Proposal to rename 156-year-old Indian university sparks debate about British legacy

Federal education minister questions role of British bureaucrat university is named after during 1866 Odisha famine that killed nearly a million people

Ravenshaw University students and staff celebrate Independence Day (Facebook/Ravenshaw University)

A proposal to rename a 156-year-old university has sparked a heated debate in India about its colonial history.

The Ravenshaw University in Cuttack in the eastern state of Odisha was founded by British bureaucrat Thomas Edward Ravenshaw in 1868, just two years after the devastating Great Odisha Famine, also known as the Na Anka famine, killed an estimated one million people.

Given this history, the federal education minister proposed renaming the university.

“It is my personal opinion that the name of the institution should be changed,” Dharmendra Pradhan said. “The devastating Na Anka famine took place in Odisha during the tenure of Ravenshaw. The intellectuals of Odisha should think about it. There is a need for a debate over the issue.”

Ravenshaw was the colonial commissioner of Odisha division when the famine struck.

“What were the administrators doing at the time?” Mr Pradhan asked. “Is it a matter of pride for us to glorify the names of people who were responsible for causing misery to the Odia people?”

His proposal was met with resistance by the university alumni as well as opposition parties. It was an attempt to erase history, they argued.

“By establishing the institution, Ravenshaw actually upheld Odia glory at a time when Odia language was struggling for its identity,” former Odisha chief secretary Sahadeb Sahoo, an alumnus of the institute, said.

“It was because of his efforts in spreading higher education, people at that time honoured the British officer by naming the institution after him. Also, Ravenshaw was not responsible for causing miseries to the Odia people.”

Lenin Mohanty, a spokesperson for regional Biju Janata Dal party, accused the education minister of lacking an understanding of Odisha’s history and Ravenshaw’s contribution to promoting education.

"It is a very unfortunate statement given by Pradhan under the cover of Odisha pride,” Mr Mohanty was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. “He should have read a little history before doing so.”

Sofia Firdous, a legislator from the opposition Congress party, said, "Ravenshaw is an emotion" for the people of Odisha. Instead of focusing on renaming the institution, she said, efforts should be directed towards enhancing its status as a world-class university.

Mr Pradhan’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party defended his suggestion, with Odisha’s deputy chief minister KV Singhdeo and higher education minister Suryabanshi Suraj stating that it was his personal opinion and should not be politicised.

The ruling party has made several attempts to remove or rename what it sees as vestiges of British colonial rule. Most notably, prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s new parliament building last May in a symbolic shedding of the country’s colonial past.

The inauguration included the performance of Hindu religious rituals, drawing criticism from those who felt this undermined the country’s secular constitution.

Mr Modi’s government later enacted the most sweeping changes to the country’s criminal justice system in 150 years by replacing the Indian Penal Code, which was first drafted during the British cononial rule in the 19th century.

Thought critics call it political opportunism, the ruling BJP’s rejection of India’s subjugated past comes amid a global reckoning when it comes to public symbols of colonialism.

In June 2020, hundreds of protesters demanded Oxford University’s Oriel College remove its statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes.

Mexico city in October 2021 announced it was replacing a statue of Christopher Columbus from its most iconic boulevard with one depicting an Indigenous woman, a piece called “The Young Woman of Amajac”. It was a part of an effort to “decolonise” Reforma Avenue, said the city’s governor Claudia Sheinbaum.

In 2017, students at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) called for white philosophers to be largely removed from the curriculum to better represent the university’s focus on Asia and Africa.