Andhra University

Andhra University was the first university of the Telugu districts of the Madras Presidency.¹² An Act of the Madras Legislative Council created it in 1926.¹ Until then the colleges of these districts belonged to the University of Madras.¹ In 1928–29 its headquarters moved to Visakhapatnam, where it later opened its own colleges at Waltair.³⁴

The demand for a university

For more than ten years before 1926, people of the Telugu districts kept asking the Madras government for a university of their own.¹ In 1920 the Senate of the Madras University agreed.¹ It resolved that there should be about one university for each main language area of the Presidency.¹ A university for the Andhras, it said, should be “taken in hand without further delay”.¹

In 1921 the government appointed a committee on the plan.¹ It reported the next year and asked for a teaching university where students lived together.¹ But the committee could not agree where the university should be.¹ In April 1925 an officer was put on special duty to draft a bill.¹ The Madras Legislative Council passed it in January 1926.¹

The Act of 1926

The debate on the bill was long and bitter, says the official review of 1922–27.¹ The bill’s Select Committee chose Rajahmundry for the headquarters.² The Act as passed placed them at Vijayawada (then Bezwada), where there was no college at all.² Degree teaching was to be gathered at three centres: Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and Anantapur.²

The Act came into force in April 1926.² It covered twelve districts: Ganjam, Vizagapatam, West Godavari, East Godavari, Kistna, Guntur, Nellore, Bellary, Anantapur, Cuddapah, Kurnool and Chittoor.² The Act also provided that Indian languages should in time become the media of teaching and examination.² Its first Pro-Chancellor, the Maharaja of Bobbili, gave one lakh of rupees for Telugu and Sanskrit learning.²

A new headquarters

Bills to change the Act came one after another.² The review of 1922–27 says these quarrels held back the university’s money and its work.² In 1928–29 the Act was changed to make Visakhapatnam the headquarters.³ At the same time the colleges of the Ceded Districts (Rayalaseema) and Chittoor were taken out of its area.³

That year the Raja of Jeypore was Pro-Chancellor and C. R. Reddi was Vice-Chancellor.⁵ The library was still in a rented building.⁵ The university published its first book, The Beginnings of Local Taxation in the Madras Presidency.⁵

Colleges at Waltair

At first all teaching was done by the separately managed colleges, not by the university itself.² Its own University College of Arts opened at Waltair in July 1931.⁴⁶ It taught history, economics, politics, and Telugu language and literature up to the Honours degree.⁶ Mathematics and philosophy followed in 1932, and commerce in 1934.⁶

The College of Science and Technology opened in July 1932, with Honours courses in physics and chemistry.⁶⁷ From 1933 it taught the sugar industry as a special subject.⁶ The Maharaja of Jeypore promised it a yearly grant that would rise to one lakh of rupees.⁶ He would pay this until he or his heirs gave a capital sum of fifteen lakhs.⁶ The register of 1939–40 calls it the Jeypore Vikrama Deo College of Science and Technology.⁷

Its colleges in 1939–40

By 1939–40 the university had 23 colleges.⁸ Two were its own colleges at Waltair, and two were professional colleges: the Government Training College at Rajahmundry and the Medical College at Visakhapatnam.⁸ Six were first-grade colleges, teaching up to the B.A.⁸ Five were second-grade colleges, and eight were oriental (Sanskrit) colleges.⁸

The medical degree of the new university was not at first accepted in Britain.⁹ The General Medical Council there refused in the 1920s to recognise the M.B.B.S. of Andhra.⁹

Where the sources disagree

No disagreement was found among the sources used for this page.

Footnotes

1. Progress of Education in India, 1922–27 (Ninth Quinquennial Review), Vol. I, p. 58 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

2. Progress of Education in India, 1922–27, Vol. I, p. 59 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

3. Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency for 1928–29, Vol. I, p. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 312 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

5. Report on Public Instruction for 1928–29, Vol. I, p. 10 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Progress of Education in India, 1932–37 (Eleventh Quinquennial Review), Vol. I, p. 61 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

7. Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 316 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

8. Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40 (1939), p. 302, list of colleges (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Progress of Education in India, 1922–27, Vol. I, p. 191 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²