Colvin Taluqdars' College

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Colvin Taluqdars' College in Lucknow is one of the oldest public schools in India.

Sir Auckland Colvin, K.C.M.G., C.I.E. (Lieutenant Governor of the N. W. Provinces) while functioning as Lieutenant Governor of Avadh and Agra during the year 1889, conceived the idea of a school with the object of imparting education to the children of the British administrators and the landed aristocracy who were known as Taluqdars. The 'wards' class, founded in 1884, formed the nucleus for the establishment of the Taluqdars' College. First Principal was Henry George Impey Siddons, the posthumous child of a Captain in the Indian Army, who graduated at Oxford and returned to India to teach. From 1875 to 1884 he had been first headmaster, then Principal, of the MAO College, Aligarh, subsequently holding other teaching posts in India. His successor at the Colvin School was HHD. The College has five Houses: Ajanta (Yellow), Nalanda (Navy Blue), Sanchi (Magenta), Taxila (Sky Blue) and Ujjain (Saffron). Students are allotted one or the other of these five Houses named after the five centres of education in Ancient India. The Governor of the state of Uttar Pradesh is the patron of the College.. It was known for its aristocratic traditions, for several decades.

Only when the British left India in 1947 did it open its doors to the general public. By that time, it had along with Aitchison College in Lahore and Mayo College in Ajmer acquired reputation as the top school in the Indian plains. Later on under the stewardship of two innovative principals,H. N. Kashyap and H. L. Dutt,it produced academic results which are unparalleled in the history of secondary education in India.

Notable Staff Members

Birendra Shankar awarded National Teachers' Award:Mathematics Teacher

Lakshaman Prasad Bharadwaj awarded National Teacher's Award:History Teacher and noted historian

M.Samiullah noted chemistry teacher

Shahid Ali noted historian

Distinguished Alumni

Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad scientist

Baba Sahgal rap artist

Javed Akhtar lyricist

Salman Akhtar psychoanalyst

[edit] Further information

For a history of the Colvin Taluqdars School (now Colvin Taluqdars' College) see: Metcalf, Thomas R. (1979), 'Land, landlords, and the British Raj', Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.322-40.some of the great students of this college were Naved Alam Khan, and many more