City College (North)

  • City College (located at 102/1, Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani) was founded by Ananda Mohan Bose and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in 1881. 
  • Other illustrious Brahmo leaders associated with this institution were Pandit Sivnath Sastri and Umesh Chandra Dutta. Rastraguru Surendranath Banerjee later joined the College as teacher. 
  • Today it is popularly called as the North City College to differentiate it from the South City College at Golpark.
  • In 1961, the college was divided into three separate colleges–Rammohan College (morning), City College (day) and Ananda Mohan College (evening). 
  • Till 2017, the college used to be administered by the Brahmo Samaj Education Society, a society constituted by the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. After that, it became a grant-in-aid college under the Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal. 
  • Today Ananda Mohan College offers 9 humanities, 4 commerce and 7 science stream undergraduate courses.
  • Rammohan College has acquired the heritage building at 85A, 85B, 85C and 85D Raja Rammohan Sarani which was once the family residence of Raja Rammohan Roy, and his descendants. A new science building for Rammohan College was constructed next to the heritage building. 
  • Ananda Mohan established a branch of the City College at his home town in Mymensingh in 1883, as the City Collegiate School. Later the college section of the institution was shifted to College Road on 1st January 1908 as a college and it was named after him. In 1964, the college was nationalized. 

The Entrance
Plaque
The Mighty Staircase
Statue of the founder
Way to the ground floor
A part of the varendah
Way to the Departments
File picture
File picture
  • Ananda Mohan Bose was born on 23rd September 1847 in Jaisiddhi, a remote village in the Mymensingh district of undivided Bengal to Padmalochan Bose and Umakishori Devi. 
  • Educated at Hardinge School and then in Maymensingh Zilla School, Ananda Mohan stood ninth in the matriculation examination when he was only 15. He went on to study at Presidency College and stood first both in the BA and MA examinations and was also awarded the prestigious Premchand Roychand scholarship, instituted by the Parsi businessman at the University of Calcutta. 
  • He along with his wife Swarnaprabha Bose (sister of Jagadish Chandra Bose) converted to Brahmoism in 1869. Ananda Mohan went to England in 1870 with Keshab Chandra Sen and completed higher studies at Christ Church College, Cambridge. 
  • He took mathematics as his principal subject and Greek and Latin as subsidiary subjects. 
  • Simultaneously, he studied law and was called to the bar in 1874. 
  • Ananda Mohan met Surendranath Banerjea in England in 1871. 
  • On his return to India, Ananda Mohan started his career as a lawyer in the Calcutta High Court and won distinction in his career. 
  • The Calcutta Students Association set up in 1875 was the earliest attempt made by Ananda Mohan and Surendranath to organise students for constructive political work. 
  • The Indian Association started in 1876 was the first political organisation at an all-India level to fight for rights and privileges of the Indian citizens. Ananda Mohan organised a National Conference in 1883 under the aegis of the Indian Association. 
  • When the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885, Bose became a member and was also elected the President of the Indian National Congress in its 1898 session held in Madras. 
  • After breaking away from the second phase of the Brahmo movement led by Keshab Chandra Sen, Ananda Mohan, along with Shibnath Shastri, Shib Chandra Deb, Umesh Chandra Dutta, Bijoykrishna Goswami, Dwarkanath Bandyopadhyay and others, started the third phase of the Brahmo movement and was elected the first President of the newly formed Sadharan Bramho Samaj established on 15th May 1878. 
  • Ananda Mohan was called ‘Saint Bose’ by his friends and admirers for his truthfulness and nobility of character.
  • Sister Nivedita called him ‘a forerunner of a new Knighthood of Civil Order’. He was known for his personal integrity and public commitment, true to the spirits of the great Bengal Renaissance. 
  • Ananda Mohan returned to England in 1897 to enrol his two sons into university. He undertook a tour of England delivering speeches about the Brahmo Samaj. 
  • He addressed a large gathering on 16th October 1905 protesting against the partition of Bengal. 
  • Ananda Mohan Bose passed away on 20th August 1906.
Ananda Mohan Bose

Date of visit: 08.07.2022

 References:

1. https://anandamohancollege.ac.in/

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anandamohan_College


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