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Visionaries:
The Agricultural Institute was established under the leadership of
Dr. Sam Higginbottom, in 1910, as an ecumenical Institution of the
Christian Churches and Church organizations in India. Dr. Sam
Higginbottom came to India in 1903 and joined the North India Mission of
the Presbyterian Church. From 1903 to 1909 he taught Economics and
Science in the Allahabad Christian College, presently known as Ewing
Christian College and at the same time studied the local dialect.
During this period he became a familiar figure in the surrounding
villages, he also saw and observed the living conditions of the
villagers and was deeply concerned about the ancient system of
agriculture
which contributed to low productivity and thus led to extreme poverty
amongst them. He was also genuinely disturbed by the vast gulf between
the urban Christian and the rural masses. For several months he
contemplated upon the Christian neglect of the villages and ultimately
by the end of 1909 he decided to bridge this gulf by establishing an
agricultural school, which he envisioned would educate the village boys,
introduce improved agricultural methods and co-operate with the local
farmers in solving their practical agriculture related problems. He also
took over the responsibility of supervising a Home for lepers. This Home
was operated by the Allahabad Charitable Association,but since the Home
did not have adequate facilities for providing food, clothing and
shelter, the lepers often left and wandered into the city as beggars.
Here they were outright shunned and hideously disregarded by one and
all. Dr. Higginbottom himself found them repulsive as most of them had
lost their fingers and toes, their wounds were wrapped in dung coloured
rags. Dr. Sam Higginbottom was so disturbed by the sight that within a
few weeks he asked to be relieved of this responsibility, but Mr. Arthur
Henry Ewing, the Principal of Allahabad Christian College, encouraged
him to continue this work. He then realized that his attitude was
inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible, which taught to cleanse
lepers, the young missionary acknowledged that they were indeed his
brothers in Christ. This made him look for possibilities of increasing
the financial assistance for a proper home for lepers and thus came into
being, the present Leprosy Hospital in Naini, situated across the Jamuna
river about 1.5 kilometers South East of the city. The home consisted of
a small hospital and Church and a Home for the untainted children of the
lepers. This home was the project of Ethelind Higginbottom wife of Dr.
Sam Higginbottom, since she felt that children who were separated within
the first year of their birth from their parents would not contact this
disease. This home was adjacent to the Naini Jail where the
superintendent Col. E. Hudson, introduced improved agricultural
techniques on the jail farm.
Dr. Higginbottom seized upon Hudson’s methods of farming and taught
these methods to the lepers who were able to farm. The evolution of an
agricultural school was much more complex. Dr. Sam Higginbottom wished
to establish a school that would train young men to work in villages as
well as do research in practical agricultural problems of the villagers.
His experiences as a teacher, his studies about India and his
association with Col. Hudson helped him to develop this school. During
his teaching of Economics, he observed that the course was rather
unrelated to the needs of the Indian students. The books were based on
the knowledge of western, urbanized society, which here was meaningless
for the Indian students. The lack of comprehension and the
impracticality of the course deeply disturbed Dr. Higginbottom. He then
decided to aquaint his students to the Indian Economy. He gave his
students a practical demonstration by taking them to take a view of the
life style of the villagers, personally.
He showed the students Col. Hudson’s farm at the, Naini Jail, so they
would have a first hand information regarding the possibilities of
improved agricultural methods and teaching of practical village
industries such as wood carving, pottery, rug making, canning, etc. Dr.
Higginbottom, thus planned and started a school which was located in the
trans-Jamuna region on the southern bank of the river, directly across
the Allahabad Christian College Campus. This region was connected to the
city of Allahabad by a two tiered wooden bridge which spanned across the
Jamuna and had a double rail line on the top and a dirt road underneath,
about 1/2 a kilometer in the south west direction from this bridge the
Agricultural Institute was established in the year 1910. About 120
Kilometers down this road was the Estate of Rewa
This region was one of the poorest regions of this area, the soil was of
a very poor quality (Usar), it was barren and had not been cultivated
for years, Dr. Higginbottom took advantage of this opportunity and along
with his associates reclaimed the area and demonstrated the potential
value of Usar and felt that the riots would be inspired to adopt the
practices of the Agricultural School. He had to his advantage the fact
that this school was situated on the confluence of the Ganga - Jamuna,
(known as “Sangam”), where every year in the months of January and
February, thousands of pilgrims passed this way and thus they
would be able to observe and practically see the improved methods of
agriculture which were implemented on the farm and in return would carry
these ideas with them to the various parts of country from where they
had come.The first phase of the Institute was it’s establishment,
development of appropriate training courses and training programmes.
