In 1956 Shri Ram was seventy-three years old and of fragile health. But he could not say no to the local government. He discussed the matter with his sons, who gave him the confidence to go ahead with the venture. With both Bharat Ram and Charat Ram taking on the full responsibility, the construction of the mill and the workers’ colony started. The mill was planned with 25,000 spindles, which increased as the years went by. The workers’ colony had 700 houses with electricity, running water, sewerage lines, consumer cooperative stores, a primary school, a library, an auditorium, a swimming pool, playgrounds and a children’s park and dispensary.
It was around this time that it was mentioned to Shri Ram that there was a need for a third women’s college in Delhi. Miranda House and Indraprastha College were the two women’s colleges in Delhi in 1955, but these were insufficient to take in the number of women wanting to study further. Shri Ram wanted to set up an educational institute in memory of his wife. He thought a girls’ college would be the ideal way to remember Phoolan Devi. He discussed the idea with his sons, as they were the ones now managing the business and finances. If the college had to be established it would need the support of funds from DCM. The sons liked the idea and agreed to give Rs 3 lakh to begin with. Shri Ram applied to Delhi University to start Lady Shri Ram College for Women. He told the university that the corpus would be put together by DCM and the Commercial Education Trust, which was already running the Shri Ram College of Commerce, also in Delhi University.
Lady Shri Ram College came into being in August 1956 in a small building in Daryaganj. The building had been the hostel of the Shri Ram College of Commerce. It was subsequently that the fifteen acres of land in south Delhi was bought. Lady Shri Ram College was perhaps the closest to Shri Ram’s heart. He supervised the construction of the college and hostel buildings himself. In spite of his frail health, he would spend time at the construction site and interact with the workers. In the summer there would be an attendant with an umbrella for him. But Shri Ram would ignore it and move quickly from one place to the other, keeping a close eye on the ongoing construction. Any good book he came across would be kept aside, earmarked for the college library.
The new college building was completed in early 1958 and classes began in the new session in July of the same year. It was Shri Ram’s desire that this college become the premier educational institute for women in India. He took a lively personal interest in the running and development of LSR, as the college came to be known popularly. He interviewed all staff personally, especially the faculty. As the chairman of the governing body, he was always present ahead of time for the meetings. All reading material sent to him before each meeting would be studied by him in detail. LSR soon became the college of choice for women even though it was not in the main North Campus of Delhi University. Even today, decades later, Lady Shri Ram College is the first port of call for women seeking admission in a Bachelor’s course in Delhi.
This excerpt from Sonu Bhasin’s ‘Lala Shri Ram: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow’, has been published with permission from HarperCollins India.