Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College

Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College popularly known as ABN Seal College, earlier Victoria College, is a state-government owned co-educational college in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1888 and offers undergraduate and postgraduate education. The college is affiliated to the Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University and accredited as A+ by NAAC. The college has been conferred the "Centre of Excellence" status by the University Grants Commission.

History
Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College was established in 1888 as Victoria College by Maharaja Nripendra Narayan of the Cooch Behar State to enhance student capability in the Kingdom. The first principal was John Cornwallis Godley who in 1895 became the second principal of Aitchison College in Lahore. Later Maharaja Nripendra Narayan offered the post of principal to Acharya Brajendra Nath Seal, a Brahmo and philosopher, who remained in the post for eighteen years from 1896 to 1913. In 1950, when the state of Cooch Behar was merged into Union of India, the governance was passed to the Government of West Bengal. It was earlier affiliated to the University of Calcutta and University of North Bengal and is now affiliated to Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University after the creation of the same. In 1970, it was renamed as Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College. It is one of the few colleges under the Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University to give postgraduate education.

Facilities and campus
The college is in the heart of the town with a campus of 13.27 acre and built-up area of 9032.96 sq. meters. The college is divided into six blocks &mdash; administrative, bioscience, centenary, humanities, chemistry, and library &mdash; and twelve departments. The college has separate hostels for boys and girls with a capacity of 85 and 75 respectively. There are separate common rooms for boys, girls and teachers with facilities for indoor games like carom and table tennis. There is provision for playing outdoor games. There is an in-campus canteen offering snacks and beverages. The college has an IGNOU study center to facilitate distance education.

Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College has a library with about 55,000 books, journals and periodicals in a two-storied building with an area of about 2500 sqft with two reading rooms. The library has LAN facilities and LIBSYS software and follows open access for PG students. The library has photocopying facilities and is partially computerised. Computers with Internet connection are available in the computer center. There are twenty laboratories for science subjects.

The college also has hostels for both boys and girls. The Nripendra Narayan Memorial Boys' Hostel is the boys' hostel located right next to the college. Sister Nivedita Girls’ Hostel is the girls' hostel which is also located near the college campus.

Notable alumni

 * Rai Chaudhuri Satish Chandra Mustafi, Secretary and Extra-Ordinary Member, Cooch Behar State Council, Additional Member, Cooch Behar Legislative Council, Cooch Behar State, music composer and sitarist
 * Rajendra Prasad Roy, State Pleader, Cooch Behar State, musician and sitarist
 * Ambika Charan Roy
 * Pulin Bihari Das, Indian Revolutionary
 * Dr. Suresh Chandra Bandopadhyay, Indian Revolutionary
 * Kali Mohan Ghosh, Indian Revolutionary
 * Ashruman Das Gupta, Household Minister, Cooch Behar State, writer
 * Birendralal Sarkar
 * Subodh Kumar Chakraborty, Travelogue Writer, Novelist
 * Shivendra Narayan Mandal, Folk artist, researcher and writer on Folk music.
 * Bishnu Prasad Rabha, revolutionary, music composer and singer
 * Panchanan Barma (1865–1935), reformer from Cooch Behar
 * Shailen Roy (Bana Roy), Music Composer and Lyricist
 * Amiya Bhushan Majumdar (1918–2001), Novelist
 * Amar Roy Pradhan (1930 – 2013), Indian politician from All India Forward Bloc

Notable faculty members

 * Acharya Brajendra Nath Seal, Principal, 1896–1913
 * Sadhu T.L. Vaswani, Principal, 1915–1917
 * Prof. Joy Gopal Bandopadhyaya, Professor of English
 * Prof. Chunilal Mukherjee, Professor of Economics
 * Prof. Sarat Chandra Gupta, Principal
 * Prof. Amulya Ratan Gupta, Professor of English, 1920–1952
 * Dr. Kanak Kumar Dhar, B.Sc., M.B. (CAL),L.R.C.P. & S. (EDIN), L.M. (DUB), D.T.M. & D.T.H. (L'Pool)
 * Prof. Tarapada Chattapadhyaya, Professor of Physics
 * Prof. Chandika Prasad Bandopadhyaya, Principal