The popular outrage over the naming of a proposed state University in Darjeeling hills “Greenfield”, had naturally outraged many. While some in the administration had commented, ‘its much ado over nothing, these are trivia issues that shouldn’t be given much credence,’ most of our readers had highlighted the need for a cultural marker attached to a University.
Name it after our administrative arrangement the University of Gorkhaland – like the University of Bodoland, or name it after our place University of Darjeeling, or after an icon of ours – Agam Singh Giri University, or Indra Bahadur Rai University and so on, our readers had commented.
Like everything Darjeeling even this conversation took a funny turn, when someone quiped, ‘Greenfield University thikai cha ta, dhanna Greenply University rakhena raich naam.”
Thanks to all of your writing in, Darjeeling MLA speaking for GJM (BT faction) told the West Bengal Legislative Assembly that popular sentiment is to name the university after our place. A regional daily, quotes him as saying, “We are grateful to chief minister Mamata Banerjee for setting up a university in the hills. The university will be of immense help to the hill people. During discussions, I also requested the state to change the name of Greenfield University to Darjeeling University so that the name of the varsity can strike a chord with the hill people.”
Our sources informed us that Mr. Rai then went on to read a number of FACEBOOK COMMENTS to underscore his point.
We thank Mr. Rai for taking note of the popular sentiments here in our hills and letting the WB legislative assembly know of the same.
We are, however, very grateful to our dear readers for continuing to write, comment, be engaged with the issues of the day. Change won’t happen overnight, it happens incrementally, as long as we are aware of what’s going on, we can all make informed decisions.
Back in day, Amitabh Bacchan used to ask in his BPL advertisements, ‘what’s in a name? naam mein kyaa rakha hai,” turns out everything. Every institute that comes up tell the tale of who, what, when, where and why’s of the people it caters to. The hardwork done by Trinamool Congress to change the name of the state from West Bengal to Paschim Bongo, to Bangal, to Bangla should be enough to tell us, why names matter. They are repository of our ties to these lands.
Let us all be mindful of these.
The bill of the University should have been ratified by GTA before it was finalised. Education is a subject matter of GTA according to GTA ACT (2011). Its our university….we should see thru it. The objectives of the university should clearly spell out and cover educational aspirations of the Gorkhas, Lepchas, Bhutias and other (GLBO) minority groups of the GTA region. We should not allow this University to be used as an instrument of Kolkata to further subjugate the Gorkhas.
If the name is much ado about nothing then what was the need to change the name of state to Bangla. It could have been Whitefield State.