By Sujit Chakraborty

Guwahati, May 10 (IANS): The 120-year-old Cotton University, previously Cotton College, in Guwahati has given Assam seven of the states 15 Chief Ministers, including Himanta Biswa Sarma, who on Monday was sworn-in as the 15th CM of the northeastern state.

As the Education Minister in the previous government led by Sarbananda Sonowal, Sarma, who studied in the varsity from 1985 to 1992, took active initiative to turn Cotton College into a university in 2017 by approving the Cotton University Bill, 2017 in the state Assembly.

Before 2017, Cotton College was under the Gauhati University.

Assam's first Chief Minister (1946–1950) and the architect of modern Assam, Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi, was a student of the then Cotton College. He was posthumously conferred with the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

The five other students of Cotton University who went on to become Chief Minister of Assam include Mahendra Mohan Chowdhury (1970-1972), Sarat Chandra Sinha (1972-1978), Jogendra Nath Hazarika (Sept 1979-Dec 1979), Hiteswar Saikia (1983-1985 and 1991-1996) and Bhumidhar Barman (April 1996-May 1996).

Besides the seven Chief Ministers and many prominent political leaders of northeastern India, the first premier of Assam in the pre-Independence period (Assam became a constituent state of India in 1950), Maulavi Saiyid Sir Muhammad Saadulla (1937-1938 and 1939-1946) was also a student of Cotton College.

Sir Henry John Stedman Cotton, then chief commissioner of Assam, had set up the Cotton College in Guwahati in 1901.

"Before the Partition of India in 1947, Cotton College and Sylhet College were the two main higher educational institutions in the region. Hence most students from Assam and other northeastern states either went to Cotton College or Sylhet College for higher education.

"Of the two colleges, since the beginning Cotton College was government-run and most students of the region preferred to study there," Cotton University Vice-Chancellor Bhabesh Chandra Goswami told IANS over phone.

"Himanta Biswa Sarma had enrolled as a higher secondary student in the college in 1985 after completing his schooling from the Kamrup Academy School. He completed his graduation in political science from the institute in 1990 and post-graduation in 1992," Goswami added.

Sarma was the assistant general secretary of Cotton College Student's Union from 1987 before becoming the general secretary for a record three times – in 1988-89, 1989-90 and 1991-92.

"Besides being a popular leader, he was a very generous man who respected the elderly, especially the teachers. Sarma's hard work, dedication and sincerity took him to the top post of Assam. I believe that as a Chief Minister, he would do more for the university," said Goswami, who was also present in Monday's swearing-in-ceremony at the Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati.

Goswami said that before the establishment of Jorhat College in 1960s, thousands of students, including many future top politicians of the eight northeastern states, studied in the Cotton College.

The Cotton University, which has higher secondary to Ph.D courses in almost all required subjects of science, arts and commerce, has over 5,000 students now.