Drop words ‘Muslim’ and ‘Hindu’ from university names, suggests Indian panel

University Grants Commission says religious words do not reflect secular character of university

An Indian academic panel has suggested that the words ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ in the names of local universities — like the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) — do not reflect their secular character and therefore, should be dropped, reported The Hindu.



The University Grants Commission (UGC) panel made the recommendations. The UGC was formed to probe alleged irregularities in 10 central universities of India. The suggestions were made in the audit report of the AMU.

According to a member of the UGC panel who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the universities could be simply called ‘Aligarh University’ and ‘Banaras University’ etc. They could also be renamed after their founders, added the panel member.

Centrally funded Indian universities are secular institutions but such words related to religion in their names do not reflect that character, said the member.

Besides AMU and BHU, other Indian universities that were audited by the panel include the Pondicherry University, the Allahabad University, the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, the Central University of Jharkhand and the Central University of Rajasthan.



The Central University of Jammu, the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, the University of Tripura and the Hari Singh Gour University were also audited by the UGC panel.

This story originally appeared on The Hindu.