Government College Lahore: Retracing Its History (1914-1947) Part II – DN
Hardev SinghVirk
The end of the 1st World War was followed by a wave of unrest and lawlessness in the province. Martial Law was proclaimed in Lahore in April 1919. The students of Lahore colleges were ordered to report themselves in the Minto Park four times a day under humiliating conditions. Every student was made to stand between two British soldiers carrying loaded guns. The students of this College were exempted from this order, but they still felt panicky. The College professed to have no politics. But actually politics was uppermost in every mind. A new rule required every student joining the College to sign a pledge to refrain from taking part in politics.
A.S. Hemmy, Professor of Physics remained Principal of College for 8 years (1919-27). The Golden Jubilee of College was celebrated from 19-22 December, 1924, when College attained 60 years of its existence. The College had come to be acknowledged as the foremost educational institution in this part of the sub-continent with established traditions of research and scholarship. It enjoyed unstinted financial support of the Government and its alumni were entrenched in the civil services and professions.
An important feature of the Hemmy regime was decline of the Khalifas. The fraternity of Khalifas represented the old order. Its members dressed well, ate well and idled away their time. They failed in the University Examinations from year to year and had no idea of leaving the College. Every Khalifa put on a peculiar dress. He could be easily recognized either by his country-made shoes or faultlessly tailored achkan or buttonless sleeves. He regarded himself as a custodian of the College traditions and carried himself with ease and grace. He was found at every College function and did his best to make a success of it.
The Khalifas’ favourite resort was the College Hall where they sat and gossiped round enormous tables in the company of their young admirers. Discouraged neither by repeated failures, nor worried by the anxiety of having to make a career, they lived merrily in the present. Prominent orators and sportsmen and energetic secretaries of societies were recruited from the ranks of the Khalifas. Hemmy made it difficult for the Khalifas to stay on in the College. One of his regulations forbade them from contesting the various elections. Later he denied them hostel accommodation. But these measures were not sufficiently deterrent. Finally, he made them ineligible for admission to the College. This sounded the death-knell of a colourful class whose departure was a serious loss to the social life of the College.
Dr A.H. Compton (Nobel Laureate 1927) felicitated in Govt. College by Principal AS Hemmey
The College witnessed the formation of Punjabi Society towards the end of 1926. It invited Chaudhari (later Sir) Shahabuddin on the occasion of Guru Nanak’s birthday. The Chaudhari stated: “I want neither Persian, Arabic nor Sanskrit, Hindi. I want only Punjabi and Punjabi I will have at all costs”. Headed by Prof. Shiv Ram Kayshup, the Society represented the beginning of a Punjabi movement in the College. It drew its office bearers from all communities, though it was particularly active on Sikh religious festivals.
For Eagle Eye Click Here
After Hemmy’s retirement in 1927, H.O.L. Garrett, Professor of History, joined as Principal. Garrett presided over the College for eight and a half years. Tall, of kindly and tolerant disposition, easy-going, he presented a sharp contrast to the personality of his predecessor. The sportsmen basked in the sunshine of his favour, but he was repelled by vulgarity masked as sportsmanship. The depression of the 30’s held up the development plans of the College and Gandhi’s civil disobedience (1930) showed that educational institutions could not be altogether isolated from mass agitations.
With women students, enrolled almost entirely in the post-graduate departments, entered a new element in the life of the College. There were only five of them in 1931. In 1932, two girl students joined the B.A. class for Honours in English. The tribe increased steadily and numbered 32 in 1936. Mrs. Chatterji acted as tutor to girl students till 1939. The girl students, who did not mix with the boys and stayed away from the social life of the College, became a novelty in the College. As the number of girl students increased, they began to gain in self-confidence; they felt more at home in the College and chatted in merry groups. Some of them began to participate in tennis, badminton and debating.
The Government College was the first among Lahore colleges to start a tutorial system. Every student was assigned to a tutorial group on joining the College and each group was placed in charge of a tutor. The tutor was also required to enter his comments in the students’ term reports and sanction leave applications of his wards. Growing numbers impaired the efficiency of the tutorial system.
The swelling student population in Lahore created internal difficulties for every college. Groups of students roaming about the city aimlessly at all hours of day and night began to present a problem of law and order. The University led the way and launched a proctorial system with the consent and co-operation of the constituent colleges. The principal proctorial regulation forbade the students of all colleges from visiting places of public entertainment after 9.30 PM.
Political Science had been studied at the Panjab University as part of M.A. courses in History and Economics up to 1931, but it emerged as an independent subject for the B.A. and M.A. examinations after that year. English occupied a unique place in the scheme of our studies. It was a compulsory subject of study for all under-graduates as well as the medium of instruction. The Panjab University established a chair of English in 1930. Urdu was next in importance to English in numbers. As an elective optional, it enjoyed great popularity.
