JAGJIWAN MAHAVIDYALAYA, GAYA is one of the oldest constituent units of Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya (Bihar), which has favourable honour of completing more than 64 years. It is situated in the heart of backward and rural area of Manpur Block on Bodh-Gaya to Rajgir Bypass Road & at a distance of 7 Kms from Gaya Junction. The College recalls the memory of Late Jagjiwan Ram (Babuji) who devoted his life for the welfare and betterment of the down trodden youths of the society.

At the time when college education was scarce at the eastern side of Gaya Late Jaglal Mahto the prominent freedom fighter, Ex-MLA and president of Congress Party of Gaya district planned for this college and helped late Baleshwar Prasad (A Farmer) to establish this college in 1959. This college is built up in 9.3 acres of landed area. The maximum number of students belongs to Scheduled Caste and socially backward class. Our College has been conceptualized to materialize the ETHOS of nation building and Indian culture. We had a clear Perception about our educational efforts to establish a center of learning basically dedicated to the underprivileged youths of this region.

Since its establishment in 1959, this college has enlightened society by its value-oriented education and all round development in the field of academics, research, culture and sports activities, NSS and NCC addresses the social concerns. In the auspicious Journey of fifty nine years, our college is glittering as a single ray of hope for down-trodden and under-privileged section of the society. It provides a platform of learning to youths of far-flung area and attract the attention of the rural community especially from within 50 kms radius of Manpur, Gaya.

Jagjiwan Ram was born (5’ April, 1908) at Chandwa near Arrah in Bihar, to family of five siblings, elder brother Sant Lal, and three sisters. His father Sobhi Ram was with British Indian Army, posted at Peshawar, but later resigned due to some differences and bought some farming land in his native village Chandwa, and settled there. He also became a Mahant of Shiv Narayani sect, skilled in calligraphy he illustrated many book of the sect and distributed locally.

Young Jagjiwan started going a local school in January 1914, but shortly afterward his father died prematurely, leaving him and his mother Vasanti Devi to economic hardships. He joined Aggrawal Middle School in Arrah in 1920, where the medium of instruction was English for the first time, and joined Arrah Town School in 1922, it was here that is faced caste discrimination for the first time, yet remained unfazed. An often cited incident occurred in the school, there was this tradition of having two water pots in the school, one for Hindus and another for Muslims, so when Jagjiwan drank water from the Hindu pot, while being from an untouchable class, the matter was reported to the Principal, who placed a third pot for "untouchables" in the school, but this pot was broken by him twice, eventually the Principal decided against placing the third pot. A turning point in his life came in 1925, when Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya visited his school, and impressed by his welcome address, invited him to join Banaras Hindu University.

Jagjiwan Ram passed his matriculation in the first division and joined the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in 1927, where he was awarded the Birla scholarship, and passed his Inter Science Examination; while at BHU he organised the scheduled castes to protest against social discrimination. As a Dalit student, he would not be served meals in his hostel, denied haircut by local barbers, a Dalit barber would arrive from Ghazipur from occasionally to trim his hair, eventually he left BHU and pursued graduation from Calcutta University. In 2007, the BHU set up a Babu Jagjiwan Ram Chair in its faculty of social sciences to study caste discrimination and economic backwardness.

He received a BSc degree from the University of Calcutta in 1931, here again he organised conferences to draw the attention towards issues of discrimination, and also participated in the anti-untouchability movement started by Mahatma Gandhi.