Background: Before independence, the spread of education in the country was extremely limited. The princely states of Rajasthan had developed excellent educational institutions in their states, but, they were mostly concentrated at the capital cities of the states. Birla Engineering College Pilani was the first engineering college established in Rajasthan in 1946 with degree courses in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. After the integration of princely states and the formation of Rajasthan, MBM Engineering College Jodhpur was the first government engineering college, established in Rajasthan in 1951 with a degree course in Civil Engineering. Degree courses in Electrical, Mechanical and Mining Engineering and Diploma classes in Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering were started in MBM Engineering College, sometimes later in 1955.
Jodhpur Polytechnic in November 1961: With the establishment of Jodhpur Polytechnic in 1958, Diploma Courses of MBM Engineering college were discontinued and were transferred to Jodhpur Polytechic. First Principal of Jodhpur Polytechnic had been appointed in September 1958 and he was provided accommodation for his office in the administrative block of MBM Engineering College. Since, the building of Jodhpur Polytechnic was under construction, the classes of Jodhpur Polytechnic were running partly in the improvised accommodation in the campus of MBM Engineering College and partly in temporary sheds and rented buildings scattered all over the neighbourhood. When I took over as Principal of Jodhpur Polytechnic in November 1961, the building of Jodhpur Polytechnic was in an advanced stage of construction, in an area spread over about 140 acres. My immediate task was to pick up the threads and to have a look at all those places, where the classes of the polytechnic were going on. It was all mind boggling. The staff and students were moving from one place to another, for most of the time. Naturally, I decided to wind up the whole show, almost immediately and moved everything to the partly finished building of the polytechnic on the following day. I entered into an understanding with the public works department, that, the progress of construction work will not be disturbed at all. We undertook to utilize only those rooms, where the structural work had been completed and as and when PWD needed those rooms for finishing, we agreed to move to other rooms at short notice. That satisfied the PWD and helped us in moving all classes to the permanent building of the polytechnic. Nobody seemed to be worried, about the walls, that did not have plaster or the floors that had not been laid. Everybody got used to the improvization in a week’s time and all classes, laboratories and workshops were running smoothly in the campus of Jodhpur Polytechnic, almost ten months before formal opening of the building by Dr Sampurna Nand, Governor of Rajasthan in August 1962.
Inauguration of Polytechnic Building: Dr Sampurna Nand rose from the ranks of a teacher from Kashi Vidyapeeth Benaras. He was the education minister of UP from 1946 to 1954 and Chief Minister of UP from 1954 to 1960. Subsequently, he functioned as the governor of Rajasthan from 1962 to 1967. The main building of Jodhpur polytechnic was crafted in well known Jodhpur sandstone and it was formally inaugurated by Dr Sampurnanand Governor of Rajasthan in August 1962. Jodhpur happened to have a strong political presence in the cabinet of chief minister Mohan Lal Sudhadia at that time. The full contingent of the cabinet ministers and ministers of state from Jodhpur were present at the airport to receive Dr Smpurna Nand and subsequently, they participated in the inaugural function of the polytechnic led by Mathura Das Mathur, who was a powerful cabinet minister at that time. Those were the days, when Jodhpur had a culture of extremely homely and fraternal relations between people and on all social functions, they enjoyed meeting each other freely, as members of a family. It goes to the credit of all the ministers belonging to Jodhpur, that, they considered the inaugural function of Jodhpur Polytechnic, as their function and a function of their city and enthusiastically adopted the role of hosts and were seen welcoming individually, most of the invited guests. Thereafter, they signalled the Director of Technical Education and Principal of the Polytechnic to share the dias with the Governor, while they occupied the seats in the pandal with the audience.
Jodhpur University: University of Rajputana was the first University of Rajputana established in 1947. It was subsequently renamed as University of Rajasthan in 1956. It was basically an affiliating university. University of Jodhpur was the second university established in Rajasthan in 1962. That made it a prestigious institution. Bhairon Nath Jha was the first vice-chancellor of University of Jodhpur. He belonged to the Indian Education Service of the British Period and had retired as Director of Education of United Provinces. Subsequently, he served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Allahabad and after the completion of his term at Allahabad, he was responsible for the establishment of the University of Gorakhpur as Vice Chancellor. He was held in high esteem by the chief minister and was provided with full freedom and powers for the establishment of the university at Jodhpur. Government colleges, which included MBM Engineering College, SMK College, Jaswant College and Kamla Nehru Girls College were handed over to the university, to serve as the nucleus for the formation of the faculties of engineering, humanities, science, commerce and law.
