Back in 2004, a group of spirited educationists dreamt a dream together, to address the legitimate but long deferred demand for higher education of the people belonging to one of the most remote and underdeveloped areas of West Bengal. A formal convention was arranged at Hingalganj High School, on 10th June, to turn this dream into a tangible reality. The Convention, attended by many thousands of residents from Hingalganj, Hasnabad and Sandeshkhali Blocks, led to the resolution that an Undergraduate Degree College would be established right at the heart of Hingalganj. The land beside Ranibala High School was selected due to its strategic location. A Committee headed by Shri Mrinal Chakraborty, was soon formed to speed up the process, involving the gruelling task of building an institution fit to cater to the needs of a college student. Among the prominent donors who came forward with their generous purses were Late Binay Krishna Ghosh, Dr Birendra Nath Mondal, Shri Sudhir Kumar Dey and many more kind hearted local residents, clubs and social workers. On 24th February, 2005, Honourable Finance Minister, Government of West Bengal, Dr Asim Dasgupta laid the foundation stone of the present campus, in presence of almost ten thousand enthusiastic and jubilant people. Empowered by the assurance from the West Bengal Government, the College eventually started its journey on 14th July, 2005. The College began its first curricular venture with only 55 students, admitted in B.A First Year. Only five subjects were offered: Bengali, English, History, Political Science and Education. Although the college was affiliated to Calcutta University at the beginning, it got reaffiliated under West Bengal State University in 2008-09. To ensure uninterrupted Teaching- Learning and Evaluation, the college recruited a handful of Teachers and Non-Teaching Staff from amongst local teaching community with proper eligibility and expertise. Finally, the college started functioning from its home campus after the completion of the building in 2009. Since then the journey had been uphill, but eventful and promising. Gradually, the college started to offer other subjects including Sanskrit, Philosophy, Sociology, Physical Education and Geography. The College Service Commission has facilitated the recruitment of Full Time Substantive Assistant Professors to manage and take charge of their departments. At present there are twelve Full Time Assistant Professors, along with twenty two qualified and dynamic State Aided College Teachers (Govt Approved, permanent) with good academic background and dedicated service. The year 2021 may be seen as a landmark in the history of the college. It was in the month of February that Dr Shaikh Kamal Uddin joined as the Principal of the college. He is the first Principal of this college and is continuing to manage and govern the college with dexterity, competence and dedication. The evolution of the college has not been hasty and erratic, but it has traversed a gentle upslope of success and achievement, a journey that does not consume itself but one that sustains itself and gathers momentum as it goes. Today, the college has grown to a two-storey campus, with an exclusive Girls’ Hostel within the college periphery, open and wide playground, Library and Laboratory Facilities, digitized Office, Smart Classrooms, Seminar Room, Guest-rooms and Auditorium. The two years of Pandemic, spanning across sessions 2020-21 and 2021-22 has been a bitter but enlightening experience. The college shook of the initial shock and emerged to be a dependable center for online imparting of education and evaluation process. Teachers joined hands to create a formidable bank of resources, both textual and audio-visual, expanding the horizon of learning for students. With every step that Hingalganj Mahavidyalaya takes, it remembers what it once had been. A dream dreamt by a handful of men. Its journey has only just begun.
