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| Image: © Liz Chater |
As thoughts are beginning to turn to Kolkata’s Armenian College &
Philanthropic Academy’s bicentennial celebrations in April 2021, it is interesting
to see how the local Armenian community prepared for the centenary 100 years
ago in 1921.
With ideas of new premises and a new location for the Armenian College,
1919 was an interesting and potentially exciting time for local Armenian
merchant and businessman, Carr Lazarus Phillips. He had a dream of opening an
Armenian school in the hills of India; closing the Armenian College, and selling it off to pay
for the new one. We know, of course, that didn’t happen and the school is still
situated in the original location in Kolkata. Less fanciful dreams have become
a reality, but I wonder how close Carr Phillips got to fulfilling his?
A letter to the Editor of the “Englishman” in November 1919 gave
some useful background information:
"Sir, There are few people in Calcutta who know, or care to remember,
that in the premises of the Armenian College, Calcutta was born in 1811 the
great novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, and to this day a tablet testifying
this event is placed by the gate of the building.
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| Image: © Liz Chater |
The premises are, however not only on this account historic there are
other associations that gather round so old and well established an
institution. Few people realise that
there is fast approaching the centenary of the College, and it might be of some
profit to review briefly the past.
Zatoor Mooradian*,(sic) an Armenian merchant, born at Julfa, Ispahan,
came to India settling down to business in Calcutta. He met with success and
when he came to adjust his final accounts, in for love of Armenia and her sons
he left by his will the sum of Rs 8,000 with which to found an Armenian
educational establishment. That was in the year 1797. He died in 1799.
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| Image: © Liz Chater |
Things moved very slowly in those days and in 1821 i.e. 22 years after
his death the school was still unbuilt, when another Armenian merchant of
Saidabad, residing in Calcutta and also a native of Julfa, Ispahan, remembered
that the amount of Rs 8,000 already bequeathed was lying idle.
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| Image: © Liz Chater |
The name of that worthy gentleman was Munazakan Vardan** (sic). In that
same year 1821, he gathered together a few friends and compatriots and that
meeting was one of the most important in its far reaching effects ever held in
the history of our community in India. He explained the crying need there was
for an institution where Armenian boys could be educated in Armenian and
English.
Munazakan Vardan (sic) appealed for further co-operation, and we have it
on record that the little band of patriots, subscribed the sum of Rs 50,000 on
the spot, Munzakan Vardan(sic) himself heading the list with Rs 3,000. Among
the list of donors, which is still preserved, maybe found the name of Bishop
Heber that saintly personage that ruled over the ecclesiastical affairs of Bengal
in the years gone by.
The institution this day possesses in invested funds a sum of over 6
lakhs of rupees this money having been subscribed by our own people. The college has at present on its roll over
150 pupils. Since its foundation the institution has had a very chequered
career. The desire of its founders was that it should be a seminary for the
learning of Armenian, together with instruction in other languages. For a
while, in common with other European schools in Bengal the institution adopted
the old Entrance course of the Calcutta University, which is equivalent to the
modern matriculation standard. In the early[18] ‘80s, during the Principalship
of Mr. Herbert A. Stark B.A. (now a distinguished officer in the Government
Educational Service) it was raised to the status of a College, and from it
appeared pupils for the then First Arts Examination of the Calcutta University.
Later on owing to the wants of funds for the maintenance of a good college
staff, the college abandoned the University course, and reverted to the Entrance
Examination, but from that time henceforward the institution was commonly known
as the Armenian College. Formerly it was known as the Armenian Philanthropic
Academy.
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| Image: © Liz Chater |
It may not be out of place to state here that although the present state
of the Armenian College is far from bright, it will soon be restored to its
pristine glory by Mr. C.L. Phillips, who in conjunction with Messrs. Stephen
and Galstaun and other rich Armenians, has drawn out an elaborate scheme for
its amelioration. It has been the dream of Mr. Phillips’s life to build an
up-to-date college with a number of hostels attached to it at one of the hill
stations wherein the youths of the Armenian community as well as those of the
Anglo-Indians in India may receive a thorough up-to-date collegiate education
in science, literature and arts. His contribution alone towards this great
scheme will be Rs 20 lakhs and as has been said, he has other affluent
Armenians to support him in his great project.
It is intended to endow the college as well with Rs 50 lakhs and it must
appeal to all as a scheme well planned and thought out by the genius of Mr. Phillips.
The present premises of the college in Free School Street will of course
be disposed of and the sale proceeds along with its present endowed funds will
amount to over 10 lakhs which will be solely utilized for building the college
and the several hostels that will be attached to the Institution besides
fittingly furnishing them. I am sure all
those interested in the welfare of this old and historic institution will be
glad to see the fruition of a great scheme destined to come about in the near
future.
Then there will be in India an Armenian College worthy of the name, and
worthy of the Armenians who have for centuries past kept burning the torch of
civilization in Asia."
However, delving a little further, it can be found that as early as 1892
there were plans afoot for the Armenian Bishop of Calcutta to have a summer
palace in Darjeeling. A welcome refuge from the sweltering summer heat of the
city. The land had been donated by the generous owner of the Windsor Tea
Estate. The palace required the remaining Armenian community of Calcutta to
supply the outstanding funds, not something they were keen on, and the project
never got off the ground.
