A red brick building and what each one decides to inscribe on it...like an artist's 'pentimento' - different portraits painted and repainted on the same canvas. But a new coat of paint can never obliterate the one underneath, and in places, it peels away to reveal the strokes and shades of an earlier work. And so with college each era leaves it's trace, in the form of views and perspectives of what college stands for. Take a look at some fragments of this 'pentimento'

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Hall of Fame

Heads of State from College : Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (India), Gen. Zia Ul-Haq (Pakistan) and Selim-e-Selim (Tanzania)

Some Vice-Chancellors from College: Sir Abdur Rehman (Universities of Delhi, Punjab and Madras), Dr Ram Kishore (Delhi), Dr J.C.Chatterjee (Agra), Dr Ram Behari (Jodhpur), Dr S.M. Sen (Bardwan), I.H. Qureshi (Karachi) and currently Dr. Deepak Nayyar (Delhi University)

Some Olympians from College: M.N. Masud, Late Maharaja of Bikaner, Dr. Karni Singh, Randhir Singh, and Ranjit Bhatia.

Some Journalists from College : Sri Krishna, Vishnu Dutt, B.G.Verghese, C.S.Pandit, Ajit Bhattachajea, Nandan Kagal, Prem Bhatia, Swaminathan Aiyar, Arun Shourie, Dilip Cherian, Prem Shankar Jha and Suman Dubey.

Some Novelists from College : Gopal Gandhi, Amitav Ghosh, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Nirmal Verma, Shashi Tharoor, Alan Sealy, Anurag Mathur, Mukul Kesavan;and Khushwant Singh.

Some Film-makers, Actors and Theatre personalities from College : Ketan Anand, Kabir Bedi, Siddharth Kak, Shekhar Kapur, Amit Khanna, Rajiv Mehrotra, Joy Michael, Parikshit Sahni, Roshan Seth and Safdar Hashmi (College Street was renamed Safdar Hashmi Marg after his death).Madhur Jaffrey, who was in Miranda House, acted in several Shakespeare Society productions in the 1950s.

Some Politicians from College : Sucheta Kriplani, Vir Bhadra Singh, Vikram Mahajan, Lalit Sen, Inderjit Gupta, K.Natwar Singh, Digvijay Singh, Rao Birendra Singh, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Arun Singh, Salman Khursheed.

Civil Servants from College : If we were to list them, a separate website would have to be created.

Alumni Highlights

Freedom Struggle
Amir Chand, a Stephanian, who was allegedly involved in a bomb attack on the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge in 1913 was defended by Allnutt in Court. He, and Avadh Behari, another old student, were sentenced to death in the Delhi Conspiracy Case.

Sameenuddin Khan, an old student(1945-7) now in Pakistan, was successful in disrupting the morning assembly and with 50-100 men boycotted classes and went on a protest march against the I.N.A. trials. He pulled down the Union Jack from the Flagstaff. The Partition deprived him and Haroon Bokhari(1944-7)of their degrees from Delhi University. Asaf Ali, an old student and later a prominent member of the Congress Party, was amongst the defendant lawyers during the I.N.A. trials.

Education
Abhinash Chander Ghose (lecturer in Philosophy 1899-1910, 1913-18), was ordained in 1896 as Samuel Ghose. He was the first old student to join the staff, in May 1898. Pt Raghubar Dayal (lecturer in Sanskrit 1901-15) and Khub Ram (lecturer in Physics 1902-22) were the second and third old students to join the staff.

Two old Stephanians who became Vice-Chancellors of Delhi University were Dr Khan Bahadur Abdur Rehman(1930-34) and Rai Bahadur Dr Ram Kishore(1934-38).

Dr Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, an old student from 1924 to 1928, later served as lecturer in History from 1928 to 1944. In 1947, during the Partition riots, the Muslim students were evacuated to the Purana Qila. During the riots Dr Qureshi's library was burnt down and in the turmoil Mr Walker was injured while defending the University Laboratories from the mobs. Dr Qureshi subsequently migrated to Pakistan in 1948 in a burkha to escape detection. He later served in the Pakistan Government as Education Minister and was the Vice-Chancellor of Karachi University. In his memory the first Dr I.H.Qureshi Memorial Lecture was delivered in 1982. Some of Dr Qureshi's books are: Administration of the Mughal Empire, Administration of the Sultanate of Delhi and Akbar: The Architect of the Mughal Empire.

Dr Basanta Kumar Mittra, a Stephanian, was the first principal of Delhi Tibbia College-an institution set up to revamp the Unani and Ayurvedic systems of medicine by using the experimental methods of western science.

Lala Raghubir Singh, a Stephanian, was the founder of Modern School, Delhi.

Some Vice-Chancellors from College: Sir Abdur Rehman (Universities of Delhi, Punjab and Madras), Dr Ram Kishore (Delhi), Dr J.C.Chatterjee (Agra), Dr Ram Behari (Jodhpur), Dr S.M. Sen (Bardwan) and Dr I.H. Qureshi (Karachi).

