The motto is taken from Chapter 2, Verse 4 of Kena Upanishad which translates to ‘by knowledge one attains immortality.’ Immortality here means freedom from all the bondages of nescience or ignorance permanently. It was founded on July 2 nd , 1937, with this motto of imparting knowledge and empowering students through higher education by a group of scholars under the guidance of Dr. D.L. De. A brief history of the college shows the then avant-garde ideas which enforced innovative and progressively radical mindsets for the upliftment of the community at large. The founder D.L. De returned to India after pursuing his M.A, Ph.D from London, he worked with an advisory board who wanted to set up a model institution for women. This advisory board consisted of eminent personalities.

The Advisory Board with the President Sri. A. T. Ganguly submitted the application for affiliation to the University of Calcutta. This affiliation was recommended for the Bachelors in Arts (B.A) Programme on 27 th April, 1940 to be finally sanctioned on June, 1940. The college was established in a building in Vivekananda Road, which was then transferred to Parshi Bagan Lane. During the Second World War, the building was taken over by the British Government and the college shifted to 204, Cornwallis Street, Calcutta.The Department of Bengali and the Department of English were the first two departments to offer an Honours degree. Subsequently, other departments like Economics, Education, Food and Nutrition, Geography, History, Hindi, Journalism and Mass Communication, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, were added to the college.

In this context, the college has strengthened and matured with powerful influences of progress and educational empowerment. The NAAC Accreditation in the first cycle was B++ in 2007 and the second cycle accredited B++ in 2016.