# Hindu College, Delhi

Hindu College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi. Founded in 1899, it is one of the oldest and the most prestigious colleges in India, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the sciences, humanities and commerce.
The college has produced many notable alumni over the years, and has been awarded 'Star College' status for its Department of Biotechnology by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

## History

Hindu College was founded in 1899 by Krishan Dassji Gurwale and Pandit Deen Dayal Sharma in the backdrop of the nationalist struggle against the British Raj. Some prominent citizens, including Rai Bahadur Amba Prasad, Gurwale Ji, decided to start a college that would provide nationalist education to the youth, while being non-elitist and non-sectarian. Originally, the college was housed in a humble building in Kinari Bazar, Chandni Chowk, and it was affiliated to Punjab University as there was no university in Delhi at that time. As the college grew, it faced a major crisis in 1902. The Punjab University warned the college that the university would disaffiliate the college if the college failed to get a proper building of its own. Rai Bahadur Lala Sultan Singh came to rescue the college from this crisis. He donated a part of his historic property, which originally belonged to Colonel James Skinner, at Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, to the college. The college functioned from there till 1953. When the University of Delhi took birth in 1922, Hindu College along with Ramjas College and St. Stephen's College were subsequently affiliated with the University of Delhi, making them the first three institutions to be affiliated with the university.
Hindu College was a centre for intellectual and political debate during India's freedom struggle, especially during the Quit India Movement. It is the only college in Delhi to have a students' parliament since 1935, which provided a platform to many national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Subhash Chandra Bose for motivating the youth. Responding to Gandhi's Quit India Movement in 1942, the college played a substantial role in India's freedom struggle and some of this college's teachers and students<patel> courted arrest. The college also closed its gates for several months.

### Principals

* B.B. Mookerji, 1899–1906
* N.N. Roy, 1906–1911
* P.B. Adhikari, 1911–1915
* S. Sen, 1915–1917
* N.V. Thadani, 1917–1928
* S.K. Sen, 1928–1934
* N.V. Thadani, 1935–1950
* A. Bhattacharya, 1950–1957
* R.N. Mathur, 1958–1964
* B.M. Bhatia*, 1964–1971, 1973–1980
* P.C. Verma, 1980–1995
* S.N. Maheshwari, 1995–1997
* Kavita A. Sharma, 1998–2008
* S. Choudhary, 2008–2010
* Vinay K Srivastava, 2010–2012
* Pradumn Kumar 2012–2014
* Anju Srivastava 2014–present
*Dr. B.M. Bhatia was on leave for two years, 1971–1973. During this period, Dr. P.C. Sood was the substituting principal.

## Campus

The college is spread across a 25-acre campus. It has one auditorium, a seminar room and maintains a playground and a sports complex. Basketball, cricket, and table tennis is organised under the supervision of the director of physical education. The college has physics and chemistry laboratories, NCC and NSS rooms, a computer room, a photocopier and a stationery shop. A Students' Centre offers a bank and a canteen.

### Library

Set up in 1899, Hindu College's library is among the oldest college libraries in the University of Delhi.

### Hostel

Hindu College's boys' Hostel is situated next to the sports complex of the college and provides residential facilities to about two hundred undergraduate and postgraduate male students. A girls' hostel, named Smt Indu Punj Girls' Hostel, began construction in 2013, accommodating 156 female students.

## Organisation and administration
### Departments

* Department of BA Programme
* Department of Botany
* Department of Commerce
* Department of Economics
* Department of English
* Department of Hindi
* Department of History
* Department of Mathematics
* Department of Philosophy
* Department of Physics
* Department of Political Science
* Department of Sanskrit
* Department of Sociology
* Department of Statistics
* Department of Zoology
* Department of Chemistry
* Department of Physical Science – Chemistry
* Department of Physical Science – Electronics

## Academics
### Rankings

Hindu College is ranked first among colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024.

