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It's what heritage is made of
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The Queen Mary's College is not just a colonial structure of heritage value, but also a symbol of the success stories of many women in various fields.
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STRICTLY SPEAKING, I am not a Queen Marian, but I was a member of the Queen Mary's College (QMC) Hostel for three years of my Honours Course at the Presidency College. In the 1930s and 1940s, QMC used to offer hostel accommodation to women students doing post-graduate courses at the Presidency College, as the QMC did not offer these courses, and the latter did not have a women's hostel. For all intents and purposes, we were treated as students of QMC. The hostel was on the upper floors and we had a magnificent view of the Marina and the sea beyond. No place was out of bounds for the Presidencians, be it the tennis courts, the swimming pool or the terrace. We could participate in tennis and swimming competitions and the cultural programmes put up by Queen Marians. The occasional lectures by eminent personalities, arranged in the evenings were eye openers to the world of knowledge.
In such different ways, the QMC built up an infrastructure for students from different backgrounds and of different interests to develop their personalities.
But the cream on the cake, so to speak, in living at QMC was the beach. We were allowed to go to the beach in the evenings in groups, provided we returned by 6 p.m. What a joy it was to sit on the clean sands and watch the foam-crested waves curling in on the beach! What a privileged life we led because of our proximity to the sea, the situation of our building in the centre of vast grounds, the balmy winds of the Bay wafting in to give us dreamless sleep. There was a liberal, intellectual climate in QMC, which enabled many students to become women achievers of the latter half of the 20th Century. Personally speaking, the bonus in living in QMC was the library. I can recall vividly that lofty hall lined with shelves,which held books on almost every subject. The early 1940s were marked by political ferment and nationalist aspirations vocalised to a great extent by students. We Presidencians and Queen Marians would go in a group from the hostel to attend open-air meetings addressed by national leaders. It was at one such meeting that I heard Sarojini Naidu speak of a free India where "your sons and daughters would prophesy, your old men would dream dreams, and your young men would see visions". During the Quit India movement, Gandhiji's call to students to boycott classes received such a near total response from the Presidency College, that it had to be closed. The Queen Marians also jumped into the fray and some of them were jailed. However, with Gandhiji breaking his fast, life returned to normal. The feature to be highlighted here is that education had made women students even from orthodox backgrounds politically aware and active!
I was shocked to read one of the arguments in favour of the demolition of QMC — that the building is not of architectural value. On the contrary, the white structure comprising three blocks of three floors each, the central one set back a little, etches bold straight lines against the sky. Its large portico, the vaulted lobby presided over by the marble bust of Queen Mary, the pillared verandahs and its symmetry proclaim it, a colonial structure of heritage value.
It is alleged that the College building is in a bad state. Does one demolish the Qutub Minar, if it is happens to be in a bad condition? Queen Mary's College is not just an old building. It is a living educational institution, a symbol of the "giant leap" made by women from their backwardness in the 19th Century to their enlightenment in the 20th Century. Therefore it deserves to be renovated and preserved.
REBECCA CHANDY
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