Jamia Millia Islamia - New Campus and The Teachers College

New Campus and The Teachers College

On March 1, 1935, the foundation stone for a school building was laid at Okhla, then a village on the southern outskirts of Delhi. In 1936, all institutions of Jamia, except Jamia Press, the Maktaba and the library, were shifted to the new campus. The emphasis of Jamia was on evolving education methods. This led to the establishment of a teacher’s college (Ustadon ka Madrasa) in 1938. In 1936, Dr. M.A. Ansari died. On June 4, 1939, Jamia Millia Islamia was registered as a society.

The fame of Jamia as an education movement spread and dignitaries from foreign countries began visiting Jamia. Husein Raouf Bey (1933), Dr. Behadjet Wahbi of Cairo (1934), and Ms. Halide Edib of Turkey (1936) were some of them. Foreigners, impressed by Jamia, began working in Jamia. A German lady Ms. Gerda Philipsborn (popularly nicknamed in Jamia as Aapa Jaan) served Jamia for many years and is buried in Jamia. In 1939, Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi (1872–1944), a theologian and freedom fighter, came to stay in Jamia on the invitation of Dr. Zakir Husain. He started a school of Islamic Studies in Jamia, called Baitul Hikmah, propagating the ideology of Shah Waliullah.

In 1946, during Jamia’s silver jubilee celebration, one could see the crisis that India had to face in the following year: Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and Liaquat Ali Khan were on one side of Dr. Zakir Husain, the vice chancellor, on the dias; Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Asaf Ali and Sir Rajagopalachari were on the other side.