Union Christian College, Aluva (known as UC College) is a college affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. It is one of the earliest colleges in India to be established and managed by Indian Christians. It was founded in 1921 by four young graduates and teachers of Madras Christian College - Prof. K. C. Chacko, Prof. C. P. Mathew, Prof. V. M. Ittiyerah and Prof. A. M. Varki. It is situated by the banks of Periyar (river) in Aluva (Alwaye), Kerala, India. History The founders of the college were graduates of the Madras Christian College where they were contemporaries of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the distinguished Indian Philosopher, academician and statesman, and the second President of India. They increasingly felt the need to establish a college in Travancore on the lines of their alma mater, but with a commitment to ideals of Christian ecumenism and national reconstruction. The decision to establish a college was taken at a time when the churches in Travancore were involved in various legal and property disputes and would not see eye to eye. It was felt that the college would be able to bring the feuding churches together and enable it to witness the love of Christ in Indian society. The founders of the college also expected the college to contribute towards national reconstruction on the lines of national education that personalities like Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore envisioned. In fact, Gandhi visited the college in 1925 on his way to Vaikom Satyagraha and wrote in the visitor's diary of the college: "Delighted with the ideal situation". Tagore too visited the college in 1922 and remarked about the striking resemblance of the college with his own institution, Visva-Bharati, in Shantinikethan. The college began in an old court house situated in the 18 acres of land donated by Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, the Maharaja of Travancore with the financial support of well wishers. It began as a residential college with 63 students enrolled in the Junior Intermediate Class in Group III, and was affiliated to the Madras University. The college was elevated as a first grade college under University of Madras in July 1923 and it is the first non-government college in Kerala to achieve that status. The academic life of the college was envisioned on the lines of the traditional gurukula system of education. The founders sought to make the college rooted in the best of what the