After digging up lost facts for nearly 40 years, Hindu College’s former principal Dr Kavita A Sharma jotted down some unknown facts and never-seen-before photographs about the college in a book titled Hindu College Delhi: A People’s Movement. The book, co-authored by WD Mathur, was released by the Old Students Association (OSA) of Hindu College on Saturday.
According to Sharma, the book contains authentic material about the college and has been put together after visiting libraries, going through archives, meeting individuals and scanning locations. “In 1974, during the diamond jubilee celebrations, Dr Bharat Ram had told the then principal of the college to bring out a book on the history of the college. However, due to severe unavailability of facts, it could not happen then. The idea lingered with me though. Ever since that year, I have wanted to bring this book out,” she said.
The process of getting information was not an easy one for Sharma, thus, it took her almost 40 years to finally write the book. She said, “It was genuinely very difficult to get information since there were no official records of it. That’s why I approached WD Mathur so that I had someone to push me into following this project. In fact I had to file an RTI to know the original members of Hindu College. I caught hold of a few documents which provided me with links and evidence to whatever I had thought of as hearsay.”
The book was released by Justice AK Sikri. While releasing the book he said, “It is important for the alumni of an institution to promote and strengthen their alma mater. Though I’m not from Hindu, I can vouch for the institution and this book is an insight into the values it imparts.”