Sports
Olympians from College:
M.N. Masud played hockey for India at the Berlin Olympics 1936.

H.E. the late Maharaja of Bikaner, Dr. Karni Singh, represented India at numerous shooting championships including five Olympic games since 1960.He was the first Indian to have won medals in the World Championships (silver, Cairo, 1962) and the Asian Games (silver, Tehran, 1974). Randhir Singh represented India in shooting over four decades and has taken part in six Olympic Games since the Tokyo Games, 1964.

Ranjit Bhatia was a member of the athletics squad to the Rome Olympics 1960. He ran the 5000m and the Marathon.

The Late Lt. Kiran Seth was an outstanding swimmer and basketball player who represented College, Delhi University, Delhi state and the Services. He was killed in action in 1965. A memorial tournament has been instituted to honor him.

Sanjit Bunker Roy (captain, squash 1965-66) was a national champion and played in the world Championships in 1967 and 1971. Influenced by the Bihar famine he devoted his life to social work and established the Social Work and Research Centre at Tilonia, Rajasthan.

W.N. Usmani (200m, 400m, 400m hurdles, broad jump and triple jump) won the National Championships in the 400m hurdles in1959. He represented India at the third Asian Games (Tokyo), the Commonwealth Games at Cardiff and the Indo-Pak-Iran Games at Lahore.

Inderjitsinhji, Ashok Gandotra, Arun Lal, Michael Dalvi and Kirti Azad are old students who represented India in cricket. Anuradha Dutt was the first Stephanian to play for Delhi in the Inter-University Women's cricket tournament. Vijay Mehra represented the U.A.E. in the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

Jaspal Rana(1991-) won the Gold Medal in shooting in the World Championships in Rome. He along with Mansher Singh won the Gold Medal at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, 1994.Mansher Singh, an old Stephanian, won a Gold Medal in the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

Shailendra Sinha(1990-3) at the age of 17 was the youngest Indian to set foot on the Arctic. He, along with his instructor Mandip Singh Soin, reached Eureka Base Camp in the Canadian Arctic on 22 April 1989. Sinha's adventure was part of the "Ice Walk 1989" led by the polar explorer, Robert Swan.

College
Principal David Raja Ram (seventh Principal, 1945-60) was the first old student of College to become Principal. He was nicknamed "Duggy" and his car, affectionately called 'Mrs. Noah' was used to ferry staff members to Kashmere Gate to watch the cricket matches played by College. He committed what can be termed a classical faux pas when he introduced Countess Edwina Mountbatten to the assembly as 'The Mountess of Countbatten'.

Principal Satish Chandra Sircar (eighth Principal 1960-72) was the second old student to become Principal. He marched in the Delhi University Contingent during the Republic Day Parade of 1963.

Politics
Some politicians from College : Sucheta Kriplani, Vir Bhadra Singh, Vikram Mahajan, Lalit Sen, Inderjit Gupta, K.Natwar Singh, Digvijay Singh, Rao Birendra Singh, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Arun Singh, Salman Khursheed.

When Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, (old student 1921-2) visited College on 7 December 1974, along with his wife, it was the first time that a Head of State and First Lady of independent India had visited College. Zia Ul-Haq's (old student 1940-4) novel method of ragging freshers was to parade them down the fields in the middle of the night. He last visited College in 1986.Incidentally, Zia ul-Haq misspelt his name in a leave application to the Principal as Zai ul- Haq!

Sucheta Kriplani (old student) was the first woman Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, from 1963-7. She was the first woman Chief Minister of any Indian state. An old Stephanian who has become Chief Minister of a state three times is Virabhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh.

Some Stephanians from Pakistan (from Mani Shankar Aiyar's article in the Centenary Issue of The Stephanian):Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, Dr I.H. Qureshi; S. Shahnawaz, Iqbal Butt, Birjis Hassan Khan-diplomats; Zahoor Azhar and Taimuri-bureaucrats; Ikramul Haq and Abdur Rahman Siddiqui-journalists; Qadeeruddin Ahmed-Chief Justice, Baluchistan and Sindh; Shuja-ud-Din -renowned test cricket umpire; and many others. 

Air Chief Marshall P.C. Lall (old student) was the Chief of Air Staff from 16 July 1968 to 15 January 1973.Admiral S.N.Kohli (old student) was the Chief of Naval Staff from 1 March 1973 to 28 February 1976.

Media
Some journalists from College : Sri Krishna, Vishnu Dutt, B.G.Verghese, C.S.Pandit, Ajit Bhattachajea, Nandan Kagal, Prem Bhatia, Swaminathan Aiyar, Arun Shourie, Dilip Cherian, Prem Shankar Jha and Suman Dubey.

Some novelists from College : Gopal Gandhi, Amitav Ghosh, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Nirmal Verma, Shashi Tharoor, Alan Sealy, Anurag Mathur, Mukul Kesavan;and Khushwant Singh.