‘Hindu saved me’: Veteran actor Manoj Kumar wrote in college magazine

Recalling a defining moment from his childhood that remained etched in his memory, veteran actor Manoj Kumar once wrote, “I took shelter in the Hindu College campus during the Partition riots — and it saved my life.” Kumar, often hailed as ‘Bharat Kumar’ for his string of patriotic films, passed away early Friday morning in Mumbai at the age of 87. He had been unwell for some time and died due to age-related issues at the Kokilaben Ambani Hospital around 3.30 am.

The Padma Shri and Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipient, Manoj Kumar was an alumnus of Delhi’s Hindu College and had been associated with the institution since 1947 when his family moved to Delhi from Lahore in Pakistan.

Born Harikrishan Goswami in Abbottabad, now in Pakistan, Kumar and his family relocated to Delhi during the Partition. They stayed in room numbers one and two of a refugee barrack in the Hudson Line area, also known as Hudson Lane-Kingsway Camp.

Once, his mother was admitted to the Tees Hazari Hospital with his newborn brother.

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“One day, I cycled alone through deserted and hostile streets to visit my mother in Tees Hazari Hospital. I suddenly heard dreadful slogans and, in a panic, I took shelter inside the Hindu College campus. The watchman there calmed me down, saying, ‘Don’t worry, I’m a Hindu watchman of this Hindu College’,” Kumar recalled in an article he wrote for the college magazine on its 125th anniversary.

“Hindu will protect Hindu, the watchman told me. That gave me immense relief. This happened three or four times,” he wrote.

Kumar further mentioned that years later, he returned to the same college — not as a frightened child but as a student and completed his graduation from Hindu College after finishing school at Salwan Public School.

“Financial conditions at home were tough and I juggled studies with small jobs, like selling sewing machine parts. My professors respected my commitment and supported me,” he recalled.

Encouraged by his cousin and filmmaker Lekhraj Bhakri, Kumar moved to Mumbai after graduation, he said.

“Though the early years were full of struggle, I eventually found my place in the film industry,” he noted.

Kumar went on to win the hearts of millions through his roles in patriotic films such as Shaheed, Upkar and Purab Aur Paschim.

He also remembered a moment when, years later, Hindu College invited him back to honour him with the ‘Award of the Millennium’.

“I stood on the stage, remembering the same campus that once gave me protection as a child,” he wrote.

“Yes, Hindu saved me. Long live Hindu and long live Hindu College,” he concluded in his article.

Anju Srivastava, principal of Hindu College, told PTI that Kumar was felicitated with the Distinguished Alumni Award during the college’s 100th anniversary celebrations in 1999.

“In 2019, when he visited the college in an ambulance, he was critically unwell and unable to walk. Still, he touched the floor of the college,” Srivastava said.

“He was deeply fond of the college and revered it like a temple,” she added.

During his last visit to the college in 2019, Kumar left a note in the visitors’ diary, expressing his deep emotional bond with the institution.

“It’s not a visit to my college. This is a Mandir, and I have come here to ‘matha tekne’ (bow my head),” he wrote.