DU college students claim society names in Urdu changed, principal denies charge

‘The nomenclature of the societies is approved by the Governing Body. The principal has no role to play in it,’ says R N Dubey

4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 27, 2022 08:09 PM IST

Delhi University’s B R Ambedkar College. (Photo: drbrambedkarcollege.ac.in)

Current and former students of Delhi University’s B R Ambedkar College have alleged that the principal pressured cultural societies of the college to change their names since they were in Urdu. A member of the college’s theatre society said they changed their name after they were told funds would stop if they did not.

The principal, however, denied the charge.

The college’s theatre society was originally called ‘Astitva (existence)’ before it was changed to ‘Ilhaam (intuition)’ in 2020. However, it has now been changed to ‘Aarambh (beginning)’.

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Ali Fraz Rezvi, an alumnus of the college who graduated this year, and former vice-president of the theatre society, claimed the pressure to change the name began when the current principal R N Dubey took over last year. “Last year itself he called the office bearers of the societies which had Urdu names and said it was against official decorum to have these. He told us to change to Hindi names or else the funding would stop,” he claimed.

“He had objected to the name ‘Ibaarat (text)’ for a magazine which was started under the NSS (National Service Scheme) in 2019, but because we fought at the time, the matter was deferred. But yesterday we were told that societies have again been told to change their Urdu names, otherwise they would not get funding, nor would its members be given attendance. So under pressure, the theatre society has changed its name,” he claimed.

A core member of the theatre society claimed the convenor (a teacher) asked them to change the name on the directions of the principal. “Two weeks ago she had a meeting and said the name had to be changed because it’s an Urdu name and the principal will not be happy with it. She said funds would not be given and even our attendance can be held. Fifty percent of our members are juniors so they get scared easily. Ultimately pressure was created,” he claimed.

A society for sustainable menstruation, originally called ‘Ritva (branch)’, which was changed to ‘Inaayat (blessing)’, has also gone back to its original name, allegedly for the same reason.

An alumna and former office bearer of the society claimed: “We had changed the name to Inaayat because Ritva is an NGO working on the same issue across the country, and we wanted some distance from it and for our college society to run independently. But the principal had objections to the name and questioned the existence of the society as a whole. Now again it has been changed to Ritva under pressure,” she claimed.

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Principal R N Dubey denied the allegations. “The nomenclature of the societies is approved by the Governing Body. The principal has no role to play in it. Why would I ask anyone to change names? This is a secular country of many languages and religions. We are not a minority institution to promote or demote anybody,” he said.

“However, we only recognise those societies which have been approved by the Staff Council. Two or three students can’t decide and just start a society… We have only one Cultural Committee, there are no separate societies. I don’t know about either Ilhaam or Aarambh,” Dubey added.

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