How a retired judge founded Ramjas College to carry father’s legacy forward

Kedarnath founded Ramjas School in 1912 for children from poor and lower middle-class families at a small rented house in Chandni Chowk’s Kucha Natwa. A committed Kedarnath also drew students from villages and backward classes, and his second school at Kala Pahad was primarily meant for them.

According to Professor Manoj Khanna, Principal of Ramjas College, Kedarnath made the college in the memory of his father Lala Ramjas Mal. “Kedarnath ji had no children. This made him get deeply involved in social and philanthropic work… His father Ramjas regretted that there was no one to carry the family name forward. This was when Rai Kedarnath promised his father that not one, but thousands will carry his legacy forward,” said Professor Khanna.

The first college building was started at the school in Darya Ganj and then shifted to Kala Pahad, now known as Anand Parbat. “The building at Kala Pahad was launched by Mahatma Gandhi, and the present building at University Enclave was launched by the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, in 1951. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was also a member of the governing body of the college — the only college of Delhi that had Bhimrao Ambedkar in its Governing Body,” he added.

Initially, the college was affiliated with the University of Punjab, Lahore, up to intermediate level, and when the Delhi University was formed in 1922, the college was upgraded to degree-level and brought under the University.

“Children who could not afford costly education were taken care of by Kedarnath ji. Even the mess was made free of cost. He used to generate funds from the businessmen of Old Delhi,” said Professor Khanna.

According to the Delhi Archives records, Rai Kedarnath was also a member of the Hindu College Society and played an important role in saving the college from extinction.

In one of the confidential letters written to the Delhi Commissioner in 1917 for grant of funds to build Ramjas College, it was written that Delhi, at that time, had over 300 matriculation students out of which around 150 were about to discontinue their studies. St Stephen’s admitted 50 students and Hindu about 40 in the first year, and it was argued that for the remaining 100, Ramjas College should be proposed.

Rai Kedarnath had purchased a site of 370 acres on the Aravali ridge where the new campus is located. He later became the secretary of the board of trustees and managing committee of the Ramjas Trust as well.

Professor Khanna added that during the freedom struggle, freedom fighters such as Chandra Shekhar Azad stayed in the hostel of the school located at Kala Pahad, and crucial meetings took place there. “Even former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lived in the new building,” he said.

During World War II, the college had to give up its campus at Kala Pahad to the British Wireless Experimental Centre. Following the Partition, Ramjas College also used to function under two shifts, one for local students, and another for students who immigrated from Pakistan to Delhi for educational purposes.

The college today boasts of a spacious campus, state-of-the-art infrastructure and an esteemed faculty of scholars trained at leading universities in India and abroad.

It has produced eminent alumni including Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda, freedom-fighter and member of the first Constituent Assembly of India; former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda; Chaudhary Brahm Prakash, the first Chief Minister of Delhi; Justice YK Sabharwal, former Chief Justice of India; Justice AP Shah, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court; actors Manoj Bajpayee and Shekhar Suman; and director Prakash Jha.