Maharajah JCRW had inaugurated this college on 9th October 1946.
H. H. THE MAHARAJAH PERFORMS OPENING CEREMONY OF ST. PHILOMENA’S COLLEGE, MYSORE ON 9TH OCTOBER 1946
It gives me great pleasure to be present here this morning and to associate myself with the birth of an institution which, I am confident, will play a prominent part in the life of the people of my State. I appreciate the loyal welcome which the Diocesan Society has extended to me. Your Society has been well known for its philanthropic and social services, for the concern that it has shown for the less fortunate sections of the community and for the readiness with which it has come to the relief of the distressed and the suffering.
Arts and Science
Today I witness a most important and equally beneficent phase of activity on which you have embarked – the establishment of a first grade college for arts and science in this capital city. Private philanthropy has played a considerable part in my State in affording facilities for education in various grades. But this is the first occasion when under private management, a college which will equip students in the highest studies in arts and science has been established. The contribution that private philanthropy has played in developing educational facilities in the State has not only encouraged my Government but it has also considerably stimulated its activities. The friendly competition between such private institutions and colleges owned and managed by the State has often proved of great value, especially at the higher levels, in maintaining the efficiency of both classes of institutions and in promoting true educational ideals. I am therefore gratified to know that you appreciate the assistance that my Government has given, which enables you to make this residential college fully equipped to meet all the demands of a modern institution. My Government will, always be prepared to welcome, private philanthropy and to give all possible assistance and encouragement, if educational institutions well equipped and efficiently run, are intended to be promoted thereby.
Open to all Communities
You have referred in your address to the fact that this institution will be open to students of all communities irrespective of religion, caste or creed. It is in keeping with the ideals of the Diocesan Society that such catholicity of outlook should be adopted. My Government’s concern is to promote the progress of every section of my people, to see that true leaders are produced from among all sections who will guide them in the path of good citizenship and promote their welfare. Therefore your declaration is all the more welcome that this institution will be utilised for the common good of all sections of my people.
Residential System
I am glad to note that it will be a residential college in which the teacher and the taught would be thrown together during the period of the student’s college life. The advantages of a residential system of instruction are obvious; young men in the formative years of their lives learn to live together and by association are able to acquire a more cosmopolitan outlook on life. Besides the teacher will have an opportunity of moulding the character and personality of the pupil to an extent which may not be possible in a non-residential institution. The need in India today is to bring about a spirit of harmony and understanding among all sections and residential educational institutions where students live as members of a family and where the preceptor is guardian, may help in some measure the promotion of that harmony and understanding which we all have so much at heart.
A Model Institute
The imposing structures that have so rapidly grown up, the great efforts that have been made to equip this institution with the most up-to-date scientific apparatus and laboratories, the programme of further construction that you have in view—all these are a testimony to your earnestness and enthusiasm to make it a model college. But more than all these, and above all physical and material perfection that may be attained, I look to this institution to possess the essential spirit of great educational institutions, that spirit which inspires the initiates to learn foremost of all the virtues of good citizenship and fires them with the ambition, not indeed to wield power and authority, but to serve even the most humble and lowly. Looking around me and taking note of those who will guide the studies and fashion, the lives or the students who will gather in these halls, I am confident that this institution will give to its alumni the greatest of all gifts—character and a high sense of duty.
Future Savants
Today I am declaring open an institution from whose portals in the years to come, will, I trust, emerge leaders of thought, future savants in arts and science who will not only distinguish themselves but bring distinction to the State of which they are subjects. In the efforts that you have made to organize and establish this institution, in the difficulties that you have surmounted to bring to fruition your ideas and in the sacrifices that you have wade to achieve your objective, you have stretched a hand through time and can look forward to catch the interest of these endeavors in the results that will follow in the years to come.
I declare St. Philomena’s College open and wish it all success