In the year of 1977 the Government of West Bengal decided to establish 24 new colleges in various places of West Bengal to spread the light of higher education throughout the Bengal territory. The present college - Murshidabad Adarsha Mahavidyalaya is one output of that scheme. During 1970s there were only few colleges located in and around the Murshidabad city and the rest of the areas of the district remained detached from the centre of higher education. In case of exceptional and ambitious students, it was too tough to approach the existing colleges for pursuing higher studies. Keeping this acute problem in mind, some of the contemporary intellectuals of Islampur started to sort it out. Mr. Hemendra Narayan Chaudhary, a teacher of Katlamari High School, took the first initiative to open a college which may cover the areas between the city of Berhampore and Bengladesh Border (Jalangi). However, for some reasons’ his plan failed.
At the beginning of 1980s, a serious attempt was made in this direction by some local philanthropists like Sri. Tapan Kumar Hore (teacher), Sri. Puri Lal Biswas (businessman), Sri. Satish Charan Dey (businessman), Sri. Kartrik Dutta, Sri (businessman), Solamen Hoque (teacher), Sri. Durgaprasad Maheshwari (businessman), Sri. Rabindranath Rakhsit (businessman), Dibakar Dutta (businessman) and others. They under the aegis of MLA Smt. Chaya Ghosh began to collect money and assets for a land where the college was supposed to be established. Initially, the advocators of the movement faced huge setback in finding the land. At that time, Upendra Smriti Seba Mondir of Purilal Biswas provided the place for the early academic journey of the college. In November of 1981 the college began its journey formally. There were four temporary class rooms in the Seba Mandir, and several teachers of nearby High Schools voluntarily taught the students for four years without remuneration. The teachers were Kamalendu Bhattacharyya, Amulya Kumar Sarkar, Nripendranath Kundu, Anowar Hossain and Dilip Chakraborty. Meanwhile a helping hand was extended by the Ministry of Higher Education headed by Sri Shombhu Ghosh for the university affiliation. Fortunately, the college got the university recognition from the University of Calcutta in 1981. Finally in 1985 a plot of six bighas was obtained from Sri Durgapada Dutta and Dhananjoy Dutta in exchange of money. Basically, the amount was collected from the various organization and individual. A lump sum was donated by the ‘Union no. 4 Company of Multipurpose Society’ (Chak Islampur), ‘Chandrakanta Lalit Mohan Resham Khadi’ (Chak Islampur), Rural Industry Association, Chak Weavers’ Association, Upendra Smriti, Chack Bayan Shilpi Samiti and others. Afterward, MLA of Jalangi, Atahar Rahaman extended another helping hand for the construction of building at the college land.
There were three committees in running the function of the college. Initially, Smt. Chaya Ghosh (local MLA) and the Hemendra Narayan Choudhery looked after all administrative functions. Hemendra Chandra and Purilal Biswas were the advisory members. Satish Chandra Dey and the Tapan Hore looked after the teaching and finance of the college. Purilal Biswas was the president, H. Chaudhury and T. Hore were joint secretaries and Solamen Hoque was the treasurer. The first principal of the college was Birendra Nath Banerjee. The other professors were Jagadindra Purakayet (Bengali), Debika Sinha (History) and Tapati Roy (Philosophy).
Murshidabad Adarsha Mahavidyalaya is located at a semi- urban area (Islampur) of the district of Murshidabad. It is a co-educational college which was earlier affiliated to the University of Calcutta, and then it came under the affiliation of the University of Kalyani in 2000. The UGC granted its 2 (f) and 12 (B) to the college in 1994. Now the college is a fully Government-aided college.
Now the college has been pursuing its much-cherished goal of imparting career-centric as well as value-based education to its beloved students. The college leaves no stone unturned to cater to the academic and co-academic needs of the students. This is a moderate effort towards the condition congenial to academic excellence which is constantly threatened in this backward district. This institution since its inception has mainly been serving the first-generation rural learners who come from various remote and underdeveloped corners of the area. About 90% of our students belong to the Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Class communities. Around 2000 students of different social orders get enrolled each year in this college. The vast departmental wings of Arts and Humanities of the College try their utmost to provide ample scope to these students to integrate their individual and social needs. At present the college has approximately 4000 students (General and Pass). In this way, our college aims to be the beacon of hope for the marginal classes of society in this part of the country.
Education is the initiation of self-revelation. It gives scope for creativity and acts as a bridge between the external world around us and inner world we carry within our body, mind and soul. The 'flying bird' is the symbol of hope. As the wings of higher education begin to take off, the span of human life expands and approaches the 'ripe corn' of knowledge to lead a fresh life. The primary objective of Murshidabad Adarsha Mahavidyalaya is to spread the light of quality education among the marginalized section of Islampur, Raninagar, Dumkal and Daulatabad blocks. This institution since its inception (1981) has mainly been serving the rural learners who come from various remote and underdeveloped areas. About ninety-five percent students belong to lower class, especially the students from the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes including minorities (mainly Muslims). Around two-thousand students of different rank get enrolled each year in the college. The vast departmental wings of Arts and Humanities of the College provide ample scope to the students to integrate the needs of individual as well as society in order to create a new generation of value-based youths. In this way, our college aims to be the beacon of hope for the marginal areas that will shower the light of education amongst all strata of society. Thus, let us pierce the dark veil of ignorance and remove illiteracy and poverty and truly prove to be a vehicle of modernization and development.