Khalsa College Amritsar

What it is: Khalsa College is a college on the Amritsar-Lahore road at Kot Khalsa, founded in 1892 by the leaders of the Singh Sabha movement, as its own website says. It teaches students of all faiths. The college site says it is the only autonomous college with an A+ grade in Punjab, and Wikipedia says it is academically affiliated with Guru Nanak Dev University next door.

How it began: The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the Amritsar Khalsa Diwan first suggested the college in 1883, but quarrels between the two Diwans, at Amritsar and Lahore, delayed it. An establishment committee was set up in 1890 under Colonel W. R. M. Holroyd, the Punjab's Director of Public Instruction, and the Amritsar faction won the dispute over the site. The Tribune says the conversion of four Sikh boys to Christianity spurred Sikhs to want a college of their own. Sir James B. Lyall, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, laid the foundation stone on 5 March 1892, and the society was registered on 4 April 1892, according to the Daily Excelsior. Wikipedia says the main building was designed by Bhai Ram Singh of the Mayo School of Arts, Lahore, and finished in 1911 to 1912, and that the Maharajas of Patiala, Nabha and Kapurthala and Sir Sunder Singh Majithia were among its donors.

Its heads: Dr William Rattigan was the first president of the college council and Attar Singh its vice president from April 1893. The first five principals were Englishmen. Sirdar Kishan Singh became the first Sikh principal in 1928 (Daily Excelsior).

Its part in this history: The Daily Excelsior says the British offered to make the college a Sikh university if it formally received the Prince of Wales, and withdrew the offer when the college refused. The Tribune adds that staff and students protested the visit and chose to back the freedom movement, and that the college could have become a university about the time Banaras and Aligarh did. The Daily Excelsior names Master Tara Singh and Partap Singh Kairon among the people associated with it. Its Sikh History Research Department began in 1930 on Bhai Vir Singh's advice, and Ganda Singh built its collection of books, manuscripts and artefacts.

Key moments

• 1883: the Amritsar Khalsa Diwan proposes a Sikh college.
• 1890: establishment committee formed.
• 5 March 1892: foundation stone laid.
• 1928: first Sikh principal.
• 1930: Sikh History Research Department begins.
• 2016: a plan to turn it into a university draws opposition from the SGPC, the Chief Khalsa Diwan, the Sikh diaspora, staff and land donors, and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal defers the decision (The Tribune).

Where it stands: It is run by the Khalsa College Charitable Society, which Wikipedia says also runs a group of other colleges and schools. The Tribune's author warned in 2016 that large land sales had weakened its assets.