Guru Nanak College (Autonomous)

The Guru Nanak College, (GNC) in a lush green 25-acre campus, cradled between the Raj Bhavan and the campus of the IIT-Madras, facing the Guru Nanak Salai, is located in Velachery, South Chennai – the gateway to the IT expressway of Tamil Nadu.

Guru Nanak College was established in 1971 to commemorate the 500th birth anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Devji – the founder of the Sikh religion, by the Guru Nanak Educational Society (GNES). (Late) Lt. Col. G.S. Gill was the founder President, (Late) Padmashree P. N. Dhawan was the General Secretary and (Late) Sardar Manohar Singh Sabherwal was the Treasurer. This yeoman service of a small community of Sikhs, who made Tamil Nadu their home, after they left Punjab following the partition is historic.

The noble mission of the GNES is to provide quality education to all, irrespective of socio-economic background, caste, creed or religion. This is in keeping with the motto of the College 'Pro Bono Publico' which is a translation of Sikh prayer ‘Sarbat ka bhalla’ meaning for the 'Benefit of All'.

Lt. Col. G.S. Gill was among the first of the prominent Punjabis who settled in the city and made important contributions to it. Born on September 16, 1893, Gurdial Singh Gill was from Faridkot, Punjab. Sent to England to study law in 1912, he opted for medicine and moved to Edinburgh University from where he graduated in 1919. In 1923, Dr. Gill came to India where he joined the Indian Medical Service (IMS) and became Lt. Col. G.S. Gill, IMS. With the IMS being abolished in 1930, he moved to prison service and became Inspector General of Prisons, Madras, which meant all goals in the Presidency were under his administration. Post-Independence, Lt. Col. Gill opted to stay on in Madras. He was instrumental in establishing the Punjab Association in 1937. He also managed to solicit donations and supervise the construction of the Sri Guru Nanak Sat Sangh Sabha (Gurudwara Sahib, T.Nagar) in 1952. Lt. Col. Gill founded the Guru Nanak Educational Society in 1970 and the foundation of the Guru Nanak College was laid in January 1971 on the land which was granted for the purpose by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Donations by prominent Sikh families and the Maharani Vidyavathi Trust funded the establishment of the College. He was the founder President of the Guru Nanak College and he took active interest in the functioning of the College till his demise in 1982

The motto of the College is "Pro Bono Publico" which is the translation – (“Sarbat ka Bhalla”). It is the final term in the Sikh prayer called Ardas. The term means ‘For the benefit of all’ or literally ‘may everyone prosper’.

The vision of the College as enshrined by the founders is to be a leading Institution of Excellence in Higher Education by providing holistic, quality education to the aspiring youth and the needy, especially the ones from the less privileged sections of the society.

The College was conferred academic Autonomous status by the UGC in 2015, with focus on creating conducive environment of liberalization and need based curriculum

This gives the College the superiority of powers for designing the curriculum for all the courses offered by the College. Additionally, the flexibility of frequently revising the syllabus, in keeping with the demands of the industry and also better implementation of our mission/core values. GNC has a value-embedded curriculum (possible because of autonomy) and has one whole unit in the ‘Value Education’ subject on ‘the teachings of Guru Nanak Devji’.