ORIGIN AND HISTORY

Andhra Loyola College is a Jesuit College in Vijayawada,
the second biggest city in Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Loyola College is a Jesuit College in Vijayawada, the second biggest city in Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Loyola College is the realization of the long cherished dreams of the Telugu people, in general, and the Telugu Catholics, in particular, for a Jesuit College as the first Telugu Catholics owe their Catholic Faith to the Jesuit Missionaries of Carnatic Mission of the early18th Century.

The Madras Presidency of the British India consisted of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam speaking areas. However, over the years the Telugu people asserted their identity to have their neglected needs met in their own land and got Andhra University established in 1926 with Sir C R Reddy as the founding Vice Chancellor. Subsequently, the Telugu people started agitating for a separate State for themselves during the British era itself. The genesis of the College dates back to this time.

In 1943 Sir C.R.Reddy, felicitating Bishop Ignatius Mummadi after his Episcopal Consecration as the new and second Bishop of Guntur, suggested to him to strive for the establishment of a Jesuit College in Vijayawada area, like Loyola College, Madras (Chennai), as if to make amends for his decision to shift the establishment of Andhra University from the originally intended location of Vijayawada area (which he called ‘Blazewada’ for its hot summers) to Visakhapatnam (as a single piece of the required vast area of land could not be acquired in Vijayawada area within the stipulated time).

Sir C.R.Reddy made this suggestion to Bishop Ignatius because until then the Telugu Students, in general, had been going to the Jesuit Colleges in the Tamil speaking area of the Madras State for quality education.

Bishop Ignatius Mummadi since then started his relentless efforts to plead with the local Jesuit Superiors repeatedly for the same, but to no avail. Hence, he made it a point to meet the very Rev.Fr.John Baptist Janssens, the then Superior General of the Jesuits in Rome, during his “Ad Limina” visit in 1948 and pleaded with him convincingly for starting a local Jesuit College in Andhra area of the then Madras State in Independent India; and the Jesuit General mandated the local Superiors to oblige the sincere request of the Bishop.

Rev,Fr.K.Francis Devaiah,SJ, a Telugu Jesuit, who was then the Headmaster of St.Mary’s High School, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, was tasked in April 1952 to select a suitable site for a Jesuit College in Vijayawada area.

Fr.Devaiah reached Guntur on 1st August 1952 and met Bishop Ignatius. Both of them and many local leaders applied themselves to the task of acquiring sufficient and suitable land for the needs of a Jesuit College.

There were many requests and delegations from the people of Baptla, Vetapalam, Nambur, Muktyala, Gannavaram, Vijayawada etc. to start the College in their respective places.

After considering various proposals for the College site, Fr. Pinto, the then Jesuit Vice Provincial of Tamil Nadu, favored setting up the College in Vijayawada and communicated the same to Fr. Devaiah on 2nd January 1953. Accordingly, the process for acquiring 100 acres of land in Vijayawada began immediately with the help of Sri.Katragadda Raghu Ramaiah who worked shoulder to shoulder with the Jesuit Pioneers, as the Secretary of the Vijayawada Loyola College Sahaya Sangham.

The Loyola College Society, Guntur – Vijayawada, was registered in Guntur on 30thJune 1953 and the purchased lands were registered in its name. Sri C.M.Trivedi, the First Governor of Andhra State, (which was newly formed on 1st October 1953, after the self-sacrifice of Amarajeevi Potti Sriramulu), laid the Foundation stone for the College on 9th December 1953 at 4.00 pm. At the suggestion of Sri Katragadda Raghurammaya, the Jesuits Superiors had agreed to name the College as Andhra Loyola College, in the jubilant context of creation of a separate Andhra State for the Telugu people of Coastal and Rayalaseema Regions.

The building work began in January 1954 under the supervision of the Italian Missionary Architect Brother Giani David. The first Academic session of the College began on 22nd July 1954, after two postponements due to heavy monsoon rains, with 394 Intermediate students- 160 in two Maths-Physics-Chemistry sections, 80 in Biology-Physics-Chemistry section and 154 in two History groups; and with 24 Teaching Staff Members including four Jesuits Fathers.

Andhra Loyola College was admitted by the Director of Public Instruction, Government of Andhra, for Grant in Aid on 18th November 1955. (Gleaned from the first issue of the College Magazine published in March 1956).