Hallowed be thy name

With their fast and firm response, the members of the managing committee of the Shree Nagpur and Kamthi Parsi Zarthosti Anjuman (SNKPZA) have foiled an attempt by the Nagpur Uni­versity to change the name of the Jamsetjee Nusserwan­jee Tata Convocation Hall and Building to Dadasaheb Kalmegh Hall.

On the night of Friday, July 26, the president of the SNKPZA Edul Bhagwagar came to know that the Nagpur University authorities, headed by its vice chancellor Dr Arun Satputaley had decided on the proposed move. W. M. alias Dadasaheb Kalmegh was an ex-vice chancellor of the Universi­ty. Invitations for the renaming function to be held on July 29 had already been issued.

Acting swiftly, the Anjuman president and his colleagues on the managing committee, Navroze Daver (vice president), Shiraz Doonga­ji (honorary treasurer) and Yezdi Bhagwagar (honorary secretary), sent letters of protest to the chancellor, vice chancellor and pro vice chancellor of the University. They also questioned the Univer­sity’s legal and moral right to change the name. They pointed out that though the Parsis were a minority com­mu­­ni­ty, their contribution to the cultural, educational, industrial and political fabric of the country was significant and this proposed move had deeply hurt the sentiments of the minority community.

Telegrams were sent to the chairman of the National Minorities Commis­sion, to its Zoroastrian representative Lt Gen (retd) Adi Sethna, Soli Sorabjee, attor­ney general of India, Themuras Doongaji, managing director Tata Services and Jamshed Guzder, chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet. Ex-Nagpurians Dr Jamshed Irani, Jamsheed Kanga and Ava Khullar were appraised of the move and everyone’s help sought in thwarting the same.

Edul Bhagwagar, Daver and Shiraz Doon­gaji went to the Press who were supportive of their stand. The next day’s newspapers — English, Hindi and Marathi — strongly decried the renaming of the Uni­versity Convocation Hall.

On the morning of Sunday, July 28, the Nagpur Anjuman represented by its lawyer Arun Chaudhari approached the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court for a stay order on the proposed move of the Nagpur University to change the name.

The division bench consisting of Justices J. N. Patel and R. S. Mohite granted the stay and directed the Nagpur University to refrain from changing the name of its Convoca­tion Hall.

Edul Bhagwagar told the judges that they had nothing against the late Kalmegh. Their only contention was that the name of a person of the stature of Jamsetji Tata should not be removed. "Jamset­ji Tata was not just a Parsi,” said Bhagwagar, "he was an Indian first. His vision and largesse were never restricted to one community. His contribution to the country and most of all to the city of Nagpur was monumental.”

Tata’s very first industrial venture, the Empress Mills, was located in Nagpur. The Empress Mills gave direct employment to over 7,000 people for 125 years. It was the largest single employer in Nagpur, in its time. Seven thousand bread earners meant that at least 25,000 people depended on Tata’s mills. The J. N. Tata Parsi Girls High School, Nagpur, was the first school for girls in this region and continues to be one of the foremost girls’ schools even today.

The Jamsetjee Nusser­­-wanjee Tata Convocation Hall and Building (alongside) and the visionary (above)

The respect and reverence the name of Jamsetji Tata evokes even today, among a cross section of people, is evident. Cutting across lines of community and class, ex em­ployees of the Mills, academicians, captains of industry and commerce and many concerned people have supported the Nagpur Anjuman in its bid to halt the change of name. Eighty-eight-year-old Keki Mehta, onetime accountant in the Empress Mills sent a handwritten account from the pages of his diary of the donation made by the Tatas to the University in 1924. Everyone is together in the fight to uphold the honorable name of Jamsetji Tata.

The judges came down heavily on the Nagpur University officials, telling them to concentrate their energies on impro­ving the academic standards of the University. The decision to rename the Convocation Hall is an insult to one of the greatest visionaries of modern India and a philanthropist of the highest order, the Bench observed during the course of the hearing.

This stately edifice to higher education in the region was made possible by the (then) princely donation of one lakh rupees given by the Tatas in 1924 in response to an appeal from the first vice chancellor of the Nagpur University, Sir Bippin Chan­dra Bose. The governor of C. P. and Berar, Sir Butler, inaugurat­ed the illustrious J. N. Tata Convocation Hall and Building in 1927. Until 1949 all convocations of Nagpur University took place in this hall. When numbers became too large the convocations were held on the grounds of the same building.

"We have succeeded in getting a four-week stay,” said Daver. "It is now up to the chairman and directors at Bombay House to impress upon people in government to prevail upon the vice chan­cellor to drop the move. We are also confident that men of education and integrity like the chancellor and vice chancellor of Nagpur University will see how right and fitting it is to continue with the name ‘J. N. Tata Convocation Hall and Building,’ for this temple honoring academic achievement.”

At the end of the four-week stay, the University contested the court order. They said they have not violated any commitment. Their contention is that they had agreed to name the building as the Jamsetjee Tata Building and that will continue. They are only naming the main hall as the Dadasaheb Kalmegh Convocation Hall and there is no reason legal or otherwise why they cannot. The Bombay Bench of the Nagpur High Court, in a judgment delivered on September 13, 2002 has however continued its interim stay on the Nagpur University, restraining it from renaming the Convocation Hall after W. M. Kalmegh. The case is now in court and will probably take years to come to a conclusion.