Sensing the presence of the border guards, the smugglers fled the scene leaving behind the statue

On June 18, 1921 Nazrul married Nargis. Ustad Aftabuddin Khan, Shahabuddin Bayati, Baul poet Musa Shah and the family members of Indra Kumar Sengupta attended the wedding. But for some reason Nazrul was disturbed and left the house of Ali Akbar Khan on the night of his wedding. Nazrul moved in with Indra Kumar Sengupta and his family in Comilla town. Giribala Devi (Sengupta’s aunt) and her daughter Ashalata alias Pramila Devi also lived with the Senguptas. Nazrul was unwell and stayed there for almost three weeks. The Senguptas looked after the poet and Nazrul was gradually inclined towards Pramila.

Upon hearing the news of Nazrul’s illness, on July 6 1921, Muzaffar Ahmed, friend of Ali Akbar Khan, took Nazrul back to Calcutta (now Kolkata). The same year in November, Nazrul returned to Comilla and stayed at Giribala Devi’s residence. During his visit, Nazrul met with Congress leader Ashrafuddin Chowdhury, Basanta Kumar Majumder, Motahar Hossain Chowdhury, Jaan-e-Alam Chowdhury, Atindra Mohan Roy Chowdhury, Sachin Dev Burman and Ustad Muhammad Khusru.

On November 21, 1921, the Prince of Wales visited India, and in protest of this, a daylong ‘hartal’ (strike) was observed in Comilla as everywhere else in the sub-continent. People from all walks of life observed the ‘hartal’ and Nazrul sang �Bhikkha dao, bhikkha dao, phiria chao ogo purobashi, santan aaj upobashi.�

Nazrul was arrested and sent to Calcutta police station. Later, he was freed from police custody.

In the month of February, in 1922, Nazrul returned to Comilla and stayed here for five months. During this stay, he wrote several poems including “Priyar Roop,” “Baishakhi,” “Pralay Ullash” and “Chiro chena.”

On August 11, 1922, Nazrul’s famous publication �Dhumketu� came out. The rulers did not take the poet’s scathing criticism of the British rule kindly. Police looked for Nazrul, but he was then at the residence of Giribala Devi in Comilla. This was his fourth visit to Comilla. Police arrested Nazrul in front of the residence of Jogendranath Dutta in Comilla town on November 23, 1922.

He was sent to Alipore jail. After being freed from jail on December 23 1923, Nazrul again came to the home of Giribala Debi and stayed there for some days. On April 24 1924, Nazrul married Pramila Devi. Nazrul wrote many poems during his stay in Comilla. In Daulatpur, Nazrul composed 10 songs. The bard wrote “Akarun priya,” “Shesher gaan,” “Bedonamoni” and Lakkhichhara.”

Places in Comilla, bearing the memories of the National Poet, are now facing severe negligence. No steps to maintain these places have been taken in the past two decades. People of Comilla have repeatedly demanded naming the proposed Comilla University after Kazi Nazrul Islam.

It may be mentioned that some local influential people have allegedly constructed a building by filling up a pond (opposite Farida Bidyayatan) belonging to Pramila Devi’s family. The occupiers have removed the memorial plaque from the place. A public dumpster has been placed next to the memorial plaque at Ranirdighipar. No memorial sign exists at Rajganj from where the poet was arrested by the British police in 1921.

The students were made to vacate the residential halls by 6:00pm to ward off further clashes.

Campus sources said the clash began on Wednesday night when a BCL faction led by Biva attacked the rival group at Hall No 1 with sticks leaving seven activists wounded.

Vice-Principal Dr Mosleh Uddin said the decision to close the college was taken by the academic council.

Expressing dissatisfaction, general students said despite the ban on student politics on the campus, BCL was divided in line with recent BMA election in the district intensifying the rivalry.

Kazi Matiul Islam, officer-in-charge of Kotwali thana, said additional police have been deployed on the campus to avert further trouble.

Anandra Chandra Roy was a renowned patron of promoting and developing education in the district. He was a contractor by profession and accordingly set aside a large amount of money to establish a college for the development of higher education in Comilla. Comilla Victoria College was thus born to fulfill his long cherished dream.

In recognition of his noble endeavour th British Govt. awarded him the title �Roy Bahadur� after the establishment of the college. A white color sculpture was built in front of the main gate of intermediate section of the college to keep the memory of Roy Bahadur alive.

Reason behind the name of the college
Queen Victoria was the Empress of India from 1876 to 1901. At that time, Comilla was also under the rule of the Empire hence the college was named as �Comilla Victoria College.�

First principal of the college
�Sattendranath Boshu� was the first principal of the college. He was the headmaster of former Comilla Victoria School. He remained the principal of the college till his death. He was a scholar as well as a researcher of literature. He was also a professor of English and was awarded Rabindranath Prize for his outstanding contribution to literature.

Foundational status of the college
Comilla Victoria College started its journey with only 107 students and 7 teachers. There was only intermediate section at the time of beginning of the college and later honours section was started in 1918. There was only one classroom and an administrative building at the initial stage of the college.

Progressive period of the college
BSC Course and BCOM Course commenced in 1942 and 1956 respectively. The college started its night Shift program from 1958. Intermediate section and honours section were divided in 1962.The college was nationalized in 1968. Five more new departments were initiated in 1971 while Bengali and Economics courses commenced in 1973.

