Apart from being well known for the intellectual environment and shaping students into future leaders, IP College for Women, St. Stephens, Ramjas and Hindu College have a lot more in common than one might imagine. The colleges have played key roles in the freedom struggle and the independence movement of India and its high time we realise and remember our histories and pasts all the more.
As a part of the four-piece series covering each college and bringing out their insights and contributions in the shaping of the Independent India, the first article is about the role of IP College- the first women’s college of the University and how it had shaped India’s past.
The University of Delhi has countless laurels to itself be it right from national and international contributions in various fields, to its impressions in the student as well as the national level politics. With Independence Day upcoming, here is the first part of the four-part series on how four colleges of the University played key roles in the freedom struggle and the Independence movement of the nation.
IP College for Women is the first women’s college of Delhi as well as the University of Delhi. “I see IP college as a movement. I still see IP college as a movement in the sense of activism”, quotes the Principal of Indraprastha College for Women in the interview to Sahapedia about IP as an institution which has stood the test of times and holds onto its legacy as it celebrates its centenary decade. The college has its own Museum and Archives Centre which serves to tell the students as well as the people around of the college’s glorious past.
One simply cannot overlook the college’s contribution in the freedom struggle. The college played pivotal role in bringing women into the mainstream culture of protest against the British.
Amidst the stigma and stereotypes which had restrained women’s movements in general, Dr. Annie Besant, who is famous for her contributions in women’s rights and education was one of the leading people behind establishing the institution. The girls of IP taking the lead during the Quit India movement was truly a model for the country to behold.
But standing up against the British was not an easy task. With the students participating in the Quit India Movement, hoisting and saluting the national flag amongst other actions of defiance against the British, the wheat rations to the college were stopped and the teachers penalised.
The sound of IP’s actions in Independence struggle had even forced the British to imprison one of college’s student at the Lahore Jail (now in present day Pakistan) who had participated in the national movement.
But none of the efforts on the part of the British faltered the courage in the hearts of the brave, young women who later on even joined with the students of St. Stephens, Hindu and Ramjas to protest at various places against the government’s decisions.
Even after the Partition, IP College spearheaded in various spheres, including running the college in evening shift so as to accommodate the huge number of women from Punjab states so that they could complete their education, even if it meant that the degrees would be affiliated to the Punjab University or collecting donations for the soldiers during the India- China war of 1962.
Till this date, the college has been a host people who have played key role in moulding India into the land our forefathers dreamt of, right from first President of India Shri Rajendra Prasad, Independent India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Smt. Indira Gandhi to the Late Former President Shri. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
The college continues to thrive and bloom, as it inches towards its hundred glorious years.
Stay tuned to read up the next article another college of DU which played a key role in India’s struggle for Independence.
Feature Image Credits: Sahapedia