In 1917, Rai Kedarnath observed that college students from well-off sections of the society had been getting admissions in faculties like St Stephen’s and Hindu, however those that couldn’t afford elite training had been left within the lurch. Kedarnath, a retired district decide who ran a college in Previous Delhi’s Darya Ganj and who needed to determine a means ahead for college students of his college, determined to construct a school that would offer inexpensive greater training.
And therefore got here Ramjas School, one of many oldest within the nationwide capital that began from humble precincts in Darya Ganj.
Kedarnath based Ramjas College in 1912 for youngsters from poor and decrease middle-class households at a small rented home in Chandni Chowk’s Kucha Natwa. A dedicated Kedarnath additionally drew college students from villages and backward courses, and his second college at Kala Pahad was primarily meant for them.
In line with Professor Manoj Khanna, Principal of Ramjas School, Kedarnath made the faculty within the reminiscence of his father Lala Ramjas Mal. “Kedarnath ji had no kids. This made him get deeply concerned in social and philanthropic work… His father Ramjas regretted that there was nobody to hold the household identify ahead. This was when Rai Kedarnath promised his father that not one, however hundreds will carry his legacy ahead,” stated Professor Khanna.
The primary faculty constructing was began on the college in Darya Ganj after which shifted to Kala Pahad, now often called Anand Parbat. “The constructing at Kala Pahad was launched by Mahatma Gandhi, and the current constructing at College Enclave was launched by the primary President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, in 1951. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was additionally a member of the governing physique of the faculty — the one faculty of Delhi that had Bhimrao Ambedkar in its Governing Physique,” he added.
Initially, the faculty was affiliated with the College of Punjab, Lahore, as much as intermediate degree, and when the Delhi College was shaped in 1922, the faculty was upgraded to degree-level and introduced beneath the College.
“Youngsters who couldn’t afford expensive training had been taken care of by Kedarnath ji. Even the mess was made freed from price. He used to generate funds from the businessmen of Previous Delhi,” stated Professor Khanna.
In line with the Delhi Archives data, Rai Kedarnath was additionally a member of the Hindu School Society and performed an necessary position in saving the faculty from extinction.
In one of many confidential letters written to the Delhi Commissioner in 1917 for grant of funds to construct Ramjas School, it was written that Delhi, at the moment, had over 300 matriculation college students out of which round 150 had been about to discontinue their research. St Stephen’s admitted 50 college students and Hindu about 40 within the first 12 months, and it was argued that for the remaining 100, Ramjas School needs to be proposed.
Rai Kedarnath had bought a website of 370 acres on the Aravali ridge the place the brand new campus is positioned. He later turned the secretary of the board of trustees and managing committee of the Ramjas Belief as effectively.
Professor Khanna added that in the course of the freedom battle, freedom fighters equivalent to Chandra Shekhar Azad stayed within the hostel of the college positioned at Kala Pahad, and essential conferences passed off there. “Even former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lived within the new constructing,” he stated.
Throughout World Battle II, the faculty had to surrender its campus at Kala Pahad to the British Wi-fi Experimental Centre. Following the Partition, Ramjas School additionally used to perform beneath two shifts, one for native college students, and one other for college students who immigrated from Pakistan to Delhi for instructional functions.
The faculty right this moment boasts of a spacious campus, state-of-the-art infrastructure and an esteemed school of students educated at main universities in India and overseas.
It has produced eminent alumni together with Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda, freedom-fighter and member of the primary Constituent Meeting of India; former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda; Chaudhary Brahm Prakash, the primary Chief Minister of Delhi; Justice YK Sabharwal, former Chief Justice of India; Justice AP Shah, former Chief Justice of the Delhi Excessive Court docket; actors Manoj Bajpayee and Shekhar Suman; and director Prakash Jha.