Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, July 6
With the Jalandhar-based Kanya Maha Vidyalaya (KMV) making it to the list of 19 reputed institutions across the country and two in Punjab, chosen by the Centre for the grant of Special Heritage Status and consequent funding for their upkeep, it’s time for the city to celebrate.
The college has bagged Rs 80 lakh from the UGC under the programme.
Established in the year 1886 by Lala Dev Raj, KMV (then known as Bal Shiksha Vidyalaya) is among the rare surviving institutions which was at the forefront of the country’s freedom struggle. It was among the earliest women institutions of the region which was set up at a time when women venturing out of homes for education was a concept still largely looked down upon.
Lala Dev Raj established the first school exclusively for girls in Jalandhar 1886 and started Bal Shiksha Vidyalaya, with eight girls students, in 1891 and taught female pupils absolutely free. He went from home to home to exhort parents to send their daughters for education, for which he was also at the receiving end of rebukes. The Vidyalaya shifted to its present premises in 1910. The foundation stone was laid by the Maharaja of Kapurthala. Soil of Haldi Ghati was specially brought here and added to the foundation of Krishna Hall in 1932.
The Arya Samajist families in the city were one of the most benevolent patrons of the institution.
It has been served by Lala Dev Raj and his illustrious successors - Rai Bahadur Badri Dass, Savitri Devi, Shanno Devi, the legendary Archarya Lajjawati, who made it among premiere institutions of women education in North India.
The history of the college is replete with instances where students and staff participated in India’s Independence struggle and openly expressed solidarity towards the day’s leaders who put in their part in the freedom movement.
Many national leaders before and after the Independence — Lala Lajpat Rai, Dr S Radhakrishnan, Pt Madan Mohan Malviya, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Indira Gandhi, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Morarji Desai, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Inder Kumar Gujral and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam — have visited the KMV.
Role in freedom struggle
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