The Partition of India was the catalyst - in itself a cataclysm in the life of this one great nation that witnessed the mass exodus of an uprooted sea of humanity from the erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, seeking a bare minimum of food and shelter in the districts of West Bengal, searching for an identity in an alien milieu, struggling to find a foothold in an unaccustomed terrain. Time has always been the best healer, and these displaced families overcame the teething trouble to settle. down to a quiter life in the suburbs of the city of Kolkata. Netaji Nagar was developed in the city-fringe to accommodate thousands of transplanted men and women in the year 1950 and it gradually developed in the early Fifties of the last century. These families displayed admirable resilience and fortitude in mingling with the life and culture in their new-found home away from home.
Once the basic needs for survival were procured, they began to cherish the dream of providing their succeeding generations with proper foothold in life through institutional education and the creation of a cultural milieu. A heroic struggle of the local people caused the establishment of ‘Netaji Nagar Vidyamandir’, the adjacent Boy’s School, a secondary school, that was constructed overnight on 2nd January,1951.It marked the beginning of the struggle for establishing educational institutions in the area. It was through some more years of protracted struggle that some primary and secondary schools could be set up in the locality as an initial step towards establishing a cultivated ambience. When the children grew older and were moving beyond the school level, the urge to establish institutions for higher education became imperative. This express urge in the enlightened visionaries among the displaced population ultimately facilitated the foundation of an Under-Graduate College at Netaji Nagar.
The establishment of Netaji Nagar College on 25th September, 1967, is the translation of a long-cherished dream into reality by the sheer determination of the ‘refugee’ population of this fast-developing colony. Profuse sweats were spilled, sundry formalities were observed, inspiration and active co-operation was received from the then Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, Late Bidhubhushan Malik. Initially, undergraduate classes started in the evening shift in the adjacent building of Netaji Nagar Vidyamandir with a few teaching and non-teaching staff and it conducted only Commerce classes. The College needed to possess its own building to nurture and nourish its unique identity. It was again left to the generosity of the mostly impoverished refugee families of the expanding colony to contribute their meagre mite to raise a fund for the purpose. The five-storied main building was inaugurated in 1970; the annexed four-storey building was subsequently built to accommodate provisions for a rapid infra-structural expansion.
The refugee-populated hinterland formed the unique identity of the college as it owes its establishment to the urge of catering to the educational and cultural needs of partition-uprooted families. The co-educational institution worked on two shifts, Evening and Day, till a Morning Section under the same administration began to operate to serve only girl students in the year 1976. The teaching of Arts began in the Day shift in the adjacent Girls’ School in the year 1968 and the teaching of Science began in the year 1970. Since 1970, the Day shift conducted teaching in all the three streams of Arts,Science and Commerce and the Evening shift conducted the same in two streams, such as, Arts and Commerce in the then newly constructed five storied building. A phenomenal rise in student strength within a very short period of years from a rapidly expanding feeder zone necessitated the academic and administrative trifurcation of this institution into three separate colleges. In April, 1986, Netaji Nagar Day College began its career as a coeducational, grant-in-aid instituion with affiliation from Calcutta University and University Grants Commission.
From 1986 onwards, the College moved fast forward, along the upward gradient of progress and can claim a precocious growth for its immature tenure. For a backyard college with an essentially humble birth in the will and diligence of a refugee community, consolidation and expansion in the last couple of decades have been quite gratifying. The College now extends teaching facility in at least a dozen Honours Subjects in the three streams of Arts, Science and Commerce. It extends further facility in updated Computer Training in the spic-and-span Computer Centre under its own management. Just before sending this write-up to the press, we are in receipt of the most gratifying communiqué we had been waiting for, that is, the permission of the affiliating University of Calcutta to introduce self-financed Post Graduate Course in Commerce in our College from the 2006-2007 academic session. The Hon’ble speaker of Lok Sabha, Sri Somnath Chatterjee, has been kind enough to inaugurate this Post-Graduate Course in Commerce on 22nd September,2006. Classes are since being held in full swing.
In the euphoria of competition and development, the College has not forgotten the original aim and mission of its founding fathers. We still strive earnestly to impart a sort of education that will ensure holistic development of the young mind and, at the same time, will prepare them to meet the demands of career-orientation.
We are proud of our humble heritage and we will continue to serve the humble aspirations of our unexceptional students in the only way we can - through diligence and dedication. We cannot afford to rest on the laurels we have already achieved; we have miles to go before we rest. We have, since inception, been striving to attain goal orientation; curriculum development through the process of offering programme option, ensuring academic flexibility and operating feed back mechanism etc.
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