The Administrative History

The administrative history of our College, a premier academic institute that has witnessed a journey of hundred years is not a linear one.

The necessity and urge to establish a college in the locality of South Calcutta was first felt as the Doveton College and the London Missionary Society's Institution, Bhowanipore (one of the oldest colleges under the Calcutta University) faced a closure in 1911. In 1915, the initiative to found a college was taken up by Sir Asutosh Mukherjee who was then the President of the General Committee of the South Suburban group of schools, Bhowanipore, a committee, dedicated to the cause of imparting secondary education.

Unfortunately, the application forwarded to the University of Calcutta in February 1915 for affiliation of the proposed college did not receive a favourable response at first. In July 1915, the Private Secretary to his Excellency the Rector, Lord Carmichale, the then Governor of Bengal, wrote to the proposers of the institution that the Government of India was unable to give any assurance of the grant of affiliation from the current session. However, through a painstaking process of negotiation and persuasion the letter conveying the sanction to the affiliation of the college in connection with the South Suburban School, Bhowanipore, arrived from the Registrar, Calcutta University and reached the secretary to the General Committee of the South Suburban School sometime after the 20th of May, 1916.

The College was granted affiliation upto the Intermediate standard (plus two of recent years) in English, Vernacular Composition, Sanskrit, History, Logic, Mathematics and Botany. It was decided that the constitution of the Governing Body of the College would follow the rules laid by the General Committee or the South Suburban School at a meeting previously held on the 24th of March, 1915. The Body would have to be composed of ten members, eight of them to be elected yearly by the General Committee members, comprising fifty representatives of the local public, with the two other members being the Principal, Ex-Officio, and a representative of the Teaching staff, elected annually by the teachers themselves.

The First Governing Body was constituted as follows:-

1.The Hon'ble Justice Sir Asutosh Mookerjee, Saraswati, Sashtra-Vachaspati, Sambuddhagama-
Chakravarti, Kt, C.S.I., M.A., D.L., D.Sc, Ph.D., F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E., F.A.S.B.
2.The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Asutosh Chaudhuri, M.A., :L.L.B. (Cantab).
3.Babu Dwarka Nath Chakravarti, M.A., B.L, Honorary Fellow, University of Calcutta.
4.The Hon'ble Babu Mahendranath Ray, C.I.E., M.A., B.L., Fellow of the University of Calcutta.
5.Babu Biraj Mohan Majumdar, M.A., B.L., Vice-Principal, University Law College and Fellow
of the University of Calcutta.
6. Dr. GirindraNath Mukherjee, B.A., M.D. (Med.) Professor of Botany, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
7. Mr. R. H. M. Rustomjee.
8. Babu Provas Chunder Mitter, M.A., B.L., Vakil, High Court.
9. The Principal.
10. One representative of the members of the Teaching Staff to be elected by them from amongst
themselves.

At the first meeting of the Governing Body, held on Saturday, the 3rd of June, 1916, the Hon'ble Justice Sir Asutosh Mookerjee was elected President of the Governing Body, and Babu DwarkaNath Chakravarti and Babu Provas Chunder Mitter were elected Vice-President and Secretary respectively. It was at this meeting that a resolution was passed –

"That the College be named the SOUTH SUBURBAN COLLEGE, BHOWANIPUR"

By another resolution it was decided to locate it in premises No. 26, Lansdowne Road, which was to be taken on lease for a period of two years from June 1916, at a rented of Rs. 250/- per month plus the occupier's share of the taxes.

The Governing Body, at its first meeting appointed the following gentlemen on the TEACHING STAFF of the College -

Principal:
Babu Panchanan Sinha, M.A., B.L.

Professors of English:
Babu Someswar Prasad Mukhopadhyay, M.A., B.L.
Babu Nalini Mohan Chatterjee, M.A.

Additional Professor of English:
Babu Nripendra Nath Ghosh, M.A.

Professors of Sanskrit:
Babu Bishnupada Bhattacharyya, M.A.
Babu Sivadas Banerjee, M.A.

Additional Professor of Sanskrit:
Babu Sachindra Nath Banerjee, B.A.

Professors of Mathematics:
Babu Gangadas Mookerjee, M.A.
Babu Sarat Chandra Ray Chaudhuri, M.A., B.L.

Additional Professor of Mathematics:
Babu Kaliprasad Banerjee, M.Sc.

Professors of History:
Babu Jogesh Chandra Chakravarti, M.A.
Babu Amal Kumar Ray Chaudhuri, M.A., B.L

Additional Professor of Hisotry:
Babu Hemendra Nath Chatterjee, M.A.

Professors of Logic:
Babu Kalidas Sen, M.A., B.L.,
Babu Harimohan Bhattacharyya, Kavyatirtha, M.A.

Additional Professor of Logic:
Babu Bijay Gopal Sarkar, M.A.

Professor of Botany:
Babu Raj Kumar Sen, M.Sc.

As Prof. Raj Kumar Sen informed about his inability to join the post of Professor of Botany, Babu Murari Mohan Ray Chaudhury, M.Sc. and Mr. N. Chakravarti, B.A. (Cal), B. Sc. (Ohio) were appointed Professors of Botany at the next meeting of the Governing Body.

