant-in-aid system'.
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