Informal classes began in the fall of 1912 and it was during this period
from 1912 to 1919 that the Institute faced a time of uncertainty. The
Dairy, Animal Husbandry and Agriculture Farm were developed. Diploma in
Farm Machinery and Dairying were started in 1923, then a Degree in
Agriculture in 1932, followed by a Degree in Agricultural Engineering in
1943. This became the pioneer Institute to offer Agricultural
Engineering degree in the whole of Asia and the 4th in the whole world.
Prof. Mason Vaugh, an Agricultural Engineer, founded the Department of
Agricultural Engineering, he became the father of Agriculture
Engineering in India in the early forties. Several implements such as
Mould Board Ploughs (Wah Wah Plough, U.P. No.1, U.P. No.2, Shabash
Plough) hoes, cultivators and wheat thresher were, for the first time
introduced in India, by Prof. Vaugh.
In October 1947 the Institute was brought under an independent Board of
Directors, which was
sponsored as an ecumenical body by a number of Churches and Christian
Missions called The Board of Directors. The next phase of the
Institute was taken up by Dr. A.T. Mosher, in the year 1948-49, and the
major expansion such as the construction of the College of Agriculture,
New Hostel and many residences took place during this period. The most
famous agriculture Extension Project “Jamuna Par Punar yojna”, in which
the “Gaon Saathi”, (recruitment of village level workers) was introduced
into the extension system for the first time in India. The first
planners of our country took the idea of the ‘Village Level Worker’ as a
community development model. This has now been adopted by eleven
countries of the world. On the 25th of Aug. 1950, the A.A.I. was
registered to function as a Christian Educational Institute of a
national stature.
Dr. J.B. Chitamber, a famous extension scientist, took over the reigns
of the Institute. Major academic expansion took place during this period
i.e. from 1950 till 1980. Dr. Chitamber who had worked very closely with
Dr. A. T. Mosher, led the Institute successfully and made extension a
very well known programme of the Institute. The State Govt. of U .P. had
certified that the Allahabad Agriculture Institute is a Minority
Educational Institution within the meaning of clause (i) of article 30
of the Constitution of India, vide their letter No. 4894 15-80 (ii)
dated the 12th of Sept. 1980 and also certified as a Minority
Institution by the U.P. Higher Education Service Commission, vide letter
No. 250/ 258/83-84 dated 24/5/1983. From the year 1980-1995 the
Institute faced financial and administrative crisis the worst in it’s
history and suffered the severest bankruptcy, due to which land had to
be sold for disbursement of salaries, as employees were not paid for
nearly 10 to 12 months. All fixed deposits dried out. However, through
the prayer of believers and by the grace of the Lord JesusChrist, as the
people started realizing the vision of the founders, the spirit of the
Lord once again started working in the Institute and by the end of the
year 1996 the Institute survived and came out of this crisis.
In order to obtain more academic freedom and to strengthen the
specialized programmes of Teaching, Research and Extension a proposal
was submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of
India by the Director, Dr. Rajendra B. Lal on the 31st of August 1994,
that the Institute be granted the status of a Deemed University. In 1997
a team of experts from ICAR and UGC visited the Institute and
gave their recommendation that the Institute be declared as a Deemed
University, as it had all the potentials of a University. On the 15th of
March 2000, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Hon’ble Minister of HRD, Govt. of
India, gave his approval to the recommendations of the UGC. The Central
Government issued the notification No. F-9-26/94-U.3. dated the 15th of
March 2000, declaring the
Allahabad Agricultural Institute-as Deemed University and Prof. (Dr.)
Rajendra B. Lal, was appointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of the
University. After the end of Five years, AAI-DU was evaluated by NAAC
(An autonomous body of UGC) in the month of January, 2005. The NAAC
accredited our University with B++ grade (80-85%). This is an excellent
grade between 80-85%. Four Universities of Uttar Pradesh are in B++
category and till date only 17 Universities of the Country have received
B++ grade. |
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