Bharati College - Bharati - Delhi (Delhi)

A constituent college with permanent affiliation to the University of Delhi, Bharati College was founded by the Delhi Administration as Bharati Mahila College in September 1971. It started functioning from the premises of a Government Senior Secondary School for Boys located on Link Road in Karol Bagh. With 241 students and 13 members of the staff, spread over six disciplines, for the first two years the college would start only at 12.00 noon after the boys school gave over. By the third year, however, the College had taken over the building full time. Situated tantalizingly next to the erstwhile Naaz Cinema and the Mata Ka Mandir on the one hand and the Bhuli Bhatiyari Ka Mahal and the Buddha Gardens on the other the College was barely a kilometre from the main Karol Bagh market on the one side and 3 kms. from Connaught Place on the other. In many ways, the location also defined the College, the ‘Pahariwala College’ as it was known in common parlance.When it began, the College offered courses only in the B.A. Programme (then known as B.A. Pass) and a few vocational courses like Office Management and Tailoring & Dress Designing. It has since expanded to include honours courses in English, Hindi, Sanskrit, History,  Political Science, economics, Maths and Commerce.Under DC coursesII students can opt for Human Resource Development, Marketing Management, Human Development & Childhood studies and Hindi Patrakarita  Jansanchar. Part-time self-financing courses in foreign languages such as French, German and Russian and  DOEACC level computer courses and are open to the regular students of the College as well as outsiders.The College was allotted 8.6 acres of land in Janakpuri in 1976-77. Since building could not commence immediately, jhuggi–dwellers took over the site and it was only in 1985, after a massive drive that the College could re-possess the land. Construction of the College building started in 1994 and in 1998 the College shifted to its new location at C-4 Janakpuri. Today, situated amid undulating gardens in an eco-friendly environment, with 23 classrooms and 46 tutorial rooms, a seminar and conference room, a studio theatre and 3 Computer Labs with over 120 computers, the college also boasts of basketball and volleyball courts, kho-kho and throw ball fields and a full-fledged cricket ground. Our very pro-active NSS Unit and Eco-Club look after the Rain Harvesting System and garbage disposal, maintaining pits for wormy-culture and a herbal garden. The College now produces enough manure to not only take care of the needs of the College gardens but also to be able to sell it at a reasonable rates to members of the staff interested in gardening and to any other takers.The College takes pride in the fact that Shri Sahib Singh Verma, erstwhile Chief Minister of Delhi, started his career as a Librarian with Bharati College in 1971. Distinguished theatre director Anuradha Kapoor also started her teaching career at Bharati College and today one of her students, Dimple, trained at the National School of Drama supervises the Drama Society of Bharati College, Chilman. Dr Asha Gupta, Reader in the Dept. of Political Science at Bharati College, today heads the Directorate of Hindi Medium Implementation at Delhi University. Shri L.K. Advani was the first Chairman of the Governing Body of the College and Dr (Mrs) Lalita Panigrahi, drawn from the Dept of History, Lady Shri Ram College, its first Principal.The Students’ Union of Bharati College was affiliated to the Delhi University Students Union in 1984 and though the collaboration has not always been a happy one. It led to a number of strikes and violent reactions over the years. It also produced some outstanding student leaders like Amrita Dhawan, who was Vice President of the Delhi University Students Union in 2005-2006 and President in 2006-2007. In 2008, however, a majority of the students of the College voted for disaffiliation from the Delhi University Student’s Union and today the Bharati College Students Union follows its own trajectory.Bharati College Students have done well in practically all walks of life and wherever you go in Delhi, you are bound to bump into an ex-student. It is also particularly heartening to welcome back in our midst, as colleagues and teachers, our own students, like Nisha Tiwari and Sonia, who have joined the English and Commerce departments respectively of the College.