ST. XAVIER’S KOLKATA

SEEMAR MAJHE ASHIM TUMI

FR. J. FELIX RAJ SJ

St. Xavier’s College Kolkata had two beginnings: one on 1 June 1835 and the other on 16 January 1860. The first phase of the College was a brief period of just twelve years during which it changed addresses thrice to accommodate the increasing number of students attracted by the high standards it set.

In October 1834, a group of Jesuits from Liverpool, England landed at Babu Ghat under the leadership of Rev. Robert Leger, the Vicar designate of Bengal. They established the College of St. Francis Xavier at Murgyhatta at a house of Fathullah Apcar, an Armenian Catholic. Father Francis Chadwick was appointed the Rector of the College. This initiative gave an impetus to the Catholic community that lacked the educational reform that marked the Protestant community of the early nineteenth century.

In January 1836, the College was transferred to 3 Park Street for a rent of Rs. 250 pm. The College now needed qualified staff. Fr Chadwick traveled to England and brought with him a group of Jesuit scholastics to teach in the College. In 1838 Fr. Chadwick, reputed for his sternness, left on a long leave due to ill health. Fr. Richard Sumner became the Rector. He quickly mastered Bengali and conducted services in Bengali. By 1839, the College was a matter of pride for the Catholic community of Calcutta.

As the number of students grew, in January 1841 the college was moved to 22, Chowringhee, where now stands the Indian Museum. The College began to draw many students from the affluent families. The Jesuits were also running simultaneously a school in the Bowbazar area to serve the less privileged families. That year Dr. Patrick Joseph Carew, an Irishman and a former Vicar of Madras, was appointed the Vicar of Calcutta. Mgr. Carew, a man of the old school, had nurtured reservations about Jesuits. The next five years were not smooth for both the Vicar and the Jesuits. There were confrontations on numerous occasions, which finally led to the departure of the Jesuits from Calcutta in October 1846. The College of St. Xavier’s had no staff.

After a gap of 13 years, after the repeated requests of the Catholic community in Calcutta, a band of seven Belgian Jesuits arrived at Calcutta in November 1859, under the leadership of Fr. H. Depelchin (Rector: 1860-1871), the Founding Father of the second St. Xavier's. They shifted St. Xavier's from Chowringhee to the Sans Souci Theatre in January 1860, which is now the honest home of learned professors and zealous students.

One hundred and fifty years of service to the nation. St. Xavier’s, Kolkata has grown today into a leading educational institution in India. Both St. Xavier’s School and College are proud of their contribution to the cause of education and culture in Bengal for 150 years. These twin institutions have produced many great educationists and students who earned credit for their Alma Mater.

Fr. E. Lafont was appointed Rector in October 1871. He was a born teacher of physics. The terrible cyclone of November 1864 proved the beginning of his fame. The catastrophe might have been much greater, had not Fr. Lafont given the timely warning.

It was Fr. O’Neill (Rector: 1904-1913) who gave the College its crest and the motto: Nihil Ultra, a motto, significant and suggestive of a noble ideal, of an unconquerable hope, that should urge the Xaverian always to aim high. The motto of the young Xaverian is the old maxim: “Perfectum nihil est, aliquid dum restat agentum”(Nothing is perfect as long as anything remains to be done).

The tiny seed has grown into a mighty tree. In the year of its centenary (1960), St. Xavier's had on its rolls 3503 students. It has, now 50 years later, 7,106 students of whom 2,162 are in the school and 4,944 in the college. A total teaching staff of 213 is educating them. The school section, starting from the Primary, leads up to the ISC Final Examination. The College offers UG and PG courses under five faculties: Arts, Science, Commerce, Business Administration, and Education.

The Society of Jesus, a Christian Religious Order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, runs St. Xavier’s College. It is one of the 24 University Colleges run by the Jesuits in India. The Jesuit College aims at forming young men and women of competence, commitment, compassion and conscience. St. Xavier's College thus aims at making its own contribution towards a transformation of the present-day social condition so that principles of social justice, equality of opportunity, genuine freedom and respect for religious and moral values, enshrined in the Constitution of India, may prevail, and the possibility of living a fully human existence may be open before all.

St. Francis Xavier is the Patron of St. Xavier’s. There is scarcely an educated Indian who has not heard the name of Francis Xavier. It is to India that Ignatius of Loyola, the Founder of the Society of Jesus, sent his greatest son, Francis Xavier in 1542. Xavier was a zealous “missionary on the move”. He sailed to Malacca and Japan in 1549 where he spent two and a half years. In April 1552 he set sail to China via Malacca from Goa, never to return alive. He died at Sancian, a small island facing China, on 2 December 1552. Wherever he went, he plunged himself into charitable and pastoral work preaching the message of God’s love to people. He worked in India for 10 years, 1542 to 1552, called the Xaverian decade.

The list of the old students of St. Xavier’s is studded with many scientists, actors, filmmakers, poets and many industrialists in Bengal. It can boast of some of its pupils who became world famous: Rabindranath Tagore and Jagadish Chandra Bose. While Tagore was impressed by the relationship between teachers and students at St. Xavier’s, Bose found encouragement for his introduction to science in the person of Fr. Lafont, who was called “the father of science” in India. The list includes three chief ministers of Bengal — H. S. Shurawardy, Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Jyoti Basu. Hardly will you find an important office in Kolkata where you do not come across a Xaverian!

St. Xavier’s has always been known for its cosmopolitan and all-India character. Much before the ex-pression “national integration” gained currency, St. Xavier’s has tried to foster among its students the spirit and practice of it. Coming as they do from all over India and from various communities, they live in complete harmony, understanding and mutual respect. Thus they are encouraged to develop beyond local and group affinities, loyalties to the country and to society at large.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) recognized St. Xavier’s College as an “A” grade institution in 2003. In May 2006, it was declared a Centre with Potential for Excellence by the UGC. From July 2006, it became an autonomous college (the first in West Bengal).

St. Xavier’s has all these 150 years remained steadfast and persevered in the midst of troubles and anxieties. Now with all the richness of the past, it faces the future with the same spirit – “Nihil Ultra” (Nothing beyond).

Fr. J. Felix Raj, SJ is the Vice Principal of St. Xavier’s College and Director of the Goethals Library & Research Society.