Colvin Taluqdars' College

Colvin Taluqdars' College
Motto	Noblesse Oblige
Established	1889
Type	Public, Education
Principal	Rakeshwar Singh
Academic staff	50
Students	1400
Location	Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Campus	Urban, a 60-acre (240,000 m2) campus built on the banks of the river, Gomti
Colors	Blue (Tranquility)
Mascot	Sickle with an ear
Website	[1]

Colvin Taluqdars' College (Hindi: कॉल्विन तालुक़दार कॉलेज, Urdu: کولون تعلقدار کالج) in Lucknow is one of the oldest public schools in India.

History

Sir Auckland Colvin, Lieutenant Governor of the North West Provinces, while functioning as Lieutenant Governor of Avadh and Agra in 1889, conceived the idea of a school with the object of imparting education to the children of the British administrators and the landed aristocracy who were known as Taluqdars. The 'wards' class, founded in 1884, formed the nucleus for the establishment of the Taluqdars' College. The first Principal was Henry George Impey Siddons, the son of a Captain in the Indian Army, who graduated at Oxford and returned to India to teach. From 1875 to 1884 he had been first headmaster, then Principal, of the MAO College, Aligarh, subsequently holding other teaching posts in India.

Only when the British left India in 1947 did it open its doors to the general public. By that time, it had along with, Rajkumar College, Raipur, Aitchison College in Lahore and Mayo College in Ajmer acquired reputation as the top school in the Indian plains. The Governor of the state of Uttar Pradesh is the patron of the College. Lord Minto visited Colvin during its grand 'Darbar Day' in November, 1908.

Education

The school is affiliated to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi. Day scholars as well as boarders study at Colvin which has no religious affiliations. The school has a library and an online media-access lab. The school has become co-educational up to class VIII . The college has produced 100% pass in ICSE, and ISC both in the session 2010 which is a record since the opening of ISC in the school in 1983. Last session's result in ISC was 100% with fresh pass out in I.I.T.

Hostels

The three boys' hostels, Avadh, Anjuman and Hind, have dormitories capable of housing around 300 students each. The erstwhile Raja of Balrampur, Maharaja Bahadur Sir Bhagwati Prasad Singh, the Raja of Shivgarh and Raja of Daryabad, contributed to the construction of the hostels, circa 1930. Anjuman hostel remains operational with 60 student occupants.

Houses and Fraternities

The College has five houses: Ajanta (yellow), Nalanda (navy blue), Sanchi (magenta), Taxila (sky blue) and Ujjain (saffron). Students are allotted to one of these five houses, named after the five centres of education in Ancient India.

Darbar day

The Annual Sports and Old Boy’s Day of the college is celebrated as 'Darbar day' which takes place on 23 December. 'Darbar Day' marks the grand culmination of a week long festivities which include sports events/activities between the Old Boys and the present ones. In general, chief-guest for the function is Governor of U.P, however in 2007 Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit presided over the function and gave the prizes.

Last Durbar Day was celebrated on Dec 18 2010, Presided over by Sri Atul Kr Gupta, I A S , The Chief Secretary Govt. of U.P. ( an old colvinian ) . The College Patron, Sri B.L.Joshi, The Governor of U.P. was the Chief Guest to give away the medals and Prizes. The Governor, in his opening address stated that he is here not as Governor but the Patron of the College.

Notable alumni

• Muzaffar Ali, Indian film-maker and fashion designer
• Javed Akhtar, lyricist
• Salman Akhtar, psychoanalyst
• Chaudhary Ajit Singh, Cabinet Minister Central Government
• Jitendra Prasad, MP from Shajahanpur in Uttar Pradesh
• Baba Sehgal, pop singer
• Khalid Hameed, Baron Hameed Chief Executive Officer of the London International Hospital