RAVENSHAW COLLEGE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO ORISSA- PART I

FROM A SCHOOL WITH 6 STUDENTS ON ROLL TO AN UNITARY UNIVERSITY OF 7,000 STUDENTS- THE JOURNEY OF RAVENSHAW HAS SEEN MANY HIGHS AND LOWS. i'm not going to go into the factual side of Ravenshaw's history. interested readers can get information about it at http://164.100.140.7/ravenshaw/history.htm. i'm more interested in discussing the difference that Ravenshaw and Ravenshavians have brought about in the socio-economic condition of Orissa. when i joined this college in 2001 for pursuing a bachelors degree in computer science I was really confused. most of my friends were kicking me for joining Ravenshaw after getting through IIIT and some other state engineering colleges. reaction of my family also was'nt particularly encouraging. moreover rumours about the declining standard of the college were making rounds. with all this in my mind i entered the college for the first time on the day of admission. i distinctly remember that day because of a statement made by the principal, a sentence that clearly brings out the contribution of Ravenshaw to Orissa."anybody who is somebody in Orissa is most probably a Ravenshavian". at the beginning i thought it to be a gross exaggeration. it didnt take me long to realise that i was wrong. ever since its establishment Ravenshaw and her sons and daughters have done Orissa proud. with the fire of nationalism spreading rapidly across the nation Ravenshaw became the hub of all nationalist activities in Orissa. the creation of Orissa also owes its origin to this college, the main hand behind it being that of a ravenshavian. in fact the contribution of ravenshaw college to the politics of Orissa is far more than in any other field barring education. instead of counting the number of ravenshavian chief ministers of the state it would be less tasking to count the non-ravenshavian chief ministers. the only speaker of lok sabha from the state also passed through the portals of this temple of learning. same is the case with literature and administration. almost all oriya civil servants have been related to ravenshaw at some stage of their career. as a matter of fact the decline of number of successful oriya candidates in the integrated civil cervices exam(CSE) has been directly related to the assumed decrease in standard of the college by many intellectuals. needless to say the contribution of ravenshaw to education in Orissa is worth emulating. there was a time when education in Orissa and Ravenshaw were considered as synonyms. this is perhaps the only college that has given birth to a state legislative assembly, the premier university and the premier law college of a state(utkal university and madhusudhan law college started here). its practically impossible to present the contribution of Ravenshaw in its completeness in words alone. its more than facts. its a feeling that can be felt only when one steps into the campus and walks through the red buildings that are testimony to innumerable acts of sacrifice and patriotism. however in my next posts i will be giving information about ravenshaw's contribution to different spheres of oriya society. the next posting will be about education. for more on ravenshaw please visit:
http://spaces.msn.com/members/ravenshawcollege/
http://o3.indiatimes.com/ravenshaw_oriya_nationalism/
comments and additional inputs about Ravenshaw are welcome. please feel free to mail me at sohag_sundar_nanda@hotmail.com