History Department, of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College has its History Society popularly known as VIRSA(Heritage), which aims to encourage participation of students from BA History courses, in the various programs and activities scheduled. This has been another feather in the cap of the ever thriving department. The office-bearers are appointed every year from amongst the students so as to give them the charge of organizing various activities to enhance the learning process. Virsa maintains a gender equality between its student office-bearers, whereby 50 percent of the office-bearers are girls. The student representatives along with the entire student body and with the guidance of our esteemed faculty members invite experts from various disciplines apart from History, organize panel discussions, quizzes, exhibitions etc. giving our students better learning opportunities. Virsa also organizes a number of field trips to places of historical significance in Delhi as a part of annual activity of the Department.
The Academic Year 2020-2021 brought new challenges posed by the pandemic. However, Virsa endeavoured to engage the students through various activities organized virtually.
October 1, 2020:
Organized a Panel Discussion on “Relevance of Gandhi in the Modern World” on the occasion of 151st Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Amidst the gloom and fear of the pandemic and the domestic and international unrest that has clouded the prospectus of this great nation, it felt the most comfortable to remember Gandhi and the ideals he imparted not only to the people of India but to the human civilization. The panel discussion was held over the online video calling application, Google Meet – with all smiles and enthusiasm beaming from behind the screens – and witnessed participation from both faculty and students.
October 14, 2020:
A Webinar was conducted by Virsa: The History Society on the topic of “Conservation of Ajanta Caves”. It was scheduled on 14th of October 2020. Dr. Shreekant Jadhav, an archaeologist and a former officer for the Government of Maharashtra in the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums was invited to give a presentation on the same. The whole session was enlightening for both the students and the faculty members of the college. It was essential for the students as it was directly related to the course of the students. The webinar was not only attended by students of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College but also by students from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and other DU colleges as well. The program was a big success.
February 18, 2021:
Moving ahead the department organized another webinar on the topic “Geography and History in the Service of a Nation: The Concept of Natural Boundaries” on 18th February 2021. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster, UK. He enlightened the students about how the disciplines of history and geography have been used by nation states to protect their sanctity. It was an interesting webinar which also included concepts from different disciplines like international relations and political science.
March 2, 2021:
An Intra-College Panel Discussion was organized by Virsa: The History Society on 2nd March 2021 on Google Meet on “Colonialism in India: White Men’s Burden or White Men’s Business. Majority of the participants were from the first year. The students presented their ideas on the topic with enthusiasm. The discussion was very engaging, with interjections and questions from not only the participants but from the teachers and audiences as well, which were all very well answered.
April 9, 2021:
VIRSA organised a webinar on “Indian Leaders, Western Disciples and The Campaign Against Indenture:1911-1931”on Friday,9th April 2021 at 2:30pm in which Dr. Somak Biswas, Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, London joined us for a lecture.Dr. Somak started his lecture with History of exploration. Continuing to Firangis, he talked about who were the firangis, from where they belong and what was their actual identity. He illustrated through presentation how the technology of rule the abolition of slavery came into existence. He told us about some famous leaders who played important role in mobilisation, geographies of indenture and network around indenture namely Swami Vivekanand & Bhagini Nivedita, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. Somak Biswas ended his lecture with the question-and-answer session.
Comprehensive report of all the events organized by VIRSA in the year 2020-2021
Starting from the occasion of 151st Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, VIRSA organised a Panel Discussion on “Relevance of Gandhi in the Modern World”.The panel discussion was held over the online video calling application, Google Meet – with all smiles and enthusiasm beaming from behind the screens – and witnessed participation from both faculty and students.
Follwing the event on 2nd October, A Webinar was conducted by Virsa: The History Society on the topic of “Conservation of Ajanta Caves”. It was scheduled on 14th of October 2020. Dr. Shreekant Jadhav, an archaeologist and a former officer for the Government of Maharashtra in the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums was invited to give a presentation on the same.
Moving ahead the department organized another webinar on the topic “Geography and History in the Service of a Nation: The Concept of Natural Boundaries” on 18th February 2021. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Dibyesh Anand, University of Westminster, UK.This was a very interactive session as faculty and students and alumnus of different colleges of University of Delhi attended it with full of enthusiasm.Coming forward, An Intra-College Panel Discussion was organized by Virsa: The History Society on 2nd March 2021 on Google Meet on “Colonialism in India: White Men’s Burden or White Men’s Business. Majority of the participants were from the first year.They learned from this Panel discussion a lot by not only attending the event but also participating in it.
Recently, VIRSA organised a webinar on “Indian Leaders, Western Disciples and The Campaign Against Indenture:1911-1931”on Friday,9th April 2021 at 2:30pm in which Dr. Somak Biswas, Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, London joined our society and delivered his lecture.
Virsa however managed to tackle with the pandemic and shifted its events to online platforms.It also emerged as an advantage as the guests who could not join us offline in the college were able to join us at online platforms.
College has been awarded grade ‘A’ for Cycle 2 of NAAC Accreditation. 
