Nineteenth century is known as the century of renaissance in Bengal (Bangladesh). Bengali people as a community became inspired mainly in the fields of Education, Literature, Arts, Patriotism & Religion. This is also a time when many wise and famous sons and daughters of Bengal were born.

The Basu Thakurs became the pioneers of education in East Bengal during this time that is the nineteenth century. Their relentless effort and self-sacrifice led to the formation of a famous school in the Bikrampur District. The name of the school was ‘Malkhanagarh High English School’.

With a collective effort from the house of Basu Thakur’s a school (Pathsala) was established in Malkhanagarh in the middle of the nineteenth century. This school was first established in the house of Sri Ramkumar Basu Thakur & Sri Harakumar Basu Thakur of ‘Boro Badi’. Sri Ramanath Das whose nickname was ‘Abodhan’ was the first to take care of the school as head master. After a few days the school shifted to the houses of Sri Bholanath Basu Thakur and Sri Dinanath Basu Thakur of ‘Pub r Badi’. At that time the medium of teaching of the school was only Bengali. In 1882 efforts was made to transform the school into an English School. In that end the school was transformed into a minor school. At that time the school was empty as nobody attended the school. This was because the people at that time were mainly bigoted. People used to think that studying English would lead them into taking up Christianity. That is because most of the Hindus at that time were very fundamental and were dead against this kind of education. Only a few pupils from Malkhanagarh used to attend the school. In order to stop this kind of superstition people like Sri Girish Chandra Basu Thakur, Sri Bamacharan Basu Thakur, Sri Kishorimohan Basu Thakur, Sri Chandrakanto Basu Thakur etc. tried their best to spread awareness among the general population of that area. Due to their relentless effort within a few months the number of students in the school increased to fifty. Slowly pupil started coming to school from all other villages around Malkhanagarh.

Slowly, as the number of students in the school increased it was shifted out into the joint plot of the Basu Thakur’s in the year 1886. The members of the Basu Thakur family contributed money to make a new school house. All the old trees in the village were cut down and were used to make chair, table &benches for students of the school. The minor school continued in the house of Sri Bholanath Basu Thakur & Sri Dinanath Basu Thakur. Later that school shifted to Naji’s house. The Pathsala was run under the supervision of Sri Nilkanto Basu Thakur.

Sri Kishori Mohan Bas Basu Thakur worked as a principal of the minor school for seven to eight months without wages. During those times there was scarcity of ‘Grammar’ books to learn English. In order to solve that problem he wrote a book called ‘Child’s easy English Grammar’ which was for students of class 5 or 6. This helped the children to learn English easily. The Students Library of Dhaka was the publisher of that book. This was the official text book of the whole Bangladesh at that time. He was the vice principal and superintendent of the school in Malkhanagarh till his death. He always wanted to spread the light of English Education within the common people. In the field of women education he was the main patron. When the Union Board was established in Malkhanagarh he became the first president of Malkhanagarh Union Board. He was in that post till the day he died. He was also an honorary magistrate at the Munshigunj Subdivision (Mahakuma) Court. He died at the age of fifty nine years in the year 1918.

After passing out of the minor school the students gets inspiration for pursuing further studies. The parents also want their kids to pursue further studies. Organizers of that school try to transform the student for the entrance school. But for that government permission was required. At that time renowned educationist Sri Dinanath Sen was appointed school inspector of the Dhaka Division. He used to look up to Sri Girish Basu Thakur as his big brother. Because of Sri Girish Basu Thakur the government recognition was obtained pretty easily. Within three years the school was transformed to an entrance school on 1889. In 1891 the first student appeared for entrance examination from this school. Sri Krishna Prasad Bandhyopadhyay was the first student to pass the entrance examination from the school. He was from the village of Ichapore. Next year in 1892 Sri Poshupati and Sri Jitendramohan Basu Thakur from Malkhanagarh passed the entrance examination. Slowly the school became the best school of the Bikrampur district. A lot of Alumni from that school later joined universities for higher education after passing out the matric examination. Starting from the year 1910-11, every year few good students used to get scholarships for their university studies. In the year 1925 Sri Haripada Chakraborty from Furshail village came in second in the matric examination while studying from this school. In 1926 Sri Atindranath Basu Thakur from Malkhanagarh came in fourth with letter marks in all the subjects.

From the year 1892 Government used to pay only Rupees Thirty as government grant to the school. However, the money was not sufficient to run the school of this stature. That is the reason why the Basu Thakurs used to pay huge amount of subscription to run the school. Even the teachers of the Basu Thakur family used to teach in the school by taking minimum wages.

