BHUBANESWAR: In her book Ravenshaw College: Orissa's Temple of Learning, eminent historian Nivedita Mohanty writes that in 1949, when the process of merger of Garjat states to form the greater Orissa province was completed, a desire was voiced to rechristen Ravenshaw College (now a university), the hallowed institution named after British administrator TE Ravenshaw, in honour of the most revered Odia nationalist leader Utkalamani Gopabandhu Das.
Since then, similar voices have been raised from time to time. In 2017, a demand was made to rename the university and now a suggestion in this regard by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has triggered a row.
So, who was Ravenshaw and why is he still at the centre of a raging controversy 110 years after his death?
Hailing from the Bath and North East Somerset region of England, Thomas Edward Ravenshaw was born on July 1, 1827 to John Hurdis Ravenshaw - a member of the British East India Company - and his first wife Rose Melley Thuillier. His grandfather John Goldsborough Ravenshaw was chairman of the British East India Company.
Educated at Haileybury College in England, he served the East India Company like his father. Ravenshaw was selected for the Indian Civil Service and was posted in different parts of India from mid-1849 to 1881-end. He succeeded RN Shore as the Revenue Commissioner in July 1865, and arrived at Cuttack the same year. He was also the superintendent of the Orissa Garjat Mahal comprising 19 native states.
In the months subsequent to his arrival, the state faced the catastrophic famine that wiped out a third of the population of coastal Odisha between 1865 and 1866. Many held him responsible as he decided not to import rice, acting on the assumption that there was plenty of rice available in the province.
Na'Anka Durbhikshya (The Great Orissa Famine)
The Orissa Famine Commission appointed by the British government, in its 1867 report, did not put the entire blame on Ravenshaw and also questioned the role played by the then governor and the board of revenue at Calcutta. The report stated that Ravenshaw was unfit to cope with the extraordinary situation in his role as commissioner; the board of revenue was guilty of having failed to manage the crisis; the manner in which Sir Cecil Beadon (then secretary to the board of revenue) had dealt with the calamity was far from satisfactory.
Historian Mohanty in her book writes that Ravenshaw had never served in Odisha earlier in any official capacity and therefore, had no administrative experience of the land that he came to serve. This unfamiliarity with the land and also his indifference would to a large extent be responsible for his inability to either assess the criticality of the situation or foresee events that led to the devastating tragedy - Na'Anka Durbhikshya or the Great Orissa Famine.
Promoting education and Odia language
Freedom fighter, social worker and politician Radhanath Rath wrote in the souvenir released by Ravenshaw College on the occasion of its centenary celebration in 1968 that although Ravenshaw's failure to deal with the famine in time was adversely commented upon by the Famine Commission, his sincerity of purpose and his genuine sympathy for Odia people in their intense suffering was also recognised.
"As a token of that human sympathy, Ravenshaw wanted to do good for the people of Orissa by introducing and intensifying the spread of modern education. The first English school known as Ravenshaw Collegiate School (also called Cuttack High School then) was the result of his initial efforts and later on the establishment of Ravenshaw College was due to him," he wrote.
Ravenshaw firmly believed that Odia should be the medium of instruction if education was to reach children at the grassroots. Former DGP Amiya Bhusan Tripathy in his book Trust Redeemed: Birth of Ravenshaw University writes that both Ravenshaw and John Beams, a scholar, made concerted efforts to counter sustained efforts by a few Bengali intellectuals to introduce Bengali as the medium of instruction in Odisha on the ground that Odia was not a separate language. Ravenshaw strove to introduce Odia language in schools where Bengali textbooks were used on the ground of the non-availability of Odia books, absence of printing press, high cost of printing, etc.
In 1868, the Government of Bengal inquired about the medium of instruction in the schools. Inspector of Schools, south west division, Midnapore, RL Martin proposed that it should either be Bengali or Odia as textbooks in Odia were not available. "It would require at least 20 years with a Vidyasagar to develop Oorya," Martin had said.
Ravenshaw strongly opposed this proposal arguing that since most of the teachers were Bengalis, the balance would always tilt in favour of Bengali, much to the detriment of Odia. He wrote, "So long as Oorya is not recognised as the language of all and every grade of Orissa schools, it is not expected that very material progress will be made in Oorya literature."
The administrator had also advocated creation of a separate inspector of schools for Odisha, delinking it from the south west division, Midnapore and urged the Government of Bengal to provide assistance to efforts made to print more Odia textbooks. The proposal was approved.
Formation of Ravenshaw College
In 1875, Ravenshaw, in his letter to the then secretary of the government of Bengal, had proposed establishment of a college in Cuttack.
"The establishment of a college in Cuttack is an object of personal interest to myself and also of greatest importance to the spread of higher education in Orissa. The Bengal Educational department, located in Calcutta, is incapable of affording immediate supervision and is alien, if not antagonistic, to local peculiarities. If the government will assign Rs 500 per month and place the organization of the new college in my hands, I am prepared in communication with the Director of Public Instruction, to submit a definite scheme for approval," his letter read.
Sir Richard Temple, the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, was not averse to the proposal but wanted the expenditure involved to be shared. He had asked for a contribution of Rs 30,000 from the public. Ravenshaw guaranteed that the sum would be forthcoming. Subsequently, the college was approved in principle. Cuttack College, as it was known, started in 1876 with intermediate classes, affiliated to Calcutta University. It had then only six students on the rolls in the BA class.
Ravenshaw was also instrumental in opening departments of various subjects in it. "In 1878, contributions of Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000 were made towards the maintenance of the college by the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj (Maharaja Krushna Chandra Bhanjadeo) and people of Orissa respectively," read the then principal DC Misra's report in the centenary celebration souvenir. It was at the instance of the Maharaja that the college was named after Mr Ravenshaw to commemorate his services to the cause of education in Orissa, it further read. That was not all.
Ravenshaw and Sir Richard Temple extended patronage to Dr Stewart, the then Civil Surgeon of Cuttack, to establish the Orissa Medical School in 1875. In 1944, it was renamed as Orissa Medical College and again in 1951 as Sriram Chandra Bhanja Medical College. It was also during his tenure that the Cuttack Survey School was established in Cuttack in 1876. The institution was renamed as Orissa School of Engineering in 1923. Ravenshaw left Orissa in 1878 to join as commissioner, Burdman division, where he served till 1881, when he retired. He died in 1914 at the age of 86.
