History of Shyama Prasad Vidyalaya

Shri Shankar Roy Chowdhury

In 1911 the harassed British Government decided to transfer capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi, which was comparatively, a-political move.

One of the last activities of British Government in building up the capital city of New Delhi was establishment of two colonies, namely Lodhi Estate and Lodhi Colony in the southern part of the city. These two colonies were beautifully laid down and were clean and airy by any standard. In the year 1945 when the Second World War had just ended, a few armaments related offices of Govt. of India at Calcutta were closed down. The staff of these offices, who were mostly Bengalis, were transferred to Delhi. Most of these transferred staff got accommodation in the above two colonies.

Proper education for their children became the primary concern for the residents of these new colonies. For establishing a school the primary requirement was of a place where students could assemble together for studying. So they decided to approach New Delhi Municipal Committee for help. They wanted to take some accommodation on rent – in one of the two existing Primary Schools in Lodhi Colony.

Members thought that it would be easier to proceed further, if the proposed school could become a part of any one of the schools already established. It was decided that the proposed school would be established as a branch of Union Academy School, Raja Bazar.

In June 1948, 3 rooms of the girls Primary School of New Delhi Municipal Committee at Lodhi Colony were taken on rent and the new school started functioning from there.

After almost two months, on 8^th August 1948 with the initiative taken by the Chairman of the Co-ordination Committee, Mr. D.L. Majumdar, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee officially inaugurated the School.

Since in the main school at Raja Bazar, both Bengali as well as Non-Bengali speaking students were studying together, it was decided that the same system would be followed at the ‘branch school’ also.

In May 1949 the School got the approval of the Primary Section (I to V) from the Directorate of Education. In November 1952 the Secondary Section (VI to VIII) was approved by the Education Department and finally in 1956 the Education Department gave their approval for the Higher Secondary Section (IX to XI) and subsequently to class XII.

The Managing Committee was very fortunate in their effort in another matter too. In August 1953 the Land Development Officer allotted 3.5 acres of land in Lodhi Estate Area on 99 years lease to the school.

With passing of time, the newly established School at Lodhi Colony was slowly becoming quite popular with the residents. There was lot of pressure on the Management for admitting more and more students. In view of this the Committee decided to shift the School to its allotted own land in Lodhi Estate. The School started functioning on its own premises from the year 1954.

With the money in hand the Managing Committee now decided to start construction of the school building. Earlier the classes were held in tents. The Foundation Stone of the Building was laid by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Vice-President of India on 6^th March 1960. The double story building was completed in the year 1961.

For quite some time the Management of Union Academy School at Raza Bazar, was suggesting that the Branch Management should follow the Constitution of the main School while preparing their own. They were also suggesting that the branch school should make preparations so as to sever all connections from the main school as early as possible.

In view of this desire on the part of the main Management of the school, the Managing Committee in its two meetings held on 17^th March 1957 and 31^st March 1957 decided to set up a new Institution. They also decided that the new Institution would be named after Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who had inaugurated the school in the year 1948. Since then, the new school set up at Lodhi Estate came to be known as “Shyama Prasad Vidyalaya”.

With the passing of time Shyama Prasad Vidyalaya could carve out a place of its own in Delhi.

In the late forties of 20^th Century a few well meaning individuals saw a dream – in their mind a hope slowly took shape and in these seven decades it has grown into a large tree.

Educationist Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee while inaugurating the school had expressed to the first president Mr. D.L. Majumdar “now that the school has come in to being, it is your responsibility to ensure that it grows in life time”.