Dharmendra calls for renaming Ravenshaw University, citing historical negligence

Bhubaneswar: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan proposed a name change for Ravenshaw University on Saturday.

“There is a need for a name change. What did Ravenshaw, after whom the university is named, do during the famine? The person hurt Odias; is it a matter of pride? Changing the name is my personal opinion,” Pradhan stated during a self-governance day event in Cuttack.

Sources reveal that Odia stalwart Maharaja Krushna Chandra Bhanjadeo of the erstwhile Mayurbhanj state named Cuttack College as Ravenshaw College in 1878, following the departure of T.E. Ravenshaw as the commissioner of Odisha.

Ravenshaw, who arrived in Odisha in 1855, was the commissioner of the Cuttack division during a devastating famine that led to the deaths of about one-fourth of Odisha’s population, largely due to his negligence.

Ravenshaw College became a university in 2006.