Principal’s Message

A college is more than an institution of instruction. It is a historical and intellectual commons—a space in which knowledge, inquiry, reason, and social responsibility encounter one another in sustained conversation and principled disagreement. Anchored in the rich cultural and intellectual inheritance of Murshidabad, and shaped by the deep continuities of history, Berhampore College stands as a witness to a long and distinguished educational journey within the district. For over six decades, the College has carried learning across generations, extending its influence well beyond the classroom into society, culture, and the ethical imagination. Today, Berhampore College signifies not merely a location, but an intellectual orientation.

This legacy has been forged through the collective labour of a responsible Governing Body, successive principals of vision and integrity, a committed faculty, librarians, non-teaching staff, alumni, and—most crucially—our students, whose perseverance and quiet confidence continue to shape the institution. To me, Berhampore College is not simply an organisation; it is a living inheritance. Such inheritance confers not only pride, but an enduring obligation.

To assume office as the first woman Principal in the sixty-three-year history of Berhampore College is, for me, an honour of particular significance. I do not regard this institution merely as a place of professional engagement, but as something entrusted to careful stewardship. The satisfaction of nurturing an institution must be accompanied by the willingness to examine oneself critically; it is from this awareness that my work begins. I understand the office of the Principal neither as a ceremonial title nor as an exercise of authority, but as a moral and intellectual compass—one that lends direction and coherence to the shared endeavours of students, teachers, and all those invested in the life of the College.

I envisage Berhampore College as a space where knowledge is not simply accumulated but rigorously practised; where education does not harden into rote memory but is transformed into a capacity for sustained thought. Our students will not be shaped solely by the imperatives of examinations and credentials. They will be encouraged to become reflective, questioning, and responsible citizens—capable of constructing arguments, interrogating assumptions, and arriving at positions grounded in reason. The cultivation of free and independent thought lies at the centre of our academic ethos; without it, higher education loses both its purpose and its credibility.

At the heart of this vision lies a renewed commitment to the student–teacher relationship. Education is not merely a profession; it is an ethical vocation. A genuinely academic environment rests upon mutual respect, trust, and intellectual generosity among teachers, students, librarians, and staff. These relationships are not ancillary to learning; they constitute its very conditions.

We are living through a period of profound transformation in higher education. In responding to the framework of the New Education Policy, Berhampore College does not seek to discard its inheritance, but to reinterpret it with clarity and responsibility. Our way forward is guided not by imitation, but by critical engagement. By holding technology in productive tension with humanistic values and social accountability, we aim to reconfigure students’ habits of thought rather than merely update curricular form.

We aspire for our students to learn not only from texts, but to think with discernment, to question with confidence, and to assume intellectual responsibility for their positions. Honest higher education cannot exist without a culture that safeguards freedom of thought. Institutions that fail to engage meaningfully with the intellectual sensibilities of a new generation risk diminishing their relevance.

This work of renewal cannot be accomplished through individual effort alone. It is necessarily collective, sustained by participation across institutional and social boundaries. Berhampore College does not place its faith in declarations or display. It places its faith in steady work, long-term commitment, and integrity of purpose. Growth, we know, is gradual. What is planted today matures through time, care, and patience. The outcomes may not be immediate, but it is within such duration that the foundations of the future are laid. Berhampore College remains committed to this horizon of responsibility.

I am confident that through intellectual vitality, humanistic commitment, and the disciplined practice of free thought, Berhampore College will emerge as a clear and indispensable presence in the landscape of higher education—within the district and across the state.

“Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant Nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: Methinks I see her as an Eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazl'd eyes at the full midday beam; purging and unscaling her long abused sight at the fountain it self of heav'nly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, amaz'd at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticat a year of sects and schisms.” (Areopagitica, Milton)