Should ‘Muslim’ and ‘Hindu’ be Removed from BHU and AMU?

The students alleged political motives in the UGC’s decision and claimed that it demeaned secularism.

Aligarh Muslim University (Left) and Banaras Hindu University.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

After a committee set up by the University Grants Commission (UGC) recommended that the word ‘Muslim’ be removed from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and the word ‘Hindu’ be dropped from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), a student debate was sparked in the university.

The UGC, in its audit report, mentions that the central universities must remove the ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ from their names and rename it to either just Aligarh University and Banaras University or name it after the founders, in an effort to make it more secular.

Even though Union Minister, HRD, Prakash Javadekar later clarified that no such orders were given, and the universities will not have to change their names, the students voiced their opinions on the issue.

AMU and BHU have been running for a century now. We have no intentions of renaming these two universities. We have appointed the committee for administrative, academic and research audit. I have not seen the outcome of their study but as of now, we have no plans of renaming the universities.

Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister, HRD     

The students claimed that the decision was unnecessary and not only did it undermine the ethos on which the universities were built, but it also ignored the very definition of secularism.

They also alleged that the decision was politically motivated.

Video Producer: Anmol Saini
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam and Sandeep Suman