Educationist of repute Prof. Shyama Prasad Srivastava was instrumental in paving way for the establishment of the college. He arrived at Jamalpur in 1956 and he was impressed with the lush green surrounding, salubrious climate, transport facility, Eastern railway’s workshop, and cosmopolitan character of this helmet due to railway workshop. Since the area was bereft of any degree college and he, being a philanthropist, made a quest for the opining of a degree college for the education of the children of the railway workers. Very soon, he came in contact with an activist of Railway Men’s Congress Mr Shukdev Mandal who was also thinking in the same direction. The duo got in contact with Mr Shobhani. Very soon, they came in contact with Mr Nawal Kishore Lal, General Secretary of Railway Men’s Congress and Mr Yogendra Mahto, the then M.L.A. from Jamalpur. Here a resolve was made to open a degree college for the education of the children of thousand workers of railway workshop and this persistent efforts resulted in the formation of the college named Sharmik College on August 15, 1957. The dignitaries, Mr Yogendra Mahto and Mr Nawal Kishore Lal, became the founder chairman and Secretary of the college management respectively, while Professor Shyama Prasad Srivastav became the Principal of the college.
In the beginning the college started functioning in the building of RB High School of the city. There were the days of struggle but this quest for noble mission generated the attention of the then Union Minister for Railways Baboo Jagjivan Ram whose stimulating urge resulted in the college getting ₹98,000/- and 11.63 acres of land. The next development came in the form of getting affiliation of this college with Bihar University Muzaffarpur. The very next year i.e., in March 31, 1958, the college was named after Baboo Jagjivan Ram, Jagjivan Ram Sharmik College (JRS College). In the beginning, the college started from the scratch and had the facilities for the studies of I.A. and B.A. Courses only. However, there was an urgent need for modern scientific education. April 1, 1975 was the momentous day for this college since it was on this day, J R S College became a constituent unit of T. M. Bhagalpur University. There is no denying the fact that the indomitable spirit of Baboo Jagjivan Ram played on important role in the process. But the transfer and retirement of Principal Prof. Shyama Prasad Srivastav proved to be an irreparable loss for the college. As a matter of result, the pace of development was curtailed.
After Prof. Srivastav, Dr. Sharda Prasad, then Head, Dept. of Economics, Dr. Kalipad Banerjee, then Head Dept. of Chemistry of T. M. Bhagalpur University took over the saddle in 1980 and remained there for a very brief period of 1 year. After him Dr. Ram Balak Prasad Singh came and remained in office for more than three years. Thereafter, Dr. Ganga Charan Kapri took charge in 1985. His was a golden period for his dynamic leadership resulted in college achieving laurels in both academics and sports activities.
Students started getting position of merits in university examinations and inter university sport events. Our sport’s team remained champions consecutively in popular games like football, Kabaddi and other athletics events.
But the development took real shape when 11.63 acres of land was transferred in the name of the college in November 1995 during the tenure of the then Railway Minister C. K. Jaffer Shareef. Now, the college could boasts of its own land for the purpose of creating academic ambience and other extra-curricular activities. As a result, some new courses were introduced in the college. The college got into swift action during the tenure of Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of T. M. B. U. Dr. Ram Ashray Yadav whose determinative action combined with the creativity of Professor-in-charge of the college Dr. Moni Kumar Das witnessed great spurt in construction activities and academic culture in the College. The UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION, New Delhi liberally gave funds to this college resulting in the construction of building of Library, Botany laboratory and some other class rooms. Recently, after the bifurcation of the university and the formation of Munger University Munger on March 18, 2018, JRS College Jamalpur became one of the premier colleges under Munger University Munger.
This college is like an oasis in the desert. The teachers of this college are well reputed in their field and they are in a pious mission to inoculate the air of dynamism among the students who are mostly from the weaker section. Large numbers of alumna and alumnus from this college are working in the reputed fields in Government and Corporate sectors.
But what has placed the college on an altogether different pedestal has been seen in the field of sports and cultural activities. In sporting events, the college is the torch-bearer in the university giving excellent results despite very limited infrastructure. Unfortunately, the college does not have the boundary wall, auditorium hall, hostels, and proper administrative building. The founders had the imagination of Viswabharati (Shantiniketan) like structure where the mind is without fear and the head held high but even in this era of globalization this is a distant reality on account of dearth of teachers and non-teaching staffs. The entire university is right now in the throes of grave upheavals. The college is also in the stage of churning.
In this atmosphere the very intrepid and man of indomitable spirit Dr. Eqbal Hasan Azad has graced the chair as the Prof.-in-charge on June 23, 2016. He is a man of action and he is quite familiar with the problems of the college. It is expected that he will give meaningful leadership to the college in order to make the college a platform for modern scientific education and research oriented work.