## Student life
### Student Societies

Every department has its own society which is tasked with organising department-specific co-curricular activities. Ibtida is the dramatics society of Hindu College which performs both stage and street plays. It was formed by Imtiaz Ali while he was a student at the college. The women's development cell of the college has been very active in gender sensitisation and after the scrapping of section 377 successfully led pride parades to create awareness about LGBTQ+ rights. Caucus l is the discussion forum of Hindu College and works as a mini think tank. It was founded in 2008 and organises group discussions, speaker sessions, roundtable discussions, runs an active blog on its website www.caucus.in and publishes a monthly magazine The Probe. Caucus also functions as the international cell of the college and is responsible for managing the international collaborations of the college. Recently, they have collaborated with King's College London. The intellectual fest of Hindu College - Compass is also organised annually by Caucus and has hosted various eminent personalities in the past like Prof. Arvind Panagariya, Mr. William Dalrymple, Amb. Shivshanker Menon, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Mr. Shekhar Gupta among others. It is one of the most active societies of the college.
Hindu College runs the Naval Wing of NCC since 2004. It aims to develop character, discipline, and the ideals of selfless service amongst the youth of country and to contribute to creation of organized, trained and motivated youth through camps and social activities. It also aims to provide leaderships to students in all walks of life and be always available for the service of the nation. The national cadet corps navy wing Hindu College is associated with 1 Delhi Naval Unit Kashmere Gate, has given exemplary performance in various activities & actively participated in various social service activities, Blood Donation, Tree Plantation Drive, Yamuna Cleaning Drive, National integration camps, Swimming Cadre, Nau Sainik camp, Annual Training Camp, Republic Day Camp, Prime Minister's Rally and Overseas Deployment Camp with friendly countries. Prof. Harinder Kumar was chosen for the Best ANO Award by DG, NCC in 2010. The College started "Arihant", the annual festival of the NCC wing in 2013 and hosted many General Rank Officers.
Hindu College in 2017 established Electoral Literacy Club (Jagriti) which aims to promote electoral awareness. The Electoral Literacy Club acts as a representative body of the college, having members from all sections of society. The club, also promotes democratic values and vigilance among students through various engaging activities, programs and hand-on experiences. The club conducts the Annual Youth Dialogue at Hindu College as its annual student festival by the name 'Drishti' and also conduct other important events and enthusiastically celebrates days like Constitution Day, National Voter's Day, etc. It hosted its annual student festival 'Drishti: Annual Youth Dialogue 2023', on 9 May 2023 with a resounding success. The Indian music society, Alankar, holds its annual festival Harmony every year. The English debating society, popularly known as the Debsoc, is representative of an inquiring and active intellectual life on campus. Debsoc is the only debating society at Delhi University to organise four major debates in an academic year.
The Science Forum is a group of diverse science enthusiasts dwelling in Hindu College.
The Symposium Society is the policy and deliberation forum of Hindu College, University of Delhi. The organization follows a 'General Body' structure, with the President and vice-president at the core. Among its many activities the prominent ones are the Prime Ministerial Debate and Interviews, Hindu Darbar, Hindu Mock Indian Parliament (HMIP), and Hindu Policy Forum (HPS). Furthermore, the society promotes independent student journalism through its bimonthly publication- Hindu College Gazette. The publication also reviews and publishes opinions and analyses from scholars and writers from across the country. However, this society has become inactive lately.
Other societies include Abhyas - The Internship Cell; The Finance & Investment Cell; Abhirang, the Hindi Dramatic Society; Adhrita, The Indian Dance Society, that works to maintain culture and heritage and conduct the only dance fest of DU; Abstraction, the Fine Arts Society; Aria, the Western Music Society; Manthan, the Quiz Society; Srijya, the Contemporary Dance Society; Scribe: The Literary Society; Masque, The English Dramatic Society; Vagmi, the Hindi Debating Society; and Vivre, The Film and Photography Society, the Entrepreneurship Cell, or more commonly just Ecell.

### Students' Parliament

The college has a Students' Parliament. The Hindu College Parliament is a unique student organisation in the country. All the students and teachers of the college are its members. The students elect the Prime Minister from amongst themselves at the beginning of the year. There is also a Leader of the Opposition. The Speaker of the Parliament is a teacher nominated by the Principal in his/her capacity as the President of the Hindu College Republic. The College Parliament is a forum for discussions on academic and other issues. It allocates funds to various societies. The parliament is in continuous operation since 1935. Members of the Cabinet of students' Parliament are elected by students. The students' parliament takes care of student demands.

