The Department of English that we are a part of is historic by multiple means. It is also the beginning of the history of institutionalised English teaching-learning. It is from here, this department and this college, that the Indian subcontinent encountered the ideology of the West through the letters. Though English was one of the first disciplines to be taught at the Hindoo College, the department as we know it today was officially formed in 1826. Significantly, this was also the year when a flamboyant, rambunctious, charismatic, young white man was placed in a teaching position. He was the Master of History and English, he was called Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and he was only 17. Derozio, besides being known for his radical activism against social, cultural and religious orthodoxy and promotion of free-thinking practice, was responsible for the formation of the Academic Association, sometime around 1828-29, which was the first students' organisation in the subcontinent, and was formed to encourage academic discussions and discursive cultures within the students of the college.

Hindoo College was later consecrated as the Presidency College in 1855, two years before the foundation of the three universities for the three administrative presidencies in colonial India in 1857. By then, Presidency College of Calcutta had already become the premier institution of the subcontinent, possessing the best minds as students and foremost scholars as faculty members. From 1857 to 1917, it was the only institution ... read more