ICMA program was started from 1982. It gained the dignity of an University College during 1984-1985. More nine departments were included in 1996.

All the principals of Victoria College played a great role for the development of the institute. In this regard the name of Akter Hamid Khan is worth mentioning, who was also the founder of Comilla BARD ( Bangladesh Academy For Rural Development). The numbers of students of this college increased rapidly during his period.

Victoria College is located on 29 acres of land including its intermediate and honours section. At present there are about 2,400 students in intermediate section and 12,500 students in honors section.

There are 129 teachers in this college against 150 posts. But this small number of teachers is not sufficient address such a huge number of students. Moreover teachers are to take classes in both intermediate section and honours section. So the authorities urged the Govt. to recruit more teachers for the betterment of the college.

The total number of departments of the college stands at 18. The name of the departments are Accounting and Management department of Business faculty, Physics, Chemistry ,Biology, Zoology, Botany, Mathematics, Statistics of science faculty and English, Social Science ,Social Welfare, History, Islamic History, Political Science, Economics, Philosophy and Arabic of arts faculty.

Brilliant results of the college
The academic result of the college is something college authorities always take pride of. The college always stands first in Comilla Board on the basis of good result in HSC. Meritorious students try to get admission in this college because of its name and fame. Students of the Honours section also do very good in examinations. Most of the times students of this college get top positions in exams held under the national university.

A student named Abdul Mazid was awarded gold medal from this college for his outstanding result. Five students got distinction from this college when Radha Govinda was the Principal.

There are three halls for the students of the college of which two are for male and one is for female students. Students of this college face acute accommodation problem. Only three halls are not sufficient for about 1500 students. As a result, most of the students have to stay in rented rooms in town at a very high cost.

There are six buses for the students of which one bus is run with Govt. fund and rest five buses are run with college fund. There is also a microbus for the teachers. The number of transport needs to be increased to meet the growing demand.

A computer Laboratory is going to be built to increase the technological knowledge of the students. The Govt. has offered some financial support for this purpose.

Comilla Victoria College has a library where 9 daily newspapers are kept and there are about 2100 academic books. But no magazines and journals are subscribed. In this regard Assistant Librarian Md. Rezaul Karim Bhuiyan said that there is lack of sufficient space in the library. But students and teachers feel that more academic books should be acquired and more manpower should be appointed.

Co-Curricular activities of the College
Students of the college regularly take part in debate. They won many prizes from BTV and others debate competitions. Bangladesh National Cadet Core (BNCC), Rover Scouts are also working at the college. Sandani and Badhon regularly organise blood donation programmes on the campus where students and teachers participate voluntarily.

Different cultural programmes are also organized on various occasions. Victoria College Chhatra Sangshad played a vital role during the 1952 language movement and1962 movement against Ayub Khan. It was also actively involved in the Liberation War of 1971.

Freedom fighters of the college
At least 334 students participated in the war of whom 35 sacrificed their lives for the noble cause. Major Rafiqul Islam, Saheed Khaza Nizam uddin got the recognition of “Bir Uttam” and Lieutenant Col. Akbar Hossain, Saheed Abdul Momin got �Bir Protik� respectively who were the students of this college.

Advocate Abdul Matin Khosru, Prof. Ali Asraf, AHM Mostafa Kamal (Lotus Kamal), AKM Baha Uddin Baher also participated in the war, were students of this college.

Victoria College students who are in good position
Renowned TV presenter Hanif Sangket (Ittady), Famous journalist ABM Musa, Whip of the national Sangshad and Lawmaker Md. Mujibul Haque,Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) chairman AHM Mostafa Kamal(Lotus Kamal),Scientist Abdul Jalil, Head of UNICEF of Dhaka unit Mahera Khatun, journalist Gaziur Rahman, Lawmaker Advocate Abdul Matin, Hazi Baher and many other renowned persons were the students of this college.

Contributions of teachers and students in natural calamities
The teachers and students of this college contribute to funds for people affected by natural calamities like flood, cyclone, tides so on.

Views of the former and current students
Former student of the college AHM Mostafa Kamal(Lotus Kamal)who is the chairman of Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) and also chairman of finance committee of the present govt. said that Comilla Victoria College is one of the renowned colleges under national university. He was very proud to be a student of this college, who contributed a lot for the development of the college.

Another former student of this college Anisur Rahman Mithu who is the Chhatra League Secretary of Comilla District said that when he was a student of this college the overall situation was very good. But he feels there are some limitations at the moment which should be solved by the govt. immediately.

Two student of this college, Md. Badiul Alam and Md. Mafizul Islam who are second year students of Accounting Department said that they feel proud to be studying in a renowned college like Victoria. The teachers of this college were very dutiful and sincere to students they commented. They however feel that the accommodation and transport problems of this college should be solved soon.

Future plans of the college
Victioria college has a plan to open several new departments including Finance and Marketing .The authorities have already taken initiatives in this regard. They also want to build more halls for solving accommodation problem with financial support from the Govt.

(Writer is a 2nd year student of Management Studies Department in Comilla University.)
Email:kamruzzaman_b@yahoo.com
Cell:01710-802823