Zakir Husain Delhi College

Historic map of Delhi (Shahjahanabad), in 1863, showing it as Oriental College

The courtyard of Ghazi al-Din Khan's Madrassah at Delhi, 1814-15

It was initially founded by Ghaziuddin Khan in 1696, a general of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, a leading Deccan commander and the father of Qamar-ud-din Khan, Asaf Jah I, the founder of the Asaf Jahi dynasty of Hyderabad, also known as the first Nizam of Hyderabad, in 1690s, and was originally termed Madrasa Ghaziuddin Khan after him. However, with a weakening Mughal Empire, the Madrasa closed between 1790 and 1791, but with the support of local nobility, an oriental college for literature, science and art, was established at the site in 1792.[1][3]

It stood just outside the walled city of Delhi outside the Ajmeri Gate, near Paharganj close to the New Delhi railway station. It was originally surrounded by a wall and connected to the walled city fortifications and was referred to as the College Bastion.[4][5]

It was reorganized as the 'Anglo Arabic College' by the British East India Company in 1828 to provide, in addition to its original objectives, an education in English language and literature. The object was "to uplift" what the Company saw as the "uneducated and half-barbarous people of India." Behind the move was Charles Trevelyan, the brother-in-law of Thomas Babingdon Macaulay, the same infamous Macaulay whose famously declared that "a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia".<No citation provided, this is hearsay.>[6][7]

Rev. Jennings started secret Bible classes in the officially secular Delhi College. In July 1852, two prominent Delhi Hindus, Dr. Chaman Lal, one of Zafar's personal physicians, and his friend Master Ramchandra,[8] a mathematics lecturer at the Delhi College, baptised a public ceremony at St. James' Church, Delhi.[3]

Dr. Sprenger, then principal, presided over the founding of the college press, the Matba‘u ’l-‘Ulum and founded the first college periodical, the weekly Qiranu ’s-Sa‘dain, in 1845.

Another cultural intermediatory was Mohan Lal Kashmiri, diplomat, and author, who worked for the East India Company and was educated at the college.[9]

It was renamed Zakir Husain College in 1975 by Indira Gandhi government after Dr. Zakir Husain, a distinguished educator and a President of India.[2] The college was later shifted to its present building outside Turkman Gate in 1986, the old structure in the Madrasa Ghaziuddin complex, still houses a hostel for the college.[5] It was declared a heritage monument by the ASI in 2002. Then in 2008, a separate archive on its history was set up within the college library, with centuries-old books and documents on display, chronicling its 300-year-old history.[1]

Zakir Husain Delhi College is run by the Zakir Husain Memorial Trust since 1975.[2][5]

The notable and alumni and faculty of the college includes.

• Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi, the founding figures of Darul Uloom Deoband,[10]
• Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, the founding figures of Darul Uloom Deoband,[10]
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University,
• Deputy Nazir Ahmed, the Urdu essayist and ICS
• Ali Sardar Jafri
• Akhtar ul-Iman
• Ravi Chaturvedi, the first Hindi Cricket commentator he was also a faculty member in zoology department
• Masud Husain Khan,
• J N Dixit, Defence Analyst
• Gopi Chand Narang, Urdu/Persian critic
• Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Incumbent Minister of Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Earth Sciences
• Jagdish Tytler
• Sikandar Bakht.[1][3]
• Bhisham Sahni professor of the English department who was a noted writer and dramatist
• Mamluk Ali Nanautawi, the distinguished scholar, who descendants founded Darul Uloom Deoband, served as the Head Teacher of the college.[11] He taught Arabic here in 1830s.[3]

• Mohan Lal Kashmiri
• List of colleges affiliated with the University of Delhi
• Anglo Arabic Senior Secondary School another descendant of the original institution

• Official website

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