Shibli National Post Graduate College, Azamgarh

The aftermath of the first war of independence in 1857 was a comprehensive, devastating and massive cycle of retribution from the British against Indians in general and Muslims in particular.  The indiscriminate retribution left a trial of destruction everywhere. Sir Syed was shaken to the core. However, unlike ordinary individuals who were left wondering what has struck them, Sir Syed decided to do something for the Muslims to help them come out of their ignorance, penury and loss of power. He started a series of activities from establishing Scientific Society to School at Ghazipur. However, the culmination of efforts was the establishment of Madrasatul Ulum at Aligarh in 1875. It immediately drew a legion of resistance from various quarters. However, at the same time Sir Syed was able to collect a group of distinguished individuals around him at Aligarh. Soon the college along with Tahzibul Akhlaq made people think about their course of action. Slowly but surely it started making a positive influence on the Muslim mindset regarding English education.

One of the earliest manifestation of this was the establishment of an English medium school at Azamgarh. The school was started by Allama Shibli Nomani. Shibli joined Aligarh in February 1883 and just after four months of service at Aligarh he laid the foundation of National School at Azamgarh City on 26 June 1883. Shibli became the secretary of School and arranged land from his family for the same. The school became middle school in 1887 and High School in 1895 (Nadvi, S.S., 1943, pp. 133-134). It became Inter College in 1940 and first degree college of the district in 1946 (Al Azmi, M.I., 2019). Post Graduate classes started in 1970 in various science and arts disciplines. In the beginning the College was affiliated to the Agra University. Later it was affiliated to Gorakhpur University. Since 1988, it is affiliated to Vir Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University, Jaunpur. The College also study centre for many courses in distant mode for various Educational Institutions of National repute. It offers various courses of Maulana Azad Foundation (New Delhi) and Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University (Prayagraj). It is also a study centre for several professional and technical courses of Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi)

At present the College is a Muslim Minority College with five faculties and 24 departments offering a range of courses at Graduate and Post Graduate level. The College also offers Ph.D. facility in various disciplines. The college has following Faculties and Departments (http://shiblicollege.ac.in/About.aspx):

Faculty of Science – It comprises of Department of Botany, Department of Chemistry, Department of Mathematics, Department of Physics, Department of Zoology, Department of Computer Science

Faculty of Arts – It comprises of Department of English, Department of Geography, Department of Hindi, Department of Philosophy, Department of Sociology, Department of Urdu, Department of Arabic, Department of Persian, Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Department of Sanskrit, Department of Economics, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Education.

Faculty of Commerce comprising of Department of Commerce

Faculty of Law comprising of Department of Law

Faculty of Education comprising of Department of Teacher Education offering B.Ed.

At present Shibli National Post Graduate College is one of the biggest Muslim Minority Post Graduate College in India contributing to the progress and prosperity of the community and Nation and carrying forward the mission of Aligarh Movement.

Notes:

Founder: Allama Shibli Nomani

Place: Azamgarh City, Uttar Pradesh, India

Minority Status: Muslim Minority

Website: http://www.shiblicollege.ac.in

References:

Al Azmi, Mohammad Ilyas (2019) Shibli National School Azamgarh ki tareekh ka ek warq. Tahzibul Akhlaq, September, Vol. 38, No. 9, pp. 42-45.

Nadvi, Syed Sulaiman (1943) Hayat e Shibli. Darul Musanneffin Shibli Academy, Azamgarh.