View source for Bethune College

{{short description|First women's college in Bengal}}
{{for-multi|the [[Residential college|constituent college]] of York University in [[Toronto|Toronto, Canada]] |York University#Colleges and residences|the college in the United States|Bethune-Cookman College}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox university
| name = Bethune College
| native_name =
| image_name = Bethune School-Building.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Bethune School Building, {{c.|1949}}
| latin_name =
| motto = Viddaya Vindatey Amritam
| mottoeng = knowledge provides immortal bliss
| established = {{start date and age|1879}}
| accreditation = [[National Assessment and Accreditation Council|NAAC]]
| type = [[Women's college]]
| affiliation = [[University of Calcutta]]
| endowment =
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| rector =
| principal = Dr. Rajyasri Roy
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| city = [[Kolkata]]
| state = [[West Bengal]]
| province =
| country = India
| coor = {{coord|22.5882|N|88.3679|E|format=dms|region:IN-WB_type:edu|display=inline,title}}
| campus = Urban
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| website = {{URL|http://www.bethunecollege.ac.in/}}
| logo = Bethune College logo.png
| footnotes = [[Seal (emblem)|Seal]] of the Bethune College
}}
'''Bethune College''' is a women's college located on [[Bidhan Sarani]] in [[Kolkata]], India, and affiliated to the [[University of Calcutta]]. It is the oldest women's college in India.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=LBR |first=Team |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c79aDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT161 |title=Limca Book of Records: India at Her Best |date=2018-05-05 |publisher=Hachette India |isbn=9789351952404 |pages=161 |language=en}}</ref> It was established as a girls' school in 1849,<ref name="Bagal1">{{cite book |last=Bagal |first=Jogesh Chandra |title=Bethune School & College Centenary Volume, 1849–1949 |publisher=Bethune College |year=1949 |editor1-last=Nag |editor1-first=Kalidas |editor1-link=Kalidas Nag |pages=11–12 |chapter=History of the Bethune School & College (1849–1949) |author-link=Jogesh Chandra Bagal |editor2-last=Ghose |editor2-first=Lotika |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/BethuneSchoolAndCollegeCentenaryVolume18491949/page/n31}}</ref>{{rp|11–12}} and as a college in 1879.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bose |first=Anima |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7u4JAAAAMAAJ |title=Higher Education in India in the 19th Century: The American Involvement, 1883-1893 |date=1978 |publisher=Punthi Pustak |pages=249 |language=en}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Founding of a Hindoo female school in Cornwallis-Square at Calcutta.jpg|thumb|Laying of the foundation stone at Cornwallis Square, November 1850]]
[[File:Bethune College 1999 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|A 1999 stamp dedicated to the Bethune Collegiate School]]
The college was founded as the Calcutta Female School in 1849 by [[John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune]],<ref name="Chaudhuri1990">{{cite book |last=Acharya |first=Poromesh |chapter=Education in Old Calcutta |year=1990 |editor-last=Chaudhuri |editor-first=Sukanta |editor-link=Sukanta Chaudhuri |title=Calcutta: The Living City |volume=I: The Past |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=87 |isbn=978-0-19-563696-3}}</ref> with the financial support of Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee. The school started in Mukherjee's home in [[Bowbazar|Baitakkhana]], with 21 girls enrolled.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bagal |first=Jogesh Chandra |author-link=Jogesh Chandra Bagal |year=1949 |chapter=History of the Bethune School & College (1849–1949) |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/BethuneSchoolAndCollegeCentenaryVolume18491949/page/n31 |editor1-last=Nag |editor1-first=Kalidas |editor1-link=Kalidas Nag |editor2-last=Ghose |editor2-first=Lotika |title=Bethune School & College Centenary Volume, 1849–1949 |publisher=Bethune College |pages=11–12}}</ref> The following year, enrolment rose to 80.<ref name="Forbes1999">{{cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Geraldine Hancock |author-link=Geraldine Forbes |year=1999 |title=Women in Modern India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjilIrVt9hUC&pg=PA39 |series=The New Cambridge History of India |volume=IV.2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=39 |isbn=978-0-521-65377-0}}</ref> In November, on a plot on the west side of Cornwallis Square, the cornerstone for a permanent school building was laid. The name "Hindu Female School" was inscribed on the copper-plate placed in the stone and on the ceremonial silver trowel made for the occasion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bagal |first=Jogesh Chandra |author-link=Jogesh Chandra Bagal |year=1949 |chapter=History of the Bethune School & College (1849–1949) |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/BethuneSchoolAndCollegeCentenaryVolume18491949/page/n31 |editor1-last=Nag |editor1-first=Kalidas |editor1-link=Kalidas Nag |editor2-last=Ghose |editor2-first=Lotika |title=Bethune School & College Centenary Volume, 1849–1949 |publisher=Bethune College |pages=15–16}}</ref> Support for the school waned after Bethune's death in August 1851.<ref name="Forbes1999" />

[[File:Stamp of India - 1978 - Colnect 711272 - Centenary of Bethune College Calcutta.jpeg|thumb|Postage stamp of 1978 commemorating the centenary of Bethune College]]
The government took it over in 1856, renaming it Bethune School after its founder in 1862–63.<ref name="Chaudhuri1990" /> In 1879 it was developed into Bethune College, the first women's college in India, and Bethune School was the second (the first being in Bhidewada Pune, by Jyotirao Phule) women's school in all of Asia.<ref name=":0" />

