Eclectic Arcana

History of Deccan College

The Deccan College Post-Graduate Research Institute, "Deemed" University, (Deccan College, for short), is one of the oldest educational institutions of modern learning in India. In 1821 Mountstuart Elphinstone, the governor of the Bombay Presidency was instrumental in establishing the Hindoo College in Pune. He was reprimanded for his action by the Directors of the East India Company, and the college was almost shut down within a short span of three years. In their view indigenous learning lacked utility.

But Elphinstone persisted, and in 1824 sent them a detailed report argueing in favor of such an institution. He argued that it was important for the preservation of the indigenous culture. In his 1824 report, he said "A class of men were maintained whose time was devoted to the cultivation of understanding of ancient texts: their learning may have been obscure and degenerate but it still bore some affinity to real science into which it might in time have improved. They were not perhaps much inferior to those monks among whom the seeds of European learning were long kept alive". This was in complete contrast to Macaulay's infamous remark in 1835 that "A single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India….".

In 1842, an English school was also started in Pune to run in parallel with the Hindoo College. In 1851 these two institutions were merged to form the Poona College. In 1864 the Poona College shifted to its present location in Yerwada, in Pune, and was renamed the Deccan College.

In the next three quarters of a century, it became an important seat of learning. Among some of the eminent Indians associated with it during that period are famous names like Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, Lokmanya Tilak, Gurudev R. D. Ranade and R. N. Dandekar.

The college was closed down for a short while between 1934 and 1939, but it reopened as a specialized research institute. In 1994 it became an independent institution, being granted the status of a "Deemed" university. Today it is an internationally renowned research institute for the study of India's Prehistory, Archaeology, and ancient Indian history and culture.

(Based on an article in the Maharashtra Herald, 17 Aug. 2003).