## In popular culture

Hindu college features prominently in the movie Rockstar where the protagonist Janardhan Jakhar (played by Ranbir Kapoor) studies during the early part of his life. The choice of location is not surprising, as Imtiaz Ali, the director of this movie, has been an alumnus of this college.

## Notable alumni

The alumni of Hindu College are called Hinduites.
* Aakash Chopra, Indian cricketer
* Abhishek Chaubey, film director
* Adarsh Shastri, former sales head, Apple Inc. India; political activist, MLA, Dwarka, NCT of Delhi, National Spokesperson, AAP of Aam Aadmi Party
* Aditya Tamang, Indian politician, Member of Sikkim Legislative Assembly
* Agha Shahid Ali, Poet and Professor
* Ajai Malhotra, Indian Foreign Service Officer; Ambassador of India to Russian Federation
* Ajay Bijili, Founder and MD of PVR Cinemas
* Ajay Jadeja, Indian cricketer
* Amitava Kumar, journalist, professor of English at Vassar College
* Anil Shorey, Infantry officer in Indian Army; writer
* Arjun Rampal, actor
* Arnab Goswami, former Editor-in-Chief of Times Now and Chief Editor and co-founder of Republic TV
* Ashish Kothari, environmentalist
* Ashish Vidyarthi, Indian film and TV actor and theatre personality
* Bipan Chandra, historian and former professor of Modern History at Jawaharlal Nehru University
* Brahma Chellaney, author; professor at Centre for Policy Research
* Deep Dasgupta, Indian cricketer
* Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, 16th Prime minister of Sri Lanka
* Eenam Gambhir, The First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations.
* Gautam Gambhir, Indian cricketer, politician, and BCCI coach
* Hardeep Singh Puri, Cabinet minister, Indian Foreign Service officer; former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations (2009–13)
* Ila Patnaik, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance of India
* Imran Zahid, actor
* Jasleen Royal, singer-songwriter
* Kadambari Murali, Editor-in-Chief of Sports Illustrated India
* Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of Global Fund for Women
* Leela Gandhi, Professor of English at University of Chicago
* Loveleen Tandan, film director
* Luv Ranjan, film director
* Mahesh Rangarajan, historian
* Mallika Dua, comic and snapchat celebrity.
* Manish Tiwary, film director
* Manoj Kumar, actor
* Manvinder Bisla, Indian cricketer
* Mayanti Langer, journalist
* Meenakshi Lekhi, national spokesperson of Bhartiya Janta Party
* Mira Aggarwal, politician; Mayor of Delhi
* Mirza Farhatullah Baig, Urdu writer
* Nitin Tyagi, politician
* Papiya Ghosh, historian; Professor of History at University of Patna
* Pema Khandu, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh
* Prithvi Nath Dhar, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Office, India
* Rajesh Talwar, writer and lawyer; works for the United Nations
* Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, film director
* Rakesh Sinha, Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha
* Rana Hemant Singh, titular Maharaj Rana of Dholpur
* Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State, India
* Rao Narbir Singh, politician
* Rekha Bhardwaj, singer
* Roshan Abbas, presenter
* Sandeep P Parekh, securities and corporate lawyer
* Sanjeev Goyal, economist; Professor of Economics at University of Cambridge
* Saqib Saleem, actor and model
* Shaurya Doval, politician & policy expert
* Shiv Panditt, actor
* Shivaji Sondhi, Wykeham Professor of Physics in the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford
* Harini Amarasuriya Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
* Siddhanta Mahapatra, Indian Actor
* Siddhartha Basu, businessman
* Subramanian Swamy, economist, politician and former Minister of Commerce and Industry, India
* Tabu Ram Taid, author
* Tahir Raj Bhasin, actor
* Tisca Chopra, actress
* Vinod Rai, 11th Comptroller and Auditor General of India and current Interim President of BCCI
* Vishal Bhardwaj, film director and music composer