You must've seen it, but do you know the story? Colvin Taluqdar’s 130-year legacy in Lucknow

Mention Colvin Taluqdars’ College to an old student and the conversation is unlikely to stay about classrooms for very long. One memory leads to another, a favourite teacher, a cricket match, a friend's name, a school-day prank, until you realise you aren't really hearing about a school anymore, but about someone's childhood. That is the charm of Colvin.

Standing by the Gomti for more than 130 years, the college has quietly become part of Lucknow's own memory, collecting generations of stories along the way.

The story began in 1889, when Sir Auckland Colvin, then Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, established the institution for the sons and wards of Awadh’s taluqdars. The first academic session began in 1892 with just 16 students, 13 of them boarders. In those early years, Colvin was very much a school of its time, closely associated with the landed aristocracy of Awadh.

But the city was changing, and so was the college. In 1933, the restriction on admissions was removed, allowing students beyond the taluqdari community to enter. Over the decades, Colvin gradually moved away from its original purpose and became a much broader institution, while retaining the traditions that made it distinctive.

If you dig deep into the tales about Colvin from the former students you’ll hear less about academics and more about favourite teachers, cricket matches, friendships and school-day rituals. Darbar Day, held every December 23, keeps that connection alive, bringing alumni back to a campus that still feels like home.

Colvin, too, has moved with the times. Once reserved for taluqdars’ sons, it opened admissions to all in 1933 and to girls from primary to Class X in 2020, followed by Class XI in 2021. Today, it offers schooling up to Class XII through UP Board and CISCE, along with day-schooling and boarding.

After an academic dip in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a revival began around 2005, bringing improvements in academics and infrastructure.

Perhaps no alumni story captures Colvin’s legacy better than Javed Akhtar’s. Before becoming a celebrated lyricist and screenwriter, he was simply a schoolboy in Lucknow, studying at Colvin.

Years later, he returned with his family and walked through its corridors and classrooms, revisiting the places where he had once grown up. Akhtar has spoken fondly of those years, saying he studied at Colvin and “lived Lucknow to the fullest.” For him, as for many alumni, Colvin remains less a line on a résumé and more a piece of childhood.

And Javed Akhtar is far from the only name Colvin has sent into the wider world. Colvin’s alumni list spans arts, civil service, defence and politics. Its graduates include notable radiologist Dr. S. S. Sarkar and Lt Gen D.S. Chauhan of the Indian Army. From the world of culture came filmmaker Muzaffar Ali and theatre pioneer Raj Bisaria. Politician Akhilesh Das Gupta (former Union minister) is another alumnus, as was the late Chaudhary Ajit Singh.

Maybe that’s the real story of Colvin. Its legacy isn’t just about the old buildings, famous alumni or a history stretching back more than 130 years. It’s about the people who spent their growing-up years here and still remember a teacher, a friend, a match on the grounds or some little school-day moment decades later.

Lucknow has changed around Colvin, but the college has kept going, collecting new batches, new stories and new memories along the way. And perhaps that’s why it still feels less like an old institution and more like a familiar piece of Lucknow, one that never quite stops being part of people’s lives.