Institutions of the Deccan

Mahbub College

Secunderabad · Founded 1862

HomeLandmarks of the DeccanInstitutions of the DeccanMahbub College

Founded1862 · as the Anglo Vernacular School[1]
FounderSomasundaram Mudaliar[1]
RenamedFor the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan[1]
CitySecunderabad
The CollegeThe FoundingThe CampusA Long Roll

Mahbub College at Secunderabad began in 1862 as the Anglo Vernacular School, founded by Somasundaram Mudaliar. It was later renamed in honour of the young sovereign Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam, whose patronage supported the school's growth. Set up as a Western-style English-medium school for the sons of the state's officers and the British residency establishment at Secunderabad, it became, with its elegant colonnaded main block — still in use — one of the earliest institutions of Hyderabad to teach the modern sciences and English literature alongside Persian and Arabic, setting a model that the later Asafi schools and colleges of the city would follow.[1]

I · The FoundingA School Renamed for a Nizam

From Anglo Vernacular School to Mahbub College

A Secunderabad school that took the sixth Nizam's name

The school that became Mahbub College was founded in 1862 by Somasundaram Mudaliar as the Anglo Vernacular School. It was renamed for Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam, whose support helped establish it among the most prestigious English-medium schools in the state — part of the same era of educational expansion that, under Salar Jung I's reforming administration from 1853 onward, also produced City College, the engineering and survey schools, and the modern courts of Hyderabad State.[2]

II · The CampusSecunderabad

The campus

A colonnaded Anglo-Indian block and broad playing fields

The school occupies an extensive site at Secunderabad, with a colonnaded principal block in the late nineteenth-century Anglo-Indian institutional manner, a chapel-like assembly hall, and broad playing fields. The buildings have been added to repeatedly, but the original frontage remains.

III · A Long RollThe Twin Cities

A long roll

Educator of Hyderabad's civil and military officers

Mahbub College has educated several generations of Hyderabad's civil and military officers, and remains a leading school of the twin cities. It is now Mahbub College High School, affiliated to the state board, and continues on its original campus.[1]

References
  1. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Wikipedia, "Mahbub College High School."
  2. ^ Karen Leonard, Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad, University of California Press, 1978.
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