Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan suggested renaming Ravenshaw University, one of the oldest educational institutions in Odisha. However, Pradhan clarified that the suggestion to change the name of the 156-year-old institution is his personal opinion. “The name change is needed. The university is named after Ravenshaw, what he did during the famine caused harm to the people of Odisha,” Pradhan said at a program organized on Self-Governance Day in Cuttack.
Speaking at a function organised in Cuttack to mark Local Self-Government Day, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan questioned the role of T.E. Ravenshaw, after whom the state university is named. He also questioned his role during the infamous Na’anka famine of 1866, in which 30 lakh people in the state died.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Sambalpur also pointed out that the devastating famine of 1866 occurred during the tenure of the then Odisha Commissioner T.E. Ravenshaw. “Many people of Odisha died in the famine. This disaster was caused due to the administrative failure of British officials, including Henry Ravenshaw. Why should a prestigious university of Odisha be named after a British commissioner? Odisha’s intellectuals should think about this,” Pradhan said.
Controversy started with the suggestion to change the name of the university
The Union minister’s proposal to change the name has evoked sharp reactions from its alumni as well as academics. Ravenshaw University alumnus Hemendra Narayan Das said, “The university should not be renamed. Ravenshaw is not a name, rather, it is a way of life. There is a history of more than 100 years behind it… The minister’s statement is unrealistic.”
Satyakam Mishra, an alumnus and administrator of the university, said those who knew about Ravenshaw’s contributions would never say the university named after him should be changed. “If our students have studied Odia, it is because of Ravenshaw,” Mishra said.
It is noteworthy that Ravenshaw College in Cuttack was established in 1868 during British rule. It was given the status of a university in 2006.