Delhi NCR

Meeting people at SGTB Khalsa College

SGTB Khalsa is a 14.9-acre North Campus college run by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, famous for Lashkara, its Punjabi-heavy fest, and a serious sports culture. Society auditions for Etram, Swarang, Ankur and DADS are where most first-year friendships begin.

The story of SGTB Khalsa College

Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College was founded in 1951 to give Punjabi refugee students displaced by Partition a route to higher education, and to preserve Punjabi language and culture. It started in four rooms of a school in Dev Nagar, with 49 students and six teachers.

The college is maintained by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, a statutory body set up under the Delhi Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1971. It is named after Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru.

In 1973 Khalsa moved to its present North Campus home, which at 14.9 acres makes it one of DU's larger colleges. It holds an A grade from NAAC and was ranked 29th among Indian colleges in NIRF 2025.

What the campus is like socially

Khalsa is loud, warm and sporty. Punjabi music and bhangra are part of the soundtrack, and other DU students tend to know the college first through Lashkara. Current students are quick to add that the commerce and science departments are serious too, and the placement numbers back them up.

The college sits in North Campus's busiest cluster, near Hindu, Hansraj, Ramjas and Kirori Mal, so friendships cross college lines easily. Sport is a big part of the identity, with cricket and hockey traditions that go back decades.

Traditions every SGTB Khalsa College student knows

• Lashkara: Khalsa's annual fest, known for Punjabi and Hindi headline acts, and one of the most anticipated on the North Campus calendar.
• Meraki: The group dance competition hosted by Etram during Lashkara.
• Society auditions: Etram, Swarang, Ankur and DADS run auditions early in the year that freshers treat as a rite of passage.

Campus lore and insider spots

• Four rooms in Dev Nagar: The college began with 49 students in four borrowed rooms before getting its own campus in 1973.
• The 1983 connection: Mohinder Amarnath, Man of the Match in the 1983 World Cup final, is a Khalsa alumnus, and the cricket team never lets anyone forget it.
• Rabbi Shergill's college band: The Bullah Ki Jaana singer formed a hard-rock band called Kaffir while at Khalsa and came back to perform at the college fest in 2015.
• Youngest MLA: Alumnus Arvinder Singh Lovely, a former NSUI general secretary, became the youngest MLA in the Delhi Assembly in 1998.

How to find your people here

Join a society or the fest committee at SGTB Khalsa College in your first few weeks. DU friendships tend to form around a shared activity, not the classroom, and the North or South Campus ecosystem makes it easy to meet people from other colleges too.

Fests and societies at SGTB Khalsa College

Signature fests

• Lashkara

Notable societies

• DADS (The Debate and Discussion Society)
• Teghpreneurs (The E-Cell)
• Confero (MUN Society)

Societies worth knowing at SGTB Khalsa College

• Etram: The Western dance society, founded in 2015, covering hip hop, dancehall, waacking and more. It hosts Meraki at Lashkara.
• Ankur: The theatre society.
• Swarang: The music society.
• DADS: The debate and discussion society.
• Confero: The MUN society.
• Vastram and Strokes: The sartorial society and the fine arts society.

Careers, internships and placements

Ignite, the placement cell, reports more than 150 offers from 115+ recruiters in 2025-26, with a highest CTC of Rs 26.8 lakh, and lists firms like McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG, Flipkart and Bank of America among its recruiters. Internships are a big part of the picture too, with 330+ organisations offering roles.

Students say the trick is to get involved early: the placement cell, the finance and entrepreneurship societies and debating all build the CV lines that recruiters notice.

Notable alumni

• Mohinder Amarnath: 1983 World Cup winner and Man of the Match in the final.
• Saurabh Shukla: Actor and theatre veteran, National Award winner for Jolly LLB.
• Rabbi Shergill: Singer of Bullah Ki Jaana, who played in a rock band at college.
• Harendra Singh: Hockey coach who has led the Indian women's national team.
• Meera Chopra: Film actor.
• Arvinder Singh Lovely: Politician who became Delhi's youngest MLA in 1998.

Rivalries and eternal debates

Wedged among Hindu, Hansraj, Ramjas and Kirori Mal, Khalsa lives in DU's most fest-competitive neighbourhood, and the debate over whose fest is bigger never ends. The other running argument is about reputation: Khalsa students push back on the idea that it is only the bhangra college by pointing to NIRF ranks and placements.

What SGTB Khalsa College is talking about now

Placement stats and Lashkara lineups are the hot topics online, and society pages drive most of the hype during induction weeks.

Meeting people at SGTB Khalsa College by interest

A lot of friendships here form around a shared interest rather than a class or a hostel wing. If you are into debating and mun, startups and builders, theatre and dramatics, poetry and open mics, and reading and book clubs, those pages cover where that scene actually happens in India and how to find people near you who are into the same thing.

Colleges nearby

SGTB Khalsa College sits close to St. Stephen's College, Hindu College, Lady Shri Ram College, Miranda House, and Shri Ram College of Commerce, all part of the same Delhi NCR student scene. Cross-college friendships often start at inter-college fests, hackathons, or shared-interest communities rather than in class.

Similar campuses across India

If you are looking beyond your own campus, students at Sri Venkateswara College and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies share a similar campus culture, and Zyber works the same way at each: showing you verified people nearby who match on interest, intent, or timing.

Zyber on campus

Zyber is built for meeting people nearby in real time, with verified profiles only. At SGTB Khalsa College, that means showing you people near you who share your interests or your drive, whether or not you overlap on a class or a society.

New to SGTB Khalsa College? Start here

If you are just starting out, these freshers guides are written for exactly this moment: first week of college checklist, how to choose societies in college, making friends beyond your branch, and internship in first year.

See meeting people in Delhi NCR, events in Delhi NCR, the freshers guide, the Meet People pillar, or read what Zyber is.