Remove ‘Muslim’ from AMU, ‘Hindu’ from BHU: UGC

The University Grants Commission has reportedly suggested that the words like Hindu and Muslim must be removed from names of universities such as Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

The suggestion has been made so that education institutes reflect secular character.

According to a report in the Indian Express, earlier on April 25, the UGC had set up five committees that had the agenda of investigating complaints of irregularities against 10 central universities. The committees were set up at the behest of Ministry of Human Resource and Development and the suggestion is reportedly contained in an audit of AMU by one of those five committees.

The committee which comprised IIT-Madras professor Shripad Karmalkar, Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University V-C Kailash Sodani, Guwahati University professor Mazhar Asif and IIM-Bangalore professor Sankarshan Basu, as per the Indian Express, inspected AMU.

After the inspection, it has been suggested that AMU should either be called just ‘Aligarh University’ or it should be named after its founder, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the same thing has been recommended to BHU.

The IE report further added that other than AMU, the committee subjected other institutions as well to an academic, research, financial and infrastructure audit. Other educational institutions were - Allahabad University, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand, Pondicherry University, Central University of Rajasthan, Central University of Jharkhand, Central University of Jammu, University of Tripura and Hari Singh Gour University in Madhya Pradesh and Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha.