Ethiraj College for Women is an arts and science college for women in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, India, managed by the Ethiraj College Trust. It was founded in 1948 by the barrister

V. L. Ethiraj Vellore Lakshmanaswamy Ethiraj (18 July 1890 – 18 August 1960) was an Indian lawyer and philanthropist who founded Ethiraj College for Women, a college in Chennai, India. He was the first Indian to be appointed as Crown Prosecutor by th ...

Vellore Vellore (English: ), also spelt as Velur (), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River in the northeastern part of Tamil Nadu and is separ ...

History

Ethiraj College for Women is an autonomous college situated in the heart of the city of Chennai with 9 acres of campus area. The formative years witnessed a strong foundation through introduction of undergraduate courses in Economics, Botany, Chemistry, History, Zoology and English Literature along with the infrastructural facilities, resulting in the construction of the Science Block, Hostel, Open Air Theatre and the Old Library Block. The landmark development of this decade was the auditorium, which to this day remains the pride of the college. The decade of 1968–1978 saw the growth of the college with the introduction of Commerce, Mathematics and Physics at the UG level and a number of PG courses and the construction of PG block. A significant development in the college was the introduction of evening college in 1981. The thrust was on research with introduction of M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes. The addition of the Annexe Campus of 59 grounds augured the new direction in the growth of the College. 1990-2000 saw a steady growth with the introduction job-oriented self-funded UG courses like Corporate Secretaryship, B.Com (Bank Management), BBA (Business Administration), B.Sc. Biochemistry, B.Sc. Microbiology and M.Sc. Plant Biology & Plant Bio-technology and the introduction of post-graduate AICTE approved courses MBA and MCA, which was an important milestone in the growth of the college. The construction of New Science Block and dormitories in the hostel marked the new phase of development. The beginning of the next decade witnessed the Day College becoming autonomous and the momentous growth of the College in its infrastructure: the N & D block, COE block, New Library, New hostel, Business Studies and Information Technology Block, all adding up to 2,66,000 Sqft. Besides these, the College has a Language Lab, Instrumentation Centre, Online access to the holdings in the Library, Internet Centre and Computer Labs. The College entered the global arena by signing an MOU with British Council for teaching Business English Certificate and First Certificate in English. The college has continuously evolved with times to suit the changing scenario. Botany was converted into Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology, one section of History into Tourism and Travel Management, two sections of Zoology into Advanced Zoology and Biotechnology. In the self-financing stream, Economics into Business Economics, one section of English to English and Communication Skills. At the PG level a course in Human Rights and Duties Education was introduced during 2002. New courses namely, B.Sc. Clinical Nutrition, M.Sc. Physics, M.Sc. Foods & Nutrition were also introduced from 2005 in the self-finance stream. In 2006 courses namely B.sc. Visual Communication, M.Sc. Biochemistry & M.Sc. Microbiology were introduced.

Chairmen

(1948–60) * V. T. Rangaswami (1960–72) * N. Mahalingam (1972–80) * Justice S. Natarajan (1980–98) * Justice S. Jagadeesan (1998-2008) * A. M. Swaminathan, IAS (Retd.) (2008–13) * V. M. Muralidharan (2013–19) * Chandra Devi Thanikachalam (2019–22) * V. M. Muralidharan (2022–present)

Principals

Subur Parthasarathy Subur Parthasarathy (1911 – 10 October 1966), born Subur Mugaseth, was an Indian educator and legislator. She was the first principal at Ethiraj College for Women, and served in the upper house of the Indian Parliament from 1960 to 1966. Ea ...

(1948–49, 1950–52) *

Mona Hensman Mona Hensman Order of the British Empire, MBE (25 August 1899 – 5 December 1991), born Mona Mitter, was an Indian educator, feminist, and politician. She was a Member of Parliament, representing Madras State in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house ...

(1953–60) * Evangeline Matthew (1960–76) * K. Vasanthi Devi (1976–84) * N. A. Qadir (1984–85) * Keser Chander (1985–88) * Yasodha Shanmugasundaram (1988–94) * Indhrani Sridharan (1994-2005) * M. Thavamani (2005–11) * Jothi Kumaravel (2011–14) * A. Nirmala (2014–18) * S. Kothai (2019–22)

Notable alumni

Trisha Krishnan Trisha Krishnan (born 4 May 1983), known mononymously as Trisha, is an Indian actress and model, who primarily works in Tamil and Telugu films. She was noticed after winning Miss Chennai contest (1999), which marked her entry into the fil ...

, actress *

Aishwarya Rajesh Aishwarya Rajesh (born 10 January 1990) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Tamil films, alongside Telugu and Malayalam films. She is a recipient of four SIIMA Awards, one Filmfare Award South and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award. Ai ...

, actress * Chandini Tamilarasan, actress * Sreethu Nair, Actress *

Dhivyadharshini Dhivyadharshini "DD" Neelakandan is an Indian television host and actress who prominently works in Tamil film and television industry. Initially making her debut as an actress, she featured in supporting roles in films including Kamal Haasan ...

, TV host * Dhivya Suryadevara, economist, former CFO of both the General Motors, and Stripe. *

Dipika Pallikal Dipika Pallikal Karthik (née Pallikal; born 21 September 1991) is an Indian professional squash player. She is the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the PSA Women's rankings. Dipika Pallikal came to prominence in 2011, when she won t ...

, Indian squash player *

Jayanthi Natarajan Jayanthi Natarajan (born 7 June 1954) is an Indian lawyer and politician. She was a member of the Indian National Congress and has been thrice elected Member of Parliament representing the state of Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha. From July 2011 ...

, politician *

Joshna Chinappa Joshna Chinappa (born 15 September 1986) is an Indian professional squash player. She reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 10 in July 2016. She was the first Indian to win the British Junior Squash Championship title in 2005 in th ...

, Indian squash player *

Kanimozhi Karunanidhi Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (born 5 January 1968) is an Indian politician, poet and journalist. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Thoothukkudi Lok Sabha constituency, Thoothukkudi constituency in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliamen ...

, politician and Thoothukudi Constituency Member of Parliament (LS) *

Latha Rajinikanth Latha Rajinikanth (born Latha Rangachari; 2 March 1958) is an Indian film producer and playback singer. She is the wife of actor Rajinikanth. Early life Latha was born in Chennai, India in a Tamil Brahmin Iyengar family. She graduated with de ...

, film producer and singer * Leesha Eclairs, TV actress *

Madhumila Mathumila (born 23 May 1988), also written as Madhumila, is a Sri Lankan born Tamil actress, TV anchor, and model. She started her career as an anchor in 2012 on Makkal TV and made her acting debut in the Tamil television serial ''Office'', whic ...

, TV actress * Meenakshi Chitharanjan, Indian classical dancer and choreographer *

Molly Easo Smith Molly Easo Smith (born 1958 in Chennai, India) is an Indian-American professor and scholar of Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, and academic administrator. Biography Born in Chennai (formerly Madras) in India, Dr. Smith graduated from Ethiraj ...

, Indian-American professor *

Padma Subrahmanyam Padma Subrahmanyam (born 4 February 1943, in Madras), is an Indian classical Bharata Natyam dancer. She is also a research scholar, choreographer, teacher, Indologist and author. She is famous in India as well as abroad; several films and docume ...

, Indian classical dancer and musician * Preetha Krishna, businesswoman *

Sudha Ragunathan Sudha Ragunathan is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer and composer. She was conferred the Kalaimamani award by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1994, Padma Shri (2004) and Padma Bhushan (2015) by the Government of India, and Sangeetha Kalanidh ...

, singer * Sudha Shah, former Indian cricketer and national coach * Sujata Sridhar, former Indian cricketer * Sriya Reddy, actress *

Shvetha Jaishankar Shvetha Jaishankar (born 11 December 1978) is an Indian model, author, entrepreneur, beauty pageant titleholder, writer, and a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. She won the title at the Femina Miss India International 1998 and later was crowned as ...

, model, entrepreneur, author, beauty pageant title holder *

Tamilisai Soundararajan Tamilisai Soundararajan (born 2 June 1961) is an Indian politician serving as the 2nd and current Governor of Telangana, and is the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (Additional charge) since 18 February 2021. She was the National Secretary an ...

, doctor, politician, and the Governor of Telangana *

Thamizhachi Thangapandian Thamizhachi Thangapandian also known as Sumathy is an Indian Tamil poet, lyricist, orator, politician and writer. She was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India, from Chennai South (Lok Sabha constituency), Chennai Sou ...

, South Chennai Constituency Member of Parliament (LS) * J. Vijaya, India's first woman herpetologist * Srinisha Jayaseelan, singer *

Priyanka Deshpande Priyanka Deshpande (born 28 April 1992) is an Indian television presenter, host and actress. She predominantly works in Tamil television and film industry especially in Tamil entertainment, Priyanka is also one of the highest paid South Indian ...

, television anchor and actress *

Devaki Vijayaraman Devaki Vijayaraman (born c.1992) is an Indian home baker, television cook and a business owner, who hails from the town Trichy. She was the winner of ''MasterChef India – Tamil (season 1)''. Vijayaraman plans to use her prize on 25 lakh to e ...

, television cook and the winner of ''

MasterChef India – Tamil (season 1) Season 1 of the Indian Tamil-language competitive cooking reality TV series '' MasterChef India – Tamil'' which premiered on 7 August 2021 on Sun TV. The show is hosted by actor and producer Vijay Sethupathi, while professional chefs Hari ...

'' *

Roshini Haripriyan Roshni Haripriyan better known as Roshini (born 30 November 1992) is an Indian actress and model who predominantly appears in Tamil TV serials and films. She is known for playing the lead in the Tamil-language television series '' Bharathi Kannamm ...

, television actress *

Vibha Batra Vibha Batra (born 28 November) is a Chennai-based Indian author, advertising consultant, poet, lyricist, translator, travel writer, playwright, and columnist. Punjabi by descent, Vibha was born and raised in Kolkata and later moved to Chennai many ...

, author, poet, adperson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibha_Batra

References

* *

External links

Official website
{{authority control Women's universities and colleges in Chennai Educational institutions established in 1948 1948 establishments in India Colleges affiliated to University of Madras Universities and colleges in Chennai