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A Dream College Resurrection of history
The Crossed Eye / Sanjib Deb
October 14, 2022, 13:12:18
At least a dozen of hands will be raised if the quiz master asks who the first direct IAS from Tripura is. After the reprinting of “A Dream College,” all of them are now running the risk to be proved wrong as it revealed such information that remained dormant for many years.
The First Quinquennial Report (1947-’52) of the Maharaja Bir Bikram College was documented in a book form by J K Chaudhury, the then principal of the Maharaja Bir Bikram College, revealed that the then Vice-Principal of the college R C Roy had made it in the IAS in 1952 which the writer described as a ‘high jump’.
Many unknown or little-known facts like this would have gone into oblivion if Dr Sumanta Chakraborty, Registrar of the Maharaja Bir Bikram University did not save it from obvious destruction when he retrieved the last copy of JK Choudhury’s yeomen work dumped in a corner of the library of his dream college. It was a casual visit when Chakraborty found the book in a brittle form and picked it up. It is the active encouragement of the Vice Chancellor of the university Satyadeo Podder and the support of all the members of the university council that made the reprinting of the book by MBB University possible.
Whose dream this college was is well known to everyone. But the way JK Choudhury put the history on record is simply superb. Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Bahadur died on 17th May 1947 at the age of 39 and he not only dreamt but started executing the project in 1937 which means ten years ago when he was just a youth and below 30. It is not known to many that Bir Bikram had named the college ‘Maharaja College’ but the Maharani Kanchanprabha Devi renamed it after the great soul during the time of its inauguration on 29th September 1947, a few weeks after the death of Maharaja. She did it hurriedly to ensure that the academic pursuance of the students who are victims of partition is not affected.
A well-traveled man, Maharaja Bir Bikram not only dreamed of a college but a total academic concept worked behind it and thus named the entire project ‘Vidyapattan’ or ”Abode of Learning”. The Shantiniketan, established by Rabindranath Tagore influenced him immensely while his visit to similar institutions of other Indian states, Europe and America also had an impact. The concept of the Vidyapattan was not confined to constructing a college alone but it was a holistic idea comprised of a Technical College, a School of Agriculture, a Medical School, a School of Physical Culture, a School of Painting, and one of Music and other schools with a Hospital and a Theatre Hall with its complement of eleven student Hostels under its aegis.
It was not merely a dream of Maharaja as he had acquired a vast area of 234 acres of land consisting of hillocks, lakes, and plain fields which now, like the building, belong to the college. One can’t say that the dream of Maharaja has died but it definitely suffered setbacks as the vast area has already encroached illegally and at present hardly 72 acres remain within the college. The saddest thing is that the encroachment started almost its beginning and the writer lamented his inability to prevent it.
Apart from occasional fund constraints, the construction of the building got delayed due to the second world war when the half-constructed building was used as a Military Hospital. After the war and the partition of India, it is the personal initiative of Mata Maharani Kanchanprava Devi and a bail-out package of Rs 1 lakh from her own coffer that helped in reviving the construction work and made it possible to start the college late in the session 1947-48. Some of the classrooms were started with bamboo roofing.
The history of the state’s higher education moves with MBB College but one must note that it was not the first college in the state. Maharaja Radha Kishor Manikya, the grandfather of Bir Bikram, at the very beginning of the last century, i,e. in 1901, started a free college at Agartala to give higher education to whosoever was fit to receive it. However, to the chagrin of the present-day education traders, it may be mentioned here that, the Maharaja decided to abolish the college rather than ”sell” education when the British-dominated Calcutta University insisted on a fee being levied. It clearly reflects how the Manikya dynasty rulers were respectful of Indian heritage as according to Maharaja, selling education was against the hoary tradition of India and his dynasty.
The First Quinquennial Report prepared by JK Choudhury covered all sides of the college’s academic activities, games and sports, library, laboratories etc. The administrative sides of the college also were not ignored as it reports that the pay scale for a professor, in the beginning, was just Rs150-10-250 while it was Rs 250-10-300 for Vice-Principal and for the Principal it was a fixed pay of Rs 525 only with a house and conveyance allowance.
AK Mukharjee was the first Principal of the college but left within a few months and JK Choudhury took over the charge. The college practically took shape in his hand. He took the labor of preparing the report for posterity to know how higher education started in the state.
Sumanta Chakraborty has described the retrieval of the report from destruction as ‘discovery by fluke’’, but for the people of the state it can be considered as the resurrection of history.
Writer is the Editor of North East Colors
The write-up was published in the commemorative souvenir on the occasion of the silver jubilee of MBB College
(Tripurainfo)