The College authorities resolved that the College building would be shifted to Bijni House, the then 157 Russa Road, from its current location at 26 Lansdowne Road to serve the local public better. And they appealed to the concerned authorities for affiliation upto the B.A. Pass (now General) standard in October, 1917, which was granted with effect from the commencement of the session 1918-19 in subjects English, Vernacular Composition, Sanskrit, Mental and Moral Philosophy, History, Political Economy and Political Philosophy (Political Science of recent years) and Mathematics.

In 1924, after the sad and sudden demise of the Founder-Dreamer Sir Asutosh, the then members of the Governing Body unanimously decided, at a meeting dated the 15th of June, 1924, that the College was to be re-named Asutosh College, Bhowanipore, as a mark of respect to its First President. The College was incorporated as a society pursuant to the Provisions of Act XXI of 1860 and became a Registered Body on the 30th of March, 1927. While Babu Dwarka Nath Chakravarti succeeded Sir Asutosh as the President of the Governing Body in July 1923, Sri Provas Chunder Mitter and Sri Dwarakanath Mitter took over as Presidents from 1929 and 1932 respectively. The Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Trust, formed in the year Sir Asutosh passed away took up the administrative control of the College and continued to do so till 1973. Dr. Syamaprasad Mookerjee was elected the President of the Governing Body in 1934 and continued in this capacity till 1953.

Meanwhile, in 1935 the College administration decided that the college be removed to its own building almost opposite the old site of Bijni House, to the north of Hazra Park, in a plot of land that would accommodate Asutosh Mukherjee Memorial Institute, Asutosh Memorial Library and Asutosh Memorial Hall along with the College.

In course of time the college administrators made up their minds to open a Women's department (formalized in June 1932) in order to cope with the demands of time. The classes were decided, to be held in the morning. And the practice continues till date. The opening of the Evening section for the benefit of the students who might be engaged in some job during daytime followed suit. The college authorities appealed to the University officials and were successful in their endeavour. Affiliation for B.Com Course was sanctioned with effect from the session 1945-46.

During a span of thirty five years from 1921 to 1956, the administrators succeeded in getting affiliation for as many as twelve subjects in B.A. and B.Sc. as well.

The expansion of the college with three different sections and a load of increasing number of subjects made the College administration consider the issue of re-constitution of the morning, day and evening departments as separate and independent units, each under the charge of a separate administrature head with separate offices and accounts, subject to the overall control of the Governing Body. However, the staff council remained the same, consisting of the members of the teaching staff of all the three sections.

In after years, however, the authorities were compelled to make arrangements for the reconstitution of the three units of the College as separate and independent domains with three separate Governing Bodies and three separate staff councils. This occurred in the academic session 1958-57.

The separation of the three units was complete in the year 1958. The morning section was renamed as Jogamaya Devi College while the evening section came to be known as Syamaprasad College. And the Asutosh Mukherjee Memorial Institute that looked after the administrative activities of the college handed over its charge to the ad-hoc committee in 1978.

In 1973, the college became independent of the Asutosh Memorial Trust and the University formed an ad-hoc Committee for administration of the college with Sri Manindra Mohan Chakraborty as Chairman who continued in office till 1978, and was succeeded by Sri Arun Prakash Chatterjee, as chairman (1978-1980).

With the implementation of the Calcutta University First Statute 1979, Dr. Ramendranath Kundu was elected President of the G. B. in 1980 and continued as such till 1992, when he was succeeded by Dr. Ashokendu Roy (1992-2005) followed by Dr. Kalyan Kumar Dutta (2005-2011) and presently Prof. Saugata Roy (since 2011).

Sri Panchanan Sinha, the founder-Principal continued to hold office till 1948. He was succeeded by Sri Someswar Prasad Mokhopadhyay (1948-1956), Sri Khagendranath Sen (1956-1966), Sri Nirod Kumar Bhattacharyya (1966-1977), Sri Dulal Kumar Mitra, acting Principal (1977-1979), Dr. Subhankar Chakraborty (1979-1997) followed by Teacher-in-charge Sri Sudhin Kumar Bandopadhyay (1997-1999), and Sri Amritava Bandopadhyay (1999-2000). Dr. Debabrata Chowdhuri joined as Principal in December, 2000, and continued in office till his retirement in July, 2008 followed by Dr. Swapan Kumar Brahma as Teacher-in-Charge (2008-09).  Dr. Dipak Kumar Kar had been in charge as Principal from January 2009 to December 2014. When Dr Dipak Kumar Kar joined his duties as Chairman, the West Bengal College Service Commission, from December 2014 to May 2015 on lien, Prof. Ena Chatterjee took over the responsibilities as Teacher-in-Charge in this period. After that, Dr. Dipak Kumar Kar rejoined his duties as Principal from May 2015 to December 2017. From 06.12.2017 to 03.06.2019, Dr. Kar joined as Honourable Pro Vice Chancellor (Academic) of the University of Calcutta and from 04.06.2019 to 28.02.2023, as Honourable Vice Chancellor of the Sidhu- Kanho-Birsha University on lien. In this context, Sri Apurba Kumar Roy took charge the responsibility as Vice-Principal from December 2017.