Media Release

Mangaluru, Aug 15: As the country celebrates its 72nd Independence Day and the citizens of India go back in history to the first Independence Day in 1947, St Aloysius College of Mangaluru, the second oldest college in the city, also celebrated its first Independence Day in 1947.

It is indeed a joyful memory that many educational institutions in the country too had the good fortune of celebrating their first Independence Day. The college librarians and the archivists St Aloysius College recently chanced upon a few photographs of the first Independence Day. It was a moment of great joy to see those pictures, even in their smudged texture and faded colours and recall the great sacrifices our national leaders had made during the Independence struggle.

N S Kale, a freedom fighter of the region, unfurled the national flag. Fr Joseph Coelho was the principal of the college who gathered nearly 1000 students to instil in them the value of freedom on the first Independence Day.

The college has since celebrated Independence Day year after year. This year it was the turn of principal Dr (Fr) Praveen Martis SJ to join one of the senior-most teachers in the college, Prof Rajgopal Bhat to unfurl the flag and inspire students.

May our country remain great and celebrate diversity in its true sense of the term.