NO

No need to change name

At one point during the 1960s, some people thought the name of Ravenshaw College should be changed and given the name of Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das or Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das. Ravenshaw, in fact, had not taken that much of interest for Ravenshaw College.

Cuttack College was named after T.E. Ravenshaw only after he left Cuttack and Odisha. It was done by the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj - believed to be a friend of Ravenshaw - in a public meeting after the British civil servant left. The suggestion was accepted as a mark of respect for the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj.

Collegiate School was named after him. The college at that time situated on the collegiate campus was named after Ravenshaw. The building is a part of the court of district judge, Cuttack now. A girls' school was also named after Ravenshaw.

Ravenshaw came to Odisha in 1855. The famine that killed about one-fourth of the population of Odisha at that point of time was mostly due to his negligence as the commissioner of Cuttack division. He had no interest in Odisha's development. All said and done, an eminent educator then said that Ravenshaw College had found an international name and fame and deleting the name would not do good for the institution. We thought that was true in a sense. Thereafter, the issue died down. Even now, I think that there is no need to change the name.

Trilochan Kanungo

Ravenshaw College students' union president (1965) and former MP

Historical fact

In my opinion, the name of Ravenshaw University should not be changed. Ravenshaw University has been named after the person who first established it as an educational institution. We should not erase a historical fact.

Archana Nayak

Ravenshaw College students' union president (1986) and former MP

Renaming will dishonour co-founder

There is no need to rename Ravenshaw University by removing the word Ravenshaw. As a matter of fact, it is not T.E. Ravenshaw himself who gave the name - Ravenshaw College.

It was the Odia stalwart Maharaja Krushna Chandra Bhanjadeo of the then state of Mayurbhanj on whose insistence the name Ravenshaw College was given to Cuttack College in 1878, after the departure of T.E.Ravenshaw as commissioner of Odisha.

In justification of his proposal, the Maharaja had said that Ravenshaw had an extraordinary zeal for spread of education in Odisha, especially after the famine of 1866. He had first founded the zila school and then upgraded it to collegiate school which is now known as Ravenshaw Collegiate School. It was the beginning of Ravenshaw College or what you see in its magnified version as Ravenshaw University today.

Maharaja Krushna Chandra Bhanjadeo further appreciated T.E. Ravenshaw for he appointed Odia school inspectors for the first time and also insisted that Odia be made the medium of instruction in schools. Being highly supportive of women's education, he also founded Cuttack Girls' School, which was later renamed as Ravenshaw Girls' School.

The Mayurbhanj Maharaja had also played a great role in foundation of Ravenshaw College along with T.E. Ravenshaw as he had donated Rs 20,000 as a supplementary amount to fulfil the condition for clearance of the proposal put forth by the then lieutenant-governor of Bengal Richard Temple. Since it was the great renowned Odia compatriot Krushna Chandra Bhanjadeo, who had strongly proposed to rename Cuttack College after T.E. Ravenshaw for his immense contribution to the cause of education in Odisha, it would be a dishonour to the memory of the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj - the virtual co-founder of Ravenshaw College - to rename the university in any manner at this point.

Chitta Behera

president of the students' union of Ravenshaw College (1973 and 1974)

YES

Why not Shree Jagannath University?

Since my college days, I was opposed to the name of my alma mater as it was named after an arrogant, colonial bureaucrat who, by his unsympathetic and irresponsible administrative misdeeds, converted a drought to the worst famine in 1866 killing more than 10 lakh people. Rather, it was his successor John Beams who saved the Odia language from the parochial onslaught of the powerful with vested interests. In fact, there was a students' movement in the 1960s when the students' union demanded the renaming of Ravenshaw College. But the then principal Bansidhar Samantaray was opposed to the name change. His argument was - "Does it necessarily mean that a man with the name Papaka (sinner) always commits sin?" "Besides, you can no more be called as Ravenshawvian if the name of the college is changed," the principal had then reasoned.

Then students did not press for the demand to change the name. If it has to be renamed, it should be renamed after Lord Jagannath. I think this is appropriate because He is primarily an adivasi deity whose dearest devotees include Odia Muslim poet Salabega, Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das who was a Christian and Dasia Bauri, who was of a scheduled caste.

Chittaranjan Mohanty

president of students' union of Ravenshaw College (1971)