How T. E. Ravenshaw fought for Oorya and Orissa

“The Lieutenant Governor accepts your view in regard to the adoption of the Oorya language in the schools in Orissa. His Honour authorizes you to use your discretion about the exclusion of Bengallee.” (Arthur Cotton, Assistant Secretary, Government of Bengal, in a letter to Ravenshaw, 25 February 1873)

“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 therefore 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 D. P. I., to submit a definite scheme for approval.” (Ravenshaw, in a letter to the Secretary, Government of Bengal, 5 August 1875: No. 108)

(From “The Promotion of Education in Orissa by T. E. Ravenshaw” by P. Mukherjee – Former Reader in History, Utkal University)

(The content for these sections has been compiled by Dr. Urmishree Bedamatta (Department of English) with the help of the early records which were digitised under the Ravenshaw Restoration Project envisaged by former Vice-Chancellor Mr. Devdas Chhotray and coordinated by Dr. Umakant Mishra (on lien; Department of History), the Ravenshaw Centenary Souvenir, and Ravenshaw College: Orissa’s Temple of Learning, 1868-2006 by Nivedita Mohanty.)