Sri Kishori Mohan Basu Thakur was the principal of the school between the years 1886 to 1889. First he used to work for free, later he started taking minimum wages. Till 1890-92 Sri Chandrakanto Basu Thakur worked as a principal without taking any wage from the school. During this time he wrote history and geography text book for the students of the entrance examination. This book was the main text book of many schools in the undivided Bengal. Sri Sirishchandra Basu Thakur was the principal of that school from 1893-1908. He passed B.A from Scottish Church College and joined Malkhanagarh School as Assistant headmaster. Later when Sri Chandrakanto Basu Thakur resigned from the post, he became the principal of the school. He died at a very young age. After his untimely demise from 1909 Sri Rameshchandra Chakraborty became the principal of the school. He was an ideal teacher. He used to keep tabs on the family condition of all his students and also use to take personal care of all his students. He increased the prestige of the school manifold during his time in the school. He retired in the year 1941. At that time the number of students in the school was around seven hundred. At the time of independence and partition in the year 1947 the number of students in the school was around seven hundred fifty.

There were no provisions for pupils from faraway villages to stay near the school. Sri Chandrakanto Basu Thakur and Sri Kishori Basu Thakur arranged their stay in their own houses along with few other enthusiasts in the village. Later they constructed a hostel for the students near the school. This hostel was constructed on a plot given by Sri Kishori Basu Thakur by cutting a pond in his plot of land. This place could accommodate forty students. But still there was a shortage of place for the students of the school in that hostel. That is the reason why before partition many students used to live in the houses of the Basu Thakurs and do their studies in school.

There are members of Basu Thakur family like Sri Rasaraj, Sri Bhudeb Chandra and Sri Bhupesh Chandra Basu Thakur who used to teach in that school by accepting minimum wages from it. Sri Anathbandhu Guhathakurta’s name was also worth mentioning in this matter.

In the following periods a lot of other family members also took up the job of teaching in that school like Sri Amulyamohan, Sri Rabindranath, Sri Saileshnath, Sri Nareshnath, Sri Jotindramohan, Sri Sudhiraaj, Sri Dhirendra Kumar, Sri Sudeb and Sri Sushil Basu Thakur. Sri Nareshnath and Sri Dhireshnath Basu Thakur taught in that school for another fifteen years after the partition.

Sri Bharatchandra Basu Thakur was the first editor of the school. Later Sri Girish Chandra Basu Thakur, Sri Saratchandra Basu Thakur, Maheshchandra Chakraborty (Resident of Maalpodiya Village), Sri Mahimchandra Basu Thakur of Malkhanagarh, Sri Bijoykishore Guhathakurta, Dr. Sanath Kumar, Sri Atulchandra, Sri Bhupatimohan (Nayabadi) and the last was Sri Sureshchandra Basu Thakur (Daroga Badi) who became the editor serially. Sri Binaychandra Basu Thakur was the Chairman of the management committee of the school for many years.

The school is still operating even after the partition. A lot have changed in the setup of the school. Now the school is coeducation and the number of students is up to more than six hundred students. After partition Mohammed Ismail who was a student of the school worked as the principal of the school.

In 1995 the high school was upgraded to full degree college. Now the name of the school also changed. In March 1990 a seven days festival was celebrated for the centenary of the school.

LIST of PRINCIPALS

• CHANDRAKANTO BASU THAKUR- 1889 TO 1894
• SRISHCHANDRA BASU THAKUR- 1894 TO 1911
• RAMESHCHANDRA CHAKRABORTY- 1912 TO 1942
• NILKANTO MUKHERJEE- 1942 TO 1943
• PROMOTH SENGUPTA- 1943 TO 1948
• BIRENDRA BANERJEE- 1944 TO 1948
• ANUKUL BANERJEE- 1948 TO 1952
• MOHAMMAD IBRAHIM MIYA- 1952 TO 1975
• MOHAMMAD SOLEIMAN KHAN- 1975 TO 1978
• MIR MOYAZZEM ALI- 1979 TO 1983
• ABDUR RAZZAK MIYA- 1983 TO 1989

List of Assistant Head Masters

• KISHORIMOHAN BASU THAKUR- 1889 TO 1918
• NILKANTO MUKHERJEE
• BHUDEB BANERJEE
• DINESH CHANDRA PAL
• DEBAPRASAD CHAKRABORTY- 1963 TO 1966
• SARATCHANDRA SEN- 1966 TO 1968
• MOHAMMAD SOLEIMAN KHAN- 1972 TO 1975
• MOHAMMAD JOYNAL ABEDIN MIYA
• ABDUL SALAAM MIYA- 1979 TO 1983
• MOHAMMAD JAHANGIR KHAN- 1986

Secretaries of the School Managing Committee

• Mahim Chandra Basu Thakur
• Sanat Kumar Basu Thakur
• Atul Chandra Basu Thakur
• Suresh Chandra Basu thakur
• Dr Makhan Lal Dutta