Newspapers continue to reveal further developments
28 October 1920
Armenian College Centenary
Revision of Educational Programme
History of the Institution
In connection with the Centenary Anniversary of the founding of the
Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy, Calcutta, which will occur on April
2, 1921, Messrs M. Mackertich and A.M. Arathoon manager of the college, have
addressed a circular letter to the old boys of the college and to the Armenian
community in general. We represent the more important paragraphs, and suggest
that application be made to the Principal for copies of the letter.
Messrs. Mackertich and Arathoon urge that the commemoration of so great
and significant an event should be not merely “external and transient, but
also internal and permanent.” They add that “the development of our
loved Fatherland on the lines of a progressive and enlightened Republic, must
necessarily lay an increased demand upon the educational resources and national
assets of the College; and as the years immediately before us will be years of
national reconstruction, the scope and character of the Armenian College must
continually be enlarged to enable it to keep pace with the march of events in
Armenia herself.” They then refer to the necessity for the accommodation of
a much larger number of pupils to whom must be given a higher and more
diversified education than has hitherto been within its financial
possibilities.
It is proposed also to have a review of the past in the form of a
centenary Report, which will recount the history of the Academy, during its
hundred years, and which will be a record of the valuable work which it has
been done for the intellectual, social, spiritual and national life of the
Armenian community. The intention is to compile a list of Old Boys, and to
print the portraits of those who have distinguished themselves. They therefore
ask old pupils by the 15th of next December to send them particulars
regarding themselves and others.
Messrs. Mackertich and Arathoon also appear for funds. Donations should
be paid into the Bank of Bengal, Park Street Branch, Calcutta, to the credit of
the Centenary Celebration Fund of the College, or to any of the members of the
College, or to either of the managers.
Mr. Herbert A. Stark, B.A., M.R.A.S., one of the best known and most
experienced educationists in Bengal, who has been appointed Principal of the
College has proposed a scheme of studies and a policy for that institution.
Briefly it is this:
1. For all pupils there should be a sound and liberal
all-round education with an industrial and commercial bias.
2. At the age of eleven or twelve, talented boys should
be placed as boarders in the best European schools, at the expense of the
Armenian College, with a view to their ultimately proceeding to a local Professional
College or to the Arts Degrees of the Calcutta University.
3. Those of them who should themselves to be specially
brilliant, should be sent to England at the age of seventeen or eighteen years
on scholarships provided by the College, there to take their Degrees at a
British University, or to enter one or another of the learned
professions – law, engineering, medicine etc. Possibly some of them may
eventually take Holy Orders in the Armenian Church. In any case, some may be
induced to take the Oxford or Cambridge Diploma in Teaching, and join the staff
of the Armenian College. Thus may we work for the time when our national
institution will be manned solely by thoroughly able and proficient members of
our own community.
4. The bulk of the pupils of the school at the close of
their general studies, should be apprenticed for three years or so, during the
busy season, for instruction in tea, jute, shellac, mining, hides, trains etc.
In the slack season they should return to College for specialised studies
correlated to the industry they are learning.
Thus, for example, during the tea season the group learning tea would be
on a tea garden. During the slack season they would come back to College -
subject to a good report on their application, progress and character from the
Manager of the garden – and be taught those theoretical subjects which are of
importance to the tea planter e.g., scientific agriculture, manuring, draining,
insect pests, blight, the tea markets of the world, etc., the groups learning
other industries would be similarly death with.
Finally, the programme for celebration was revealed for the Armenian College centenary on 3 February 1921
Arrangements for the celebration of the Centenary Anniversary of the
Armenian College, which falls on the 2nd April, are well in hand,
and include the following items:
On March 28th there will be an evening garden fete at
Galstaun Park. It will be open to the public. It will provide the usual
attractions, and also al fresco teas and dancing on the lawns.
On April 2nd there will be a breakfast for the present
scholars of the college and a banquet for old boys. During the day there will
be athletic sports on the college playing fields.
Sunday, April 3rd, will be observed by Divine Service at the
Holy Church of Nazareth, when special prayers will be said for the Founders of
the College and its deceased benefactors. In the afternoon there will be a
solemn procession of priests, choir, pupils, old boys, friends, the managing
committee, the Members of the College, and visitors.
The celebrations will terminate on April 5th with a grand Centenary
Fancy Dress Ball (evening dress optional).
The following are the Office Bearers to the Celebration Committee:
President, Mr. J.C. Galstaun, O.B.E., Vice-President, Mr. M. Mackertich;
Treasurer, Mr. A. Stephen; Secretary, Mr. H. A. Stark, M.L.C., the Principal of
the College. Old Boys desirous of attending the Old Boys’ Dinner are invited to
communicate with the Secretary.
The bicentennial celebrations may not have a garden fete at Galstaun
Park, nor perhaps a fancy dress ball, but it will surely still be an occasion
to remember, celebrate and toast to the next 200 years of Armenian education in
Kolkata. I know there are many people who are looking forward to the upcoming
events in 2021.
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| Image: © Liz Chater |
* He was more commonly known as Chater Moratcan, a renowned Calcutta Jeweller of distinction. His fortune went to this family, causing the inevitable squabbling and in-fighting. I'll write another blog piece on this in due course.
** Although Manatsakan Vardon raised over Rs 3,000 in aid of the formation of the Armenian College in Calcutta, unlike several other community members, he left no further contributions in favour of the Armenian College in his will.
© Liz Chater
2020
