"A system of education can be neither efficient nor national unless complete in all its parts. If it be impossible to raise the superstructure without first laying the foundation, it is equally useless to lay the foundation and build on it no superstructure at all." Those were the words with which the then Educational Inspector for the Northern Division, Mr.T.C.Hope (later Sir Theodore C. Hope) successfully persuaded a group of leading citizens of Ahmedabad, in 1856, to come forward with contributions for setting up a college in the city. In response to his call, a sum of Rs. 42,600 was raised which formed the nucleus of the funds to finance the first institution of higher learning in Ahmedabad- and in Gujarat. The College had humble beginnings. It started as the Gujarat Provincial College, with very few students, in a small room in the Government High School, in 1860.The subjects taught were Law, Logic, Applied Mathematics and Drawing. The next stage in its development came in 1879 when the college secured affiliation to the University of Bombay and was recognised as a center for the First Year Arts examinations. It is from that year that the history of the college is dated. The College had its share of teething troubles and the going was not smooth in the years of its infancy. In fact, as Prof. F.C.Davar, one of the leading educationist of the college, has remarked: "Our college, like a kingdom, has experienced the usual initial difficulties when it was founded, and it has had throughout, a remarkably chequered career." In the beginning, the college was faced with a severe shortage of students, mainly because they had no facilities to complete their courses in Ahmedabad-they had to go to Bombay to appear for the examinations. The paucity of numbers became so acute that the college had to close down in 1872. Six years later, When Sir Richard Temple was the Governor, the Government agreed to restart the college provided half the annual expenditure of Rs.16,000 was met from contributions by the citizens of Ahmedabad. The Municipality of Ahmedabad readily agreed to contribute Rs.3,000 annually to make up the deficiency until the endowment Fund could be raised to Rs. 2 lakh. Accordingly, the college resumed functioning under Government control in 1884. The same year the University of Bombay recognised the college as a center for the B.A. degree examination. This gave a further impetus to the development of the college which soon found that its Mirzapur road building, into which it had moved from the High School classroom, was too small to house its growing activities. In 1897, the college shifted to its present magnificent main building in sylvan surroundings on a 30-acre campus. Gujarat College was under government control from 1884 to 1887 when it was handed over to the Society for the Promotion of Higher Education in Gujarat, governed by a board comprising representatives of the Society and nominees of the government and municipality. The Society, however, dissolved itself in 1912 and handed back management of college to the Government which has continued to run it since then. The college has had a succession of illustrious Principals who fostered it with loving care and great devotion. The longest tenure was that of the Rev. W.G.Robertson who was Principal from 1909 to 1924,- fifteen eventful, unforgettable years. It was during this principalship that the college became the recipient of munificent donations from Sir Chinubhai Madhavlal Ranchhodlal, Baronet, the eminent philanthropist and industrialist.