==Rankings==
{{Infobox India university ranking
| type = College
|NIRF_C_2024=91
}}
The college is ranked 91st among colleges in India by the [[National Institutional Ranking Framework]] (NIRF) in 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2024 NIRF Ranking |url=https://www.nirfindia.org/nirfpdfcdn/2024/pdf/Report/IR2024_Report.pdf}}</ref>

==Notable alumni==
*[[Kadambini Ganguly]] (1861–1923), one of the first two female graduates of the British Empire<ref name="Ray1990" />
*[[Chandramukhi Basu]] (1860–1944), one of the first two female graduates of the British Empire<ref name="Ray1990">{{cite book |last=Ray |first=Bharati |chapter=Women in Calcutta: The Years of Change |year=1990 |editor-last=Chaudhuri |editor-first=Sukanta |editor-link=Sukanta Chaudhuri |title=Calcutta: The Living City |volume=II: The Present and Future |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=34 |isbn=978-0-19-563697-0}}</ref>
*[[Abala Bose]] (1864–1951), social worker<ref name="Southard1993">{{cite journal |last=Southard |first=Barbara |date=May 1993 |title=Colonial Politics and Women's Rights: Woman Suffrage Campaigns in Bengal, British India in the 1920s |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=405–406 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00011549 |jstor=312775 |s2cid=145276788 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
*Meenakshi Chatterjee (1957–2022), Applied Mathematician, and the 5th Indian Woman in Antarctica (as part of the Xth Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica, 1990–91); also the first scientist to represent the University of Calcutta
*[[Sarala Devi Chaudhurani]] (1872–1945), promoter of female education
*[[Anwara Bahar Chowdhury]] (1919–1987), social activist and writer
*[[Kamala Das Gupta]] (1907–2000), freedom fighter nationalist<ref name="Ghosh2013">{{cite journal |last=Ghosh |first=Durba |date=August 2013 |title=Revolutionary Women and Nationalist Heroes in Bengal, 1930 to the 1980s |journal=Gender & History |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=355–375 |doi=10.1111/1468-0424.12017 |s2cid=143325110}}</ref>
*[[Amalprava Das]], social worker
*[[Bina Das]] (1911–1986), revolutionary and nationalist<ref name="Ghosh2013" />
*[[Tista Das]] (born 1978), transsexual actress
*[[Kalpana Datta]] (1913–1995), independence activist<ref name="Ghosh2013" />
*[[Mira Datta Gupta]] (1907–1983), freedom fighter and activist
*[[Swarnakumari Devi]] (1855–1932), poet, novelist and social worker
*[[Begum Khaleda Zia]], first female [[Prime Minister of Bangladesh]]
*[[Ashoka Gupta]] (1912–2008), freedom fighter and social worker
*[[Neena Gupta (mathematician)|Neena Gupta]], (b. 1984) mathematician, who has provided a solution to the [[Oscar Zariski|Zariski]] Cancellation Problem
*[[Narmada Kar]] (1893–1980), completed her graduation in 1914 and became the first women graduate of Odisha.
*[[Aditi Lahiri]] (born 1952), academic linguist
*[[Abha Maiti]] (born 1925), politician
*[[Kanak Mukherjee]] (1921–1995), political activist
*[[Khanto Bala Rai]] (born 1897), teacher, school head in Midnapore
*[[Shukhalata Rao]](1886–1969), social worker and children's author
*[[Kamini Roy]] (1864–1933), poet, social worker and feminist<ref name="Southard1993" />
*[[Leela Roy]] (1900–1970), politician and reformer
*[[Shobha Sen]], actress
*[[Amiya Tagore]] (1901–1988), singer
*[[Pritilata Waddedar]] (1911–1932), revolutionary nationalist

== See also ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|
*[[List of colleges affiliated to the University of Calcutta]]
*[[Education in India]]
*[[Education in West Bengal]]
}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Borthwick |first=Meredith |year=2015 |title=The Changing Role of Women in Bengal, 1849-1905 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XQPWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=74– |isbn=978-1-4008-4390-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Ray |first=Bharati |year=2005 |title=Women of India: Colonial and Post-colonial Periods |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=142HAwAAQBAJ&pg=PR44 |publisher=SAGE Publications |pages=187– |isbn=978-81-321-0264-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Tattwabhushan |first=Sitanath |author-link=Sitanath Tattwabhushan |year=1904 |title=Social Reform in Bengal: A Side Sketch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CM3KAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA43 |location=Calcutta |publisher=City Book Society |pages=43–}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Bethune College}}
* [http://bethuneadmissions.ac.in/ Official website]

{{University of Calcutta}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:Academic institutions associated with the Bengal Renaissance]]
[[Category:Universities and colleges in Kolkata]]
[[Category:Schools in Colonial India]]
[[Category:Women's universities and colleges in West Bengal]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta affiliates]]
[[Category:Universities and colleges established in 1849]]
[[Category:1849 establishments in British India]]