Khalsa College rose to occasion amid communal conflict during Partition
Neha Saini
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, August 17
Pangs and trauma of a painful past exceed the elation of gaining independence, especially in Punjab on both sides of the border. And one of the most significant and iconic reminders of that past is the historic 132-year-old Khalsa College. The beautiful, serene building famed for its Victorian style architecture, turned into a refugee camp, offering safe haven to Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus fleeing both sides of Punjab, fearing religious persecution in the communal riots that preceded Partition in 1947.
The college established in 1892, was located at Grand Trunk road, the centre of undivided Punjab. In 1947, as Radcliffe Line sealed the fate of the country, millions were displaced, uprooted from the land. “Those who crossed the border from Pakistan were immediately told to reach Khalsa College as it offered safety and food. The professors, students and volunteers of the college set up makeshift tents, served langar and took care of ailing refugees as the college provided for safe transportation of the families to other cities. At the time, senior historian and Sikh scholar Prof Ganda Singh was in-charge of the arrangements at the refugee camp. He had bought 200 daangs (wooden stick used as a weapon) and students and professors of the college used to keep watch at night to ensure no rioting or violence took place inside the camps,” said Prof Mehal Singh, Principal, Khalsa College. Prof Ganda Singh, in his book titled ‘A History of The Khalsa College’, documented how the college management and faculty at the time held the fort at the refugee camp, ensuring safety of over 30,000 refugees looking to migrate to both sides of border.
“The campus of the college remained under the government for about nine months at the time of Partition in 1947. The staff and students helped refugees from Pakistan. A few months before, on March 5, 1947, a student of the college Mohan Singh became a victim of the rioters while coming back from Darbar Sahib. The trauma of his death was borne by the staff and students of the college. Despite this, the Muslim students studying at the time considered themselves safest in college hostels,” writes Dr Ganda Singh in his book.
That year, University of Punjab, Lahore, to which Khalsa College was affiliated at that time, awarded degrees to students without conducting exams. “The degrees were awarded to students as they served as volunteers during Partition displacement, in the interest of national service,” said Dr Singh. This is also documented in a research paper, “Birth of Panjab University, Chandigarh, in 1947 and story of its birth pangs”, written by Dr Hardev Singh Virk, scholar from Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, where he writes that matriculation and intermediate students were issued pass certificates on the basis of social service. Dr Virk states that emergency examinations were conducted later for undergraduate students in December 1947, in which around 8,000 students passed.