For Notable Series Click Here
The College magazine Ravi has been an important adjunct of College life. Its origin dates back to the year 1900. The first issue of The Ravi in 1906 was spread over 12 pages. Published every month, it had a ‘calm and serious outlook’ because it was mainly fed by the professors of the College. Critics have often dubbed the College as an island of English culture, in the sea of Oriental humanity. The criticism is partly deserved. One who looks through the old volumes of the magazine can produce interesting materials in support of this accusation. Most of the stories published in The Ravi dealt with English life. When King George V celebrated the silver jubilee of his reign in 1935, The Ravi brought out a jubilee number (May 1935) to commemorate the event.
A lot of progress was reported on the research front. The Imperial Agricultural Research Council entrusted the investigation of the fungus diseases of Citrus in the Punjab to the Botanical Laboratories of this College. Spiders of Lahore was the title of one of the numerous papers prepared by the College zoologists. The Physics Department established an X-ray laboratory for research. The Chemical Laboratory was equipped for the M.Sc. and post-M.Sc. research in the subject. Three professors of the College were honoured with the foundation membership of the Indian Institute of Science. Shiv Ram Kayshup became Honorary Professor of Botany at the Hindu University, Benares, and George Mathai’s researches on corals won him a Sc.D. from Cambridge.
Garrett was succeeded by Horace B. Dunnicliff who had served the College as Professor of Chemistry since 1917. Dunnicliff gave considerable time and thought to the problem of student health. Results of a medical examination disclosed that respiratory disease was the main cause of ill-health among the students and that about 30 per cent of them were sub-normal either in weight or physique. The use of bad ghee in hostel kitchens was believed to tell upon the health of boarders. Samples of ghee used in the different kitchens were sent to the Government Chemical Examiner and of these more than 50 per cent were found to be adulterated or deficient in nutrient value.
The apathy of our educated classes towards our own languages has been carried too far. Early British educationists, who were alive to the importance of vernaculars, adopted English as medium of instruction in the universities and colleges as a temporary expedient. The hope that English-educated classes would pass on their light and learning to the masses was not fulfilled. Like Brahmans of old, they kept their learning to themselves. The only persons to make a systematic study of the vernaculars were either foreign missionaries or British administrators. Dunnicliff wanted vernaculars to take their rightful place in the scheme of education and advocated compulsory teaching of Urdu in the colleges.
Dunnicliff was succeeded by Guru Datt Sondhi, the first old boy of the College to become its Principal. Sondhi had joined the College in 1905 and left with an M.A. degree in History in 1911. As a student he had played an important role in sports as well as dramatics and had held every important office in the College. According to Sondhi, “Education is essentially a bipolar process. No teacher can teach and no student can learn without a meeting of minds. Minds will not meet if the teacher is not sympathetic towards the pupils and the pupils are not respectful towards the teacher”.
Sondhi disliked snobbery in students. His ban on the entry into the College compound of cars used by students received full publicity in the Lahore Press (1939). The teaching staff of the College underwent important changes during his time. Sondhi had successfully fought the epidemic of numbers. His cut and dried formula was: “Larger numbers mean larger classes; larger classes mean less individual attention and less individual attention means more problems of discipline”. He was able to bring down the College enrolment from 1300 to 1050.
All sorts of dramatic activities flourished in the College and were assured of the Principal’s patronage. Sondhi had a partiality for Punjabi plays and was critical of the plays produced by the College Dramatic Club. The Sondhi Translation Society was formed under the presidency of Muhammad Sadiq to prepare suitable plays for performance in the College. Sondhi’s term of office expired in June, 1945 and his release from the educational service brought him the more congenial assignment of Sports Advisor to the Government of India.
Sondhi was succeeded by Eric Dickenson, the senior-most member of the teaching staff. A degree in Science commanded a higher market price and was a short cut to ‘the bread and butter goal’ The Arts classes looked comparatively deserted. Dickenson tried to preserve the character of the institution as a Liberal Arts college by larger Arts admissions. A mentionable examination success was achieved by Ram Parkash Bamba, who obtained 600/600 marks in the M.A. Mathematics Examination in 1946 (Author: He served as VC of PU Chandigarh).
With riots flaring up in the city every now and then, the social life of the College came to a standstill. Political situation was still fluid when Dickenson retired from service in March, 1947. He was succeeded by Ahmad Shah Bokhari who had relinquished the charge of Controller in the All-India Radio some weeks earlier.
The partition of India on 15 August 1947 brought all round changes in the composition of the Staff and Students in the College. Most of its Hindu and Sikh members left the college. For almost a decade, it suffered from the pangs of partition and lost its pristine glory. It regained its prestige and glory after it was raised to the status of a University in 2002, after 156 years of its wonderful history.
Acknowledgement: The contents of this Article are derived from the book: “A History of Government College, Lahore (1864-1964)” published by Dr. Nazir Ahmad, Principal, Govt. College, Lahore (1964).