The newly developed lands and buildings of Jodhpur polytechnic were soon on the radar of the vice-chancellor of Jodhpur University and we got a signal to remain prepared to hand over the land and buildings of Jodhpur Polytechnic to the university at short notice. Consequently, a fresh search for about 100 acres of government land for the establishment of the polytechnic was initiated with the help of tehsildar of Jodhpur, who zeroed in, on the lands lying on the junction of Chopasni Road and Soorsagar Road, which were subsequently allotted for the development of Kamla Nehru Nagar. During this period, on one fine morning, the chief minister Mohan Lal Sukhadia visited the polytechnic accompanied by the vice-chancellor BN Jha and Director of Technical Education VG Garde. I was directed to take them round the buildings and lands of the polytechnic. Lecture theatres, drawing halls and laboratories of the polytechnics were considered suitable for satisfying the immediate accommodation requirements of the university for the development of post-graduate courses. When questioned by the chief minister about the workshop block, the vice-chancellor blurred off the cuff, that, he might sit there and convert it into the central office of the university. Mohan Lal Sukhadia was a shrewd politician and a seasoned administrator. His mind was immediately made up and when everybody assembled in the principal’s room, for a brief exchange of views, the chief minister told BN Jha that, the officer’s training school, which was functioning in the buildings and lands of the erstwhile residency of Jodhpur State was being shifted to Jaipur and therefore all buildings and lands of the residency shall be made available to the university for the central office. There was a tremendous sigh of relief, as Jodhpur Polytechnic managed to get a miraculous escape from being uprooted.
Border conflict with Chinese in 1962: The Himalayan border between India and China is 3225 kilometres long, starting with Arunachal Pradesh in the east and running through Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal to Ladakh in the west. The area is very sparsely populated. High altitudes, snow, winds and blizzards have kept the region inaccessible and undeveloped for centuries. For thousands of years, neither India nor China bothered about the borders. During the year 1834 Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Ladakh, which included Aksai Chin. With the defeat of the Sikhs by the British in 1846, territories of Ladakh alongwith Aksai Chin passed on to British. On the eastern border, British captured Manipur and Assam from Burma in 1826. In 1913 representatives of Tibet, China and British India met at Simla and on the basis of those discussions Henry Mc Mahon, who was the foreign secretary of the British Government, proposed Mc Mahon Line as the border between China, Tibet and India. There are no treaty arrangements between India and China about the border and Mc Mahon Line is normally considered as the border between the two countries. Problems started, when communist government came to power in China in 1949 and it annexed Tibet in 1950, which was recognized by India. After local demonstrations and violence, Dalai Lama fled from Tibet and took refuge at Dharmshala in India. China and India had good political relations till then. India had always believed that the watershed or ridge of the Himalayan mountains has been the traditional border between India and China and in most cases, China had not raised any objections to the territories in the possession of India. However, as China gradually gained political strength, it was keen to secure the safety of Tibet and to get control of those territories on the eastern and western borders, which China considered to be theirs, but were annexed by the British. In the process, China established a number of posts in Indian territory and India established a number of forward posts in Chinese territory. This went on for some time with clashes on the border from time to time. In the meantime, China assiduously worked for almost a year to strengthen the supply lines and border defences. On the contrary, India was complaisant, under the hope that there was no possibility of China attacking India. When China attacked India on 20 October, 1962, Chinese outnumbered the Indian personnel manning the forward posts and due to meagre supplies and lack of co-ordination, it ended in a great disaster for India. Chinese declared ceasefire on 20 November 1962. That was a great lesson for India and subsequent efforts for securing the borders and defence preparedness, helped India in repulsing the aggressive designs of Pakistan in 1965.
Student unrest during border conflict: Border conflict with China in 1962 sparked a flurry of demonstrations throughout the country. Jodhpur was no exception. The student leaders of the newly established university of Jodhpur, immediately rushed to all local schools and colleges, in the town in open trucks, waving flags and shouting slogans for the boycott of classes and closure of the institutions. At the polytechnic, they entered through the main gate and stopped at the tri-junction, almost fifty metres from the main building. The students of the polytechnic could see all the commotion from the windows, but, continued with their studies in the classrooms. Getting no response, the university students retreated and were gone. Closely chasing them was Bhairav Nath Jha, the celebrated vice-chancellor of the newly established University of Jodhpur, who entered the polytechnic campus soon after. Now, almost fifty years after, it may be interesting to ponder about the incident. These days, nothing stops the demonstrators from entering the buildings of schools and colleges for disrupting the classes. At the same time, the vice-chancellors and heads of institutions are totally unconcerned about the involvement of their students in strikes, agitations and demonstrations inside or outside their campus. And perhaps, we do not have the students in the polytechnic, who can be expected to continue their studies in the classes, under all commotion and furore.