Khalsa College Amritsar foundation stone laid

Who: Sir James Broadwood Lyall, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, laid the stone. The college was the work of the Singh Sabha movement and its two rival Khalsa Diwans, at Lahore and Amritsar. A Khalsa College Establishment Committee was set up in February 1890 under Colonel W.R.M. Holroyd, the Punjab's Director of Public Instruction, with Sardar Attar Singh Bhadaur and Bhai Gurmukh Singh as its leading Sikh organisers. The rulers of Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot and Kapurthala took a keen interest as patrons.

What: Lyall laid the foundation stone on March 5, 1892. The Sikh members had asked in 1890 to name the college after him, and he declined, saying the committee should stay independent. The college society was registered on April 4, 1892. Teaching began with a middle school, a high school followed in 1895, and college classes affiliated to Punjab University, Lahore, opened in 1897 with 14 students in the first year. The Tribune dates the degree college to 1899, so sources differ on that year.

Where: Amritsar. Lahore and Amritsar argued over the site and Amritsar won. The campus stands on land at Kot Sayyad Mohammad (now Kot Khalsa), part of it given by the villagers, according to The Tribune.

Why it mattered: The Singh Sabha reformers saw Sikhs falling behind in English education: in 1882 only three Sikhs in the whole country were enrolled at a university. The Tribune adds that the conversion of four Sikh boys to Christianity pushed Sikhs to want a college of their own. Sundar Singh Majithia joined its governing council in 1895 and was honorary secretary by 1902.

It was the community's own institution, yet it leaned on princes and British officials. At a 1904 conference the Sikh princes pledged Rs 1.3 million and the government Rs 50,000, and critics warned that the college lay at the mercy of a few chiefs. Twenty years later the Akalis made the same charge, saying its managing committee was mostly nominated, not elected. Master Tara Singh, who had led student protest at the college in 1907, headed the Sudhar (reform) committee that campaigned to change its constitution. The Prince of Wales's 1922 visit was cancelled, three professors were jailed in October 1923 after attending an SGPC meeting, and strikes closed the college several times in 1924. Professor Sahib Singh taught there from 1929 to 1952 and published his Gurbani Viakaran in 1932.