Established in 1875, Government Mohindra College Patiala, Punjab, India is the oldest institution of contemporary higher learning in Northern India. Mohindra College was the first institution in Punjab to receive A++ grade from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

. It has been ranked as number one college in India by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in 2016 with highest CGPA of 3.86 which is highest in college section in India. The college offers undergraduate and graduate level education in basic sciences,

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

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history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

commerce Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...

, computer applications,

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

, agriculture science,

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

, and clinical diagnostics.

Faculties

*Faculty of Arts: 22 departments

Campus

The Mohindra College campus is outside the Patiala walled city opposite the National Institute of Sports, Patiala. The college facilities include the Central Library, the Computer Center, the Health Center, the girls hostel, an auditorium with a seating capacity of 600, a botanical garden and elaborate sports infrastructure, particularly for

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

History

Then Viceroy of India Lord Northbrook laid the foundation stone for the main building of the college in 1875. It was named after Maharaja Mahendra Singh of Patiala, (also spelled as Mohindar Singh) when he died suddenly in 1876. Mohindra College was initially affiliated to the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

; at the time,

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

was the capital of

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. In 1882 the University of Punjab was established in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, and Mohindra College became one of its first affiliated colleges. Following the

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947, the college came under purview of the Punjab University, Chandigarh and, in 1962, under the

Punjabi University Punjabi University is a collegiate state public university located in Patiala, Punjab, India, Punjab, India. It was established on 30 April 1962 and is only the second university in the world to be named after a language, after Hebrew Universit ...

of Patiala.

Principals

# Shri Joginder Nath Mukerjee 1881 to 1886 # Shri Dwarka Das 1886 to 1888 # Shri Atul Krishna Ghosh 1888 to 1906 # Shri E. Candler 1906 to 1915 (a novelist and travel writer) # Shri T.L. Vaswani 1915 to 1919 # Shri Manmohan 1919 to 1921 # Shri A.K. Sharma 1921 to 1927 # Shri Vishwa Nath 1927 to 1927 # Shri B.N. Khosla 1927 to 1945 # Shri H.K. Bhattacharya 1945 to 1949 # Shri Teja Singh 1949 to 1952 (an eminent scholar and writer) # Dr. Hardit Singh Dhillon 1952 to 1953 # Shri A.R. Khanna 1953 to 1957 # Shri K.L. Malhotra 1957 to 1958 # Dr. G.L. Bakhshi 1958 to 1962 # Shri M.L. Khosla 1962 to 1967 # Dr. Bhagat Singh 1967 to 1972 # Shri Gursewak Singh 1972 to 1976 (great sportsperson and educationist) # Shri Umrao Singh 1976 to 1977 # Shri Harbakhsh Singh 1980 to 1982 # Dr. Jogindar Singh 1982 to 1987 # Dr. Gian Singh Mann 1987 to 1988 # Dr. Ujagar Singh Banga 1988 to 1989 # Shri Sarvjit Singh Gill 1989 to 1989 # Shri Parkash Singh 1991 to 1991 # Shri Mukhtiar Singh 1992 to 1996 # Shri Parminder Singh Sidhu 1996 to 1996 June # Dr. S.K. Sarad 1996 to 1997 September # Shri M.M. Singh 2000 to 2000 May # Shri Sarwan Singh Chohan 2000 to 2000 October # Dr. Vidwan Singh Soni 2000 to 2001 October (an eminent physicist, prehistorian & a popular science writer) # Dr. Raj Kumar Sharma 2001 to 2005 April # Dr. Daljit Inder Singh Brar May 2005 to July 2009 # Dr. Sudeep Bhangoo 12 August 2009 to February 2011 # Dr. Roopa Saini March 2011 to November 2012 (World cup gold medalist and Arjuna Award winner) # Dr. Sukhbir Singh Thind November 2012 to July 2017 # Dr. Sangeeta Handa July 2017 to June 2019 # Smt. Harpal Kaur June 2019 to October 2019 # Dr. Simrat Kaur October 2019 to January 2023 # Prof. Amarjit Singh March 2023 to till the present Shri Atul Krishna Ghosh was the longest serving Principal and instrumental in most of the early development works of this college. He was MA, Esq in English and was Professor of English with high credential. To make way for his British successor E Candler who was a journalist basically and was based in Bengal then and also his life was in danger from revolutionaries, Sri Ghosh was transferred to Muir College, Allahabad. He spent his last phase of his life in Allahabad in the company of Sri Motilal Nehru and Sri Madan Mohan Malaviya silently working for the freedom movement of India. The matter regarding his super-cession in Mohindra College, Patiala by Candler was even raised in British Parliament then, the transcript of which is preserved in British Library archive. He wrote several books and commentaries but because of later days association with the freedom movement, Britishers underplayed, suppressed and destroyed his records of achievements. He was great educationist and in those days appointed from Indian Education Service. ("Shri" is a term used in India as a title of respect.)

Funding

Mohindra College is funded by the Punjab Government and the

University Grants Commission (India) University Grants Commission (UGC; ISO: ''Viś‍vavidyālaya Anudāna Āyōga'') is a statutory body under Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India. It was set up in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 and i ...

while the campus is maintained by the Public Works Department of the State Government. The college offers financial assistance to the economically disadvantaged sections of society. Undergraduate tuition is exempt for girls. Women represent over half of the 200 member faculty while about a third of the faculty holds doctoral and post-doctoral credentials.

Trivia

A commemorative postage stamp on Mohindra College, Patiala was issued by the

on 14 March 1988. Principal from 1910 to 1914, Edmund Candler was also a noted novelist and travel writer. His novels ''Siri Ram: Revolutionist'' and ''Abdication'' are set partly in a college in the fictional town of Gandeshwar, which is probably based on Mohindra College.

External links

Mohindra College webpage on Patialavi.com

Stamp on Mohindra College, Patiala

Android App of Mohindra College, Patiala
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