Introduction  (Day College)

[Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College (Autonomous)]

The Vision and Faith of Swami Vivekananda

Addressing the public of Madras on 14th of February 1897, on the topic "The Future of India", Swami Vivekananda said "Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs roit there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library. If education is identical with information, the libraries are the greatest sages in the world, and encyclopedias are the Rishis. The ideal, therefore, is that we must have the whole education of our country, spiritual and secular, in our hands, and it must be on national lines, through national methods as far as practical. Of course this is a very big scheme, a very big plan. I do not know whether it will ever work out. Young men of Madras, my hope is in you. Will you respond to the call of your nation? Each one of you has a glorious future if you dare believe me. Have a tremendous faith, in yourselves, like the faith I had when I was a child, and which I am working out now. Have that faith, each one of you, in yourself that eternal power is lodged in every soul and you will revive the whole of India."

The Faith Unfolds

The spectacle of hundreds of deserving young students failing to secure admission into any of the existing colleges in Madras caused a desire in the minds of some-public spirited gentlemen to open another first grade college in the city. It was decided that the management of the college be entrusted to the Ramakrishna Mission, whose labours in the field of education as well as of religion and social service are well known throughout India, and that the college be called VIVEKANANDA COLLEGE, after the great patriot-monk and founder of the Ramakrishna Mission.

The College

With the prime motive of imparting man-making and character-building education and combining the principles of secular knowledge and spiritual knowledge, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College made a humble beginning in June 1946, with 20 teachers and 339 students. The college then offered just 4 undergraduate courses. The college is presently offering 11 Graduate and 7 Postgraduate and research programmes under aided stream in the Day College and 8 Graduate and 2 Postgraduate unaided programmes in the Evening College. The student strength is around 3000. In 2003, the institution was accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, New Delhi. The college was granted autonomous status to all Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses up to M.Phil. By the University Grants Commission in 2004-2005. Starting with just five rooms in 1946, the college now has a Main Block, a Mathematics Block, a Life Sciences Block, a Sanskrit Block, the Obul Reddy Auditorium Building, an Open Air Theatre, a Library Block (with 87,000 books: day, 8000 books: evening), a Sports Complex and a Prayer Hall. It has a lush green turf cricket ground, tennis courts, and a gymnasium with state of the art equipments. It has several well-equipped computer laboratories. It has a residential hostel which can accommodate 225 students.

Administration

  1. President: Swami Gautamananda
  2. Secretary and Rector: Swami Atmaghanananda
  3. Principal: Dr.S.Swaminathan
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