BHOPAL: A political row has erupted in Madhya Pradesh after the Executive Council (EC) of Bhopal based Barkatullah University approved a proposal to rename the institution as “Vagdevi Bhojpal University”.
The EC approved the proposal at a special meeting on Wednesday and forwarded it to Governor and Chancellor Mangubhai C. Patel for final approval.
The university's highest executive authority and primary decision making body also approved structural academic changes, including the reorganisation of traditional disciplines such as Arabic and Persian under a new Department of Comparative Languages and Culture.
University Registrar Dr S.B. Singh said the proposal to rename the university was intended to honour the region's historical and cultural heritage and recognise the intellectual contributions of the great Parmar king Raja Bhoj.
However, EC member Prof Tahira Abbasi opposed the proposal, stating that renaming the university would be inappropriate as its current name honours a prominent freedom fighter.
She further suggested that if the proposed name is to be adopted, a separate university should be established under that name.
According to Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar, “The university is an autonomous body, whose EC, while taking the decisions on its own, has approved the proposal at its meeting. The detailed proposal which has been passed by the varsity’s EC is yet to come to us. Once we receive it, we will study it, followed by further consideration.”
Former Madhya Pradesh minister and head of the state Congress media department Mukesh Nayak questioned the reasoning behind the proposed name change.
“The university should focus on academic and administrative issues, rather than moving ahead on such controversial issues,” Nayak said.
Another Congress leader and former minister, P.C. Sharma, targeted the BJP and the Dr Mohan Yadav government.
“This is nothing but another ploy to divert public attention from real public issues through event management of name change. Instead of doing the politics of name change in Barkatullah University, the government should have focused on various administrative irregularities in the same varsity. Let me make it clear, once the Congress returns to power, not only will it reverse this decision of name change, but restore all old names of places and institutions renamed by the BJP government in MP,” Sharma said.
State BJP media cell convener Ashish Agrawal, meanwhile, said the government was acting in accordance with public sentiment and that the latest development was aimed at honouring the region’s culture and heritage.
Spread across a 400 acre campus in Bhopal, Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya, formerly known as Bhopal University, was established in 1970. It was renamed Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya in 1988 in memory of freedom fighter Prof Barkatullah, who hailed from Bhopal. The university was awarded a 'B' grade by NAAC in 2015.
The university was renamed in 1988 to honour Indian revolutionary Mohamed Barkatullah Bhopali, popularly known as Maulana Barkatullah.
Born on July 7, 1854, in Bhopal's Itwara locality, he contributed to India's freedom struggle from abroad through speeches and revolutionary writings. He died in San Francisco in 1927 and did not live to see India's Independence.
Notably, he served as the Prime Minister of India’s first provisional government in exile, formed in Afghanistan on December 1, 1915, with Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh as President and Ubaidullah Sindhi as Home Minister.
According to informed sources, the proposal approved by the university's EC on Wednesday highlights the historical and intellectual legacy of the 11th century Parmar king Raja Bhoj, describing him as a ruler whose contributions to literature, science, architecture and education left a lasting impact on central India.
The proposal states that Raja Bhoj’s name is deeply connected with Bhopal’s identity through Bhojtal, the Bhojpur temple and the region’s wider cultural memory.
It further notes that Raja Bhoj wrote nearly 80 treatises, of which 27 are believed to be available today. It also refers to Dhara, present day Dhar, as a major centre of learning during his reign and highlights Bhojshala as a temple of Saraswati and an ancient seat of knowledge.
The proposal links the name “Vagdevi” to the idol of the Goddess of Speech and Knowledge associated with Bhojshala.
The controversy has intensified because the proposal reportedly makes a direct comparison between Raja Bhoj and Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali. It states that, compared to Raja Bhoj, “no significant contribution to this region by Barkatullah Bhopali is evident, other than the fact that he was a resident of Bhopal.”
On this basis, the proposal recommends that the university’s name be changed to better reflect Bhopal’s historical and cultural heritage.
This is not the first instance of the renaming of institutions and places in Madhya Pradesh during BJP rule. In recent years, Bhopal’s Habibganj railway station was renamed Rani Kamalapati railway station, Hoshangabad district was renamed Narmadapuram, Islamnagar became Jagdishpur and Nasrullaganj was renamed Bherunda.
Maulana Barkatullah was associated with the Ghadar movement and was part of a global network of Indian revolutionaries. A scholar, journalist and polyglot, he was proficient in several languages, including Arabic, Persian, English and Japanese.
He taught in London, Liverpool and Tokyo, maintained links with revolutionaries at India House, edited the Ghadar Party newspaper and travelled across the United States, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan, Soviet Russia, France and Italy as part of his anti colonial activities.