It is a largest public university situated in Varanasi, UP, India. It is administered by state legislature of the government of UP. It has about 227 affiliate colleges over six districts with hundreds of thousands of rural and urban students. It offers students a professional and academic degree in arts, science, commerce, law, computing as well as management.
Foundation
This university was established by Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagwan Das in Varanasi, on February 10, 1921, during freedom struggle. Originally it was named as Kashi Vidyapith, but again the university was renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith in the year 1995.
The Kashi Vidyapith is known to be the first modern university started by Indians in British India. The university with some contemporaries like Jamia Millia Islamia and the Gujarat Vidyapith, were completely out of control and support of British authorities. They are supported and managed thoroughly by Indian nationalists and educationalists. The university attracts the young Indians from each corner of the country. Its faculty includes Acharya Narendra Dev, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Jivatram Kripalani, Babu Shriprakash and Babu Sampurnanand. Gandhi and other Indian nationalists have encouraged Indians to ignore the British-running institutions and join the institutions managed entirely by Indians.
The first vice-chancellor of this university was Bhagwan Das. Other members of the first board of management are Mahatma Gandhi, Lala Lajpat Rai, Babu Shiv Prasad Gupta, Acharya Narendra Dev, Krishna Kant Malviya, Jamuna Lal Bajaj, Jawahar Lal Nehru, and Purushottam Das Tandon. It got the status of “Deemed University” by the University Grant commission in 1963. This time the chancellor of this university was Babu Sampurnanand and Acharya Birbal Singh was vice-chancellor.
Objectives
The objectives of this national institution are to enhance and propagate:
- Development of Indian civilization and culture spiritually.
- Provide same importance to all the sections of Indian society.
- Coordination with different thoughts and cultures of India.
- The right of individual independence along with the feeling of brotherhood and mankind.
- Both ancient and modern development of sculpture, science, technology, etc.
The variety of departments in the university is under the direct supervision of directors, and each of the sub-departments has a head.
Faculties
There are 10 faculties in the university which includes:
- Faculty of Social Work
- Faculty of Commerce & Management
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of Humanities
- Madan Mohan Malviya Institute of Hindi Journalism
- Faculty of Science & Technology
- Faculty of Student Welfare
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Bhagwandas Central Library
Also known as the Bhagwandas Swadhyaypith which was established in the year 1921. Again it was renamed as the Dr. Bhagwandas Central Library. Dr. Bhagwandas was a renowned and famous philosopher as well as the first vice chancellor of this university. This library has a great collection of books of humanities, social sciences, and science.
Hostels
This university has wide range of hostels such as:
Other campuses are:
- Dr Vibhuti Narayan Singh Rural Medical Institute, Gangapur Campus, Varanasi
- N.T.P.C. Shaktinagar, Sonbhadra
Alumni
Alumni of Kashi Vidyapith University include Chandra Shekhar Azad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Kamlapati Tripathi, Raja Ram Shastri, B.V. Keskar, A.R. Shastri, Manamath Nath Gupt, Pranavesh Chatterjee, Tribhuvan Narain Singh, Harinath Shastri, Bhola Paswan Shastri, and Ramakrishna Hegde.
