Khalsa College

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Khalsa College, Amritsar

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Khalsa College is a historic educational institution in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in Punjab state. Founded in 1892, the sprawling 300-acre campus is located about eight km outside of the city center on the Amritsar-Lahore highway (part of the Grand Trunk Road), adjoining Guru Nanak Dev University campus, to which Khalsa College is academically affliated.


Khalsa College has following faculties:

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration

Faculty of Sciences

College of Agriculture

Institute of Computer Science

Khalsa College Establishment Committee was set up in 1890 with Colonel W. R. M. Holroyd, Director of Public Instruction, Punjab, as president, and W. Bell, Principal of Government College, Lahore, as secretary. Among the native constituents of this 121-member committee were Sir Attar Singh, Gurdial Singh Maan of Nabha, Diwan Gurmukh Singh of Patiala, Bhai Kahn Singh, Professor Gurmukh Singh and Sardar Jawahir Singh (1859-1910). Many princely states of British India gave their financial help to the establishment of Khalsa College, including Maharaja Rajendra Singh of Patiala, Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha, Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala and Sir Sunder Singh Majithia.

After a prolonged discussion about the site of Khalsa College, it was decided that one college would be established in Amritsar, followed by a second in Lahore. The 300-acre campus was sited just outside the village of Kot Sayyad Mehmood, which was later renamed Kot Khalsa. As an important milestone in 1930 a Sikh History Research Department(SHRD) was set up at the college in memory of Sardar Karam Singh Historian after his death who had been instrumental in his life time to bring such department.The department has rare coins and weapons of the 17th and the 18th centuries (mathlock, dhaal, Katar, chakkar, bows and kirpans).

EMINENT ALUMNI OF COLLEGE

The college has produced many prominent educationists, players, bureaucrats and defence personnel. Dr Bhai Jodh Singh, Dr Kirpal Singh Narang, Dr Bishan Singh Samundari, Dr Amrik Singh, Dr. Karam Singh Gill, Dr R.C. Paul, Dr B.S. Negi, Dr Surjit Singh Bal have been either the students or the teachers of the college. Novelist Mulak Raj Anand, Prof V.N. Datta, Principal Teja Singh, Bhisham Sahni, Prof Gurbachan Singh Talib, Sardar Pritam Singh Safir, former Director of the PGI, Chandigarh, Dr Pathak, a reputed ophthalmologist, Dr Daljit Singh, a famous eye specialist, Dr K.S. Chugh (PGI), Dr P.S. Gill, Director, CSIR, famous journalist Rai Bhadur, Mr G.R. Sethi, an eminent scholar and critic, Dr Manohar Singh Gill, former Chief Election Commissioner, all belonged to this institution. The college has produced many generals, including Air Marshall Arjan Singh, General Rajinder Singh Sparrow, General Mohinder Singh Sandhu, General Mohinder Singh Bal, General Prem Singh Giani, General Satnam Singh, General Mohinder Singh Chopra and Major Baljit Singh Randhawa, the first martyr of Kargil conflict.

In hockey, Colonel Gurmeet Singh, Shahzada Khuram, Latif, Balbir Singh, Dharam Singh, Bakhshish Singh, Harbinder Singh, Ram Sarup Passi and Inder Singh have been the shining stars.