By D N Singh
Cuttack: “It sounds a bit out of the blue, suddenly changing the name of Revenshaw after 156 years! So changing the name of Revenshaw should not be done ” opined Dr Pravat Mishra former Principal of Revenshaw college. ” Rather I would request Mr Pradhan, as he himself once said, to make Revenshaw university to a Central university” recalled Dr Mishra while talking to this author.
However, suddenly the state now hogged the limelight over another issue which even smacks of politics in some or the other way.
The other day the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has made a ripple in the political circle and among the intellectual fraternity by suggesting that a pioneering institution be given a new name.
Pradhan said that the 156 year old Ravenshaw University’s, at Cuttack, name should be changed on certain grounds.
Pradhan has argued that why the name of a foreigner be continued given the fact that Thomas Edward Revenshaw the then Commissioner of Odisha was morally responsible for the death of one lakh people in the 1866 Na Annka famine that claimed so many lives.
Regardless of the allegation made by Pradhan, a seasoned political leader now, has made the suggestion (although cloaking it as his personal opinion) thus driving a wedge between two groups who may say No to the suggestion or the other may support it.
Alumni of Ravenshaw, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and now owner of Sambad Media group , has come out sharply against the name change suggestion saying “that there is no logic in giving a new name to the Ravenshaw University and it should not be”.
The BJP or Pradhan has now whipped up sentiments among many making it appear political nevertheless.
“When there is no other issue or any important agenda as regards development the BJP (or Pradhan) has made the suggestion that it can be simply a political time-pass for the moment” observed Rabi Das, political analyst.
Coming, as it did, at a time when politics passes through a dull phase Pradhan has succeeded to create a scope for a debate.
And his suggestion for the name change came almost from the blue while looking in hindsight it can be said that the then Commissioner of Odisha, Edward Thomas Revenshaw had owned up the moral responsibility for the tragedy in 1866.
So that appears to be a leg-less logic that Revenshwa had literally pushed such a mammoth crowd to the face of death.
“It would be wrong to say that 1866 Famine killed one lakh people” comes the contradiction from the BJP state spokesman Anil Biswal
Edward Thomas Revenshwa had in fact played a pioneering role in the promotion of education.
“Ravenshaw also advocated for women’s education in Odisha after he observed that no one was ready to send their daughters to school. Financial assistance was sanctioned for the initiative which led to the establishment of Cuttack Girl’s School which initially ran as a primary school. In 1873, the name of this girls’ school was renamed as Ravenshaw Hindu Girl’s School” recalled Rabi Das.
Besides that, in another significant initiative in the spread of education Commissioner Ravenshaw and Dr. W.D. Stewart, the Civil Surgeon of Cuttack joined hands to expand medical education in the region. Ravenshaw very keenly recommended the sanction of the scheme which led to the government to start an esteemed institution on experimental basis.
