Have you seen history on your campus

Besides having lecture halls and canteens, university campuses across Delhi also boast bits of history in their premises. We take a quick peak at some iconic places. Love corner, DU It’s history, but it’s romantic.

The University of Delhi is where the romance between Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife Edwina started. The University was then just limited to the Viceregal Lodge. It is also, as claimed, the site where the revolutionary Bhagat Singh was housed for a few days following his arrest early last century.

Today, the memory of the Mountbatten’s romance is preserved in the form of a stone inscription in the Registrar’s room. It says that the University’s silver jubilee celebrations coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Viceroy’s wedding. It reads, in Mountbatten’s words, “The connection between these two events may not be immediately apparent until I tell you that the room in which I asked my wife to marry me in February 1922, was Room No 13, which is now the registrar’s room.”

Dara’s den, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Who would believe that a tangible part from Mughal history is buried deep inside IP University’s campus? Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan’s son who was killed by brother Aurangzeb, had his library here.

After his death, the library came under the British in 1803. The Mughal era is gone but the library still stands at the Kashmere Gate campus. Since the relic is now under the Archeological Survey of India and closed for renovation, students have not been able to take advantage of its historical flavour.

Book lovers’ paradise, Jamia Millia Islamia Even today the JMI University retains its original bookshop, known as the Maktaba started in 1922. The book depot has contributed tremendously to the promotion of Urdu literature. One of the first books to be published here was the Deewane Ghalib.

First Published: Jan 06, 2009 17:31 IST