Universities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras - Centenary 1957

The universities of Calcutta, Mumbai and Madras were the first three universities established by the British in this country.

Although the University of Bombay was incorporated on the 18th July, 1957, it was the culmination of a long drawn process which was initiated in 1835 when Macaulay, in his capacity as the President of the General Committee of Public Instruction and as the Law Member in the Government, wrote his oft-quoted Minutes of February 2, 1835 strongly favouring English education in India. Responding to the despatch, the Court of Directors agreed to establish Universities at Bombay and Calcutta on the model of London University and also agreed to have one more University at Madras or in any part of India. Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor General appointed a Committee to prepare a detailed scheme, which was submitted in 1856. It was accepted by the Government of India by their Resolution dated 12th December 1856, indeed the day of conception of the University of Mumbai although the birth admittedly took place on the 18th July, 1857.

The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and premier universities in India. The university was incorporated by an act of the Legislative Council of India.

The first ever demand for higher education in Madras Presidency was given in a public address to Lord John Elphinstone, Governor of Madras, signed by 70,000 residents when the Governor in Council was contemplating "some effective and liberal measures for the establishment of an improved system of national education." This public petition, which was presented by the Advocate General Mr. George Norton on 11 November 1839, pressed the need for an English college in the city of Madras. Pursuant to this, Lord Elphinstone evolved a plan for the establishment of a central collegiate institution or a ‘university.’ This university had twin departments – a high school for the cultivation of English literature, regional language, philosophy and science, and a college for instruction in the higher branches of literature, philosophy and science.

The University Board was constituted in January 1840 with Mr. George Norton as its President. This was the precursor of the present Presidency College, Chennai. A systematic educational policy for India was formulated 14 years later by the dispatch of 1854 (Sir Charles Wood’s Education Dispatch), which pointed out the rationale for "creating a properly articulated system of education from the primary school to the University." The Dispatch recommended the establishment in the universities of Professorships "for the purposes of the delivery of lectures in various branches of learning including vernacular as well as classical languages." As a result the University of Madras, organized on the model of the University of London, was incorporated on 5 September 1857 by an Act of the Legislative Council of India.

The University of Calcutta (Calcutta University or CU) is a public state university located in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), West Bengal, India established on 24 January 1857.

The Calcutta University Act came into force on 24 January 1857 and a 41-member Senate was formed as the policy making body of the university. When the university was first established it had a catchment area covering the area from Lahore to Rangoon (now in Myanmar), and Ceylon, the largest of any Indian university.

The first Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University were Governor General Lord Canning and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir James William Colvile, respectively. In 1858, Joddu Nath Bose and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay became the first graduates of the university. On 30 January 1858, the Syndicate of the Calcutta University started functioning.