istory matters a lot in the sense of what happened in the past as well as its understanding as the study of that past: its corollary is claiming and owning historical legacy to live by it. Therefore, the history of a region or institution should be viewed and understood as a continuum.

Owning the historical legacy and institutionalisation of educational and administrative practices are highly needed in Pakistan, where ruptures have frequently been preferred.

A rupture, according to philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), is a situation when “things are no longer perceived, described, expressed, characterised, classified and known in the same way.”

Unfortunately, most Pakistanis have become so accustomed to analysing things piecemeal and in a pick-and-choose way that when it comes to our way of historicising, we choose to claim certain parts and disown others on the basis of either prejudice against the disowned or on the basis of presumed ideological concerns or priorities.

The pre-history of University of Sargodha, as an institution having a heritage of almost a century, was also cast into oblivion. It is encouraging that the present helmsman, is trying to claim the rich heritage along with the celebration of the university’s twenty years. The previous head of the institution was also conscious of the importance of this legacy. He had helped establish Archives of Government College, Sargodha, and supported the publication of a book on institutional history, titled Rud-i-Rawan: Tarikh Government College, Sargodha (2021).

On November 16, 2022, the University of Sargodha completed two decades since it was established on November 16, 2002. But the institutional history and heritage of the university date back to 1916. This makes it more than a century. Nawab Muhammad Mubariz Khan Tiwana had established the O’Brien Islamia High School, with his own resources and initiative, at the then Shahpur district headquarters in 1916.

The institution was named after the then deputy commissioner of Shahpur, Major AJ O’Brien, in May 1929 when the school was taken over by the Punjab government and its status was raised to the intermediate college. It was further elevated to the degree level in 1932 and renamed De Montmorency College in 1933, to honour Sir Geoffrey Fitzhervey de Montmorency (1876- 1955), then governor of the Punjab. The college retained this name until 1963, when it was transformed into Government College, Sargodha, the status it carried till 2002, before the establishment of the University of Sargodha.

The college was inaugurated by Sir Henry Craik (1876-1955), who served as governor of the Punjab (between 1938 and 1941), on May 1, 1929. Later, a hostel was named after him. At the inaugural ceremony, Sir Allah Bakhsh Tiwana handed over a donation of Rs 500 to Sir Craik as seed money.

The college boasted about its debating and literary societies, such as the Scientific Union, the Industrial Club, the Photographic Association and the celebrated Dramatics Club. It also had a good library, besides some departmental libraries, which were merged to create a central library for the university. 

Prof Rana Abdul Hamid had the distinction of being appointed its first principal, having already served as a principal in Jhang. He served as head of this institution till 1937. The first student in the college who secured admission in the third-year class was Malik Karam Dad, he was allotted roll number 01. There were 23 students in the class. The Shahpur and Ludhiana colleges were then the only two institutions in the Punjab that started degree classes besides the colleges in Lahore.

In terms of the number of students, the Lyallpur College was far ahead of Shahpur. However, the status of a degree college was awarded to Shahpur earlier than Lyallpur. The main reason was the efforts of Malik Mumtaz Khan Tiwana, who, while handing over the O’Brian School to the government, sought a commitment that the institution would soon be elevated to a college status.

The first BA class graduated in 1934. It consisted of eight students, including Malik Karam Dad. When Governor de Montmorency visited Shahpur in 1933, the college was named after him. The first issue of the college magazine, The Dawn, was published in 1932.

The name of the magazine was proposed by Prof Kahn Chand Khana, who also served as its founding editor. It was a bilingual magazine with Urdu and English pages. Later the Urdu magazine was separated and given the title, Naveed-i-Subh.

During the early days of college, a prominent Punjab Unionist Party politician, Sir Sikandar Hayat, a member of the Revenue Board and the first premiere of the Punjab, visited it. Sir Chotu Ram (1881-1945), another popular politician of the Unionist Party, also visited this college. Malik Feroz Khan Noon (the business school of the university is named after him) visited the college when he was minister for local government during the British period.

Malik Mumtaz Tiwana and Feroz Khan Noon spent some time together at the college and met with faculty and the students. Besides Muslim professors, some prominent names were Kahan Chand Khana, Haresh Chander Gupt, George Auditive, and Perbhoditta Shastri. Shastri served as editor of The Dawn before his transfer to Ruhtak.

The college boasted about its debating and literary societies, such as the Scientific Union, the Industrial Club, the Photographic Association and the celebrated Dramatics Club. It also had a good library, besides some departmental libraries, which were merged to create a central library for the university.

Interestingly, the college kept shifting from one place to another: from its building in Shahpur to the barracks of Royal Indian Air Force in Sargodha to the building of Government High School No. 01 and the present building of Pakistan Air Force before the purpose-built building where it stands now.

Some very eminent academics were associated with this institution. The list includes the likes of Syed Abid Ahmad Ali (a great-grandson of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan), Sirajuddin Azar, Abdul Ali Khan (son of Abdul Ghaffar Khan), Ghulam Jilani Asghar, Rafiullah Khan and Sahibzada Abd-ur Rasul (writer of History of Sargodha and Tarikh-i-Tehzib-i-Insani). Besides other prominent persons in various fields, the alumni of the institution include historian Tahir Kamran and journalist Sohail Warraich.

The writer has a PhD in history from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He heads the History Department at the University of Sargodha. He has worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. 

He can be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com. He tweets @AbrarZahoor