31st October 2024, Cuttack : On 31st August 2024 in conversation with media Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had given a controversial proposal to have a debate on the change of name of 156 year old historical Ravenshaw University which is pride of not only the people of Cuttack but of our state Odisha.
In response to that a huge protest all over the state was started as well as several eminent alumni of the state-run Ravenshaw College — which became a university in 2006 and celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2017 — have opposed the renaming one of the oldest and most iconic educational institutions in the country.
Glorious History of Ravenshaw College
Over the decades, Ravenshaw College has produced eminent Odia personalities such as Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das, Acharya Harihara Das, Pandit Gopabandhu Das, and Pandit Nilakantha Das. Great minds such as P K Parija, Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, Annada Shankar Ray, Gopinath Mohanty, and Manoj Das were its alumni.
Former Chief Ministers Harekrushna Mahtab, Biju Patnaik, and Nandini Satpathy, and former Lok Sabha speaker Rabi Ray were students of Ravenshaw College at different times.
Besides being the nerve centre of higher education, Ravenshaw College became a driving force in the civic and political life of Odisha.
The Role of T. E. Ravenshaw
It has to be noted that Thomas Edward Ravenshaw made a significant contribution to Odisha by his promotion of higher education, and by advancing the cause of the Odia language. Ravenshaw, who had been appointed commissioner in 1865, submitted a memorandum asking for the establishment of a degree college in Odisha. Ravenshaw’s proposal was accepted with the condition that the public should contribute Rs 10,000 towards the college. The Maharaja of Mayurbhanj, Krushna Chandra Bhanja Deo, donated Rs 20,000, which contributed significantly to the growth and sustenance of the institution. The college was founded in 1868 with intermediate level classes at Cuttack Zilla School (now known as Ravenshaw Collegiate School), which was elevated to a degree college in 1876. The college was named after Ravenshaw as a tribute to the British officer, who remained in charge of Odisha until 1878 on the suggestion of Maharaja of Mayurbhanj and supported whole heartedly by our ancestors. It shows that Odia people are grateful to the people who have supported us in our overall development. We are humble and have a strong belief of self esteem and that is the integral and most important feature of our culture & Odia Asmita.
It was proudly said that anyone who mattered in Odisha in any field was a Ravenshavian – be he a politician, doctor, engineer, academic or civil servant or anything remarkable.
T.E. Ravenshaw loved Odisha and did for Odisha what no colonial administrator did in the field of education. The Ravenshaw University was named after him by the grateful Oriyas of those days as a tribute to his contribution to Odisha’s education.
“Ravenshaw College, its pious soil is a part of our emotion. The institute is as respectable as our mother because it has nourished us and nurtured like its sons & daughters” as said by Ex Student Leader Jines Das.
