Wheeler Senate hall in Patna University to be renamed after Jayaprakash Narayan

Bihar’s Patna University (PU) has decided to change the colonial name of its iconic Wheeler Senate House to ‘Jayaprakash Narayan Convention Centre’ after activist Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan, people aware of the matter said.

The decision comes less than a week after Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, who is the Chancellor of the university, advocated it on Teacher’s Day. On September 5, the governor along with chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the refurbished hall.

The name was recommended by CM Kumar who said, “…it was here that JP addressed to sow the seeds of the revolution and we were also part of it.”

This iconic hall was the venue in 1973 where the representatives of the students’ union under JP adopted a resolution for launching a statewide agitation against the misrule of the then government, which later paved the way for changing the political scenario of the entire nation.

According to a notice issued by the Patna University registrar, the renaming of the hall will take place on Monday (September 11) following the proposal approval from the Chancellor’s secretariat.

“I have been told great philosopher and poet Rabindra Nath Tagore had also visited here. The university should think on those lines to get rid of the colonial hangover,” Governor Arelkar said.

It was in the Wheeler Senate House that poet Rabindranath Tagorewas was felicitated on March 17 1936 soon after he won the Nobel prize.

According to university archives, the hall was built with funding from Raja Devaki Nandan Prasad Singh of Munger, who had offered to meet the entire cost of building the senate hall in 1925.

The hall was built in 1926 and was inaugurated the same year by the then Governor of Bihar and Orissa province and Chancellor of the University Sir Henry Wheeler.

Earlier, it hosted convocations, conferences and other functions, but its condition kept deteriorating until the Bihar government got it renovated, keeping its aesthetic design with magnificent pillars, high ceilings and attached corridors intact.

“Eminent personalities like Lord Mountbatten, Sarojini Naidu, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, C D Deshmukh, VKRV Rao, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and Jayaprakash Narayan addressed university convocations here. Scientists like Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sir CV Raman, Meghnad Saha, and Satyendra Nath Bose also addressed university students and faculty members. Its legacy is huge,” said the former head of the Department of Economics, NK Choudhary.

However, Patna University, set up in 1917 and the seventh oldest university in the country, does not have just one structure reminding of the pre-independence days.

It has its famed hostels carrying colonial names. University’s Minto Hostel which was set up in 1907 was named after the then Viceroy Lord Minto while Jackson Hostel, set up in 1908, was named after then Patna College principal VH Jackson.

Last month, the university students held a protest after speculations over the possible changing of the names of the hotels. However, university vice-chancellor Girish Choudhary, whose term is ending later this month, said there was no such proposal at present and he would like to see the university grow.

“New hostels of greater capacity are already planned. PU is undergoing an image makeover, and many things have changed for the better. Thanks to financial assistance from the government. The campus development projects worth over Rs.300 crore have already been approved. We have submitted another Rs.414 crore project for Saidpur development with more hostels and residential quarters. The objective is to revive the glory of the university during my tenure and beyond. I have tried to do my best here as PU is my alma mater,” Choudhary had said.