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St. Stephen's College
- Address: University Enclave, New Delhi, Delhi, India 110 007
- Phone:
- +91-11 2766 7271
- +91-11 2766 2324 (fax)
- Website: [1]
- Overview
Founded in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission in response to a colonial government policy promoting English-language education in India, the College's first premises were in Chandni Chowk with 5 boarders and three professors, and was initially part of the University of Calcutta. After it changed its affiliation to Punjab University, Lahore, it moved into premises in Kashmiri Gate designed in the Indo-Saracenic style. These buildings are now occupied by the Election Commission for Delhi State. [1]
The first mention of a St Stephen's College occurs in the report of the Delhi Mission of The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1864. This branch of the Society's work had been opened in 1854 at the instance of a chaplain of the East India Company, the Rev. Midgley John Jennings. He was the chaplain of Delhi and was killed in the 1857 Uprising. [1]
St Stephen's High School was founded before the 1857 Uprising by the Revd. M. J. Jennings in about 1853-4. It was a large and important institution comprising a central school and several branch schools;it had about 600 students. The central school was lodged in a hired house in Katra Kushal Rai, Chandni Chowk. The school building was called Shish Mahal and belonged to Ashraf Beg, a vizier of the last Mughal emperor. His daughter Aliza Begum was one of the emperor's wives. [1]
In the 1870s, Bishop Douglas of Bombay suggested that the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge send out men of high scholarship who would live in a religious community and work amongst the educated classes of India. His idea was carried into effect by members of Cambridge University and inspired by the Revds. Hort, Lightfoot and Westcott. The enthusiasm and idealism of Wescott gave birth to the Cambridge Mission. [1]
With the 1867 closure of Government College in Delhi because of financial problems, the Bishop of Lahore, Dr French, immediately urged the Cambridge Mission to fill the breach. St Stephen's School already had permission to open classes to prepare students for the B.A. examination of Calcutta University. And so on 1 February 1881 university classes were begun and St Stephen's College came into existence. [1]
The college was named after Saint Stephen, who was adopted by the Anglican church as the patron saint of Delhi after Christian converts were reportedly stoned to death during the 1857 uprising. (As they were the first 'martyrs' in North India and were stoned, parallels to Stephen were obvious.) [1]
In 1906, Principal Rev. Hibbert-Ware abdicated his post in favour of Susil Kumar Rudra who became the first Indian to head a major educational institution in India. The decision was frowned upon at the time, and was the subject of scathing editorial comment in The Statesman daily published from Calcutta, but Principal Rudra proved to have a tenure of extraordinary importance for the college, as described below. [1]
It was decided in 1920 to set up a University in Delhi and land was earmarked in the area where the Delhi Durbar of 1911 had been held. The new College buildings were laid out around courts in the style of a transplanted Cambridge college (but with certain clearly distinguishable tropical elements and subtle Mughal motifs) by the well-known British architect Walter Sykes George. [1]
The University of the Punjab (at Lahore) received its charter more than one year after the founding of St. Stephen's College which became one of the two institutions first affiliated to it. Six students of the College sat for the Intermediate Arts exam of the Calcutta University in 1882, and two students passed the Punjab and two the Calcutta F.A. examination in 1883. St. Stephen's College later became one of the three original constituent colleges of the University of Delhi when the latter was established in 1922. [1]
Women were first admitted in 1928, as there were no women's colleges in Delhi affiliated with the Anglican Church at the time; after the founding of Miranda House in 1949, women were not accepted as students until 1975. [1]
Many Stephanians went on to distinguished service in Raj administration and civil society of the day. Sir Chottu Ram was the first Stephanian to be knighted in 1937. Many alumni were also active in India's long freedom struggle. [1]
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