Bhubaneswar: There is no proposal to rename the historic Ravenshaw University in Odisha’s Cuttack city, Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj informed the Assembly on Friday.
“No proposal for renaming the Ravenshaw University in Cuttack is currently under the consideration of the state government,” the Minister stated in a reply to BJD MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain in Assembly.
In September last year, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had stoked a controversy by suggesting that the name of the prestigious 156-year-old higher educational institution named after former Odisha Commissioner TE Ravenshaw be changed since the catastrophic famine of 1866 in Odisha in which more than a million people perished, occurred under his watch.
It was opposed by several eminent alumni of the state-run college, which became a university in 2006 and celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2017. It also led to protests and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Congress, both demanded an apology from the Union Minister.
Amid the backlash, the BJP leaders clarified that the remarks were his personal opinion and should not be politicised.
Notably, the establishment of the college is widely regarded as TE Ravenshaw’s most significant contribution to advancing higher education in Odisha. He also promoted Odia as the medium of instruction.
