Indira Gandhi’s name goes missing from Oxford centre
LONDON: A centre established by the Somerville college in the University of Oxford in 2013 with a £3 million grant from India and named after Indira Gandhi has seen the name of the former prime minister dropped after the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.
The Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD) was named the Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development at its launch during the tenure of the Manmohan Singh government. Gandhi, an alumnus of the college, studied Modern History there in 1937.
The memorandum of understanding to set up the centre was signed in May 2013 after the then minister for Human Resources Development M M Pallam Raju visited the college. The Indian grant of £3 million was matched by the University of Oxford.
An ‘Education Brief’ of the Indian government dated December 1, 2016, suggests that the name was changed during the year. College officials, however, told Hindustan Times that there had been no pressure or suggestion from New Delhi to change the name.
The brief says: “The Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development (IGCSD), established at the College with Government of India providing seed money of ₹25 crore (GBP 3 mil- lion) – has begun work.”
“The Centre is now called Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD). The Centre would be housed in a new building on Oxford University’s Redcliff Observatory Quarter adjacent to Somerville College. The Centre would be fully established in time for the centenary celebrations of Smt. Gandhi’s birth on November 19, 1917,” it adds.
Asked about the name change, Alice Prochaska, principal of the college, said: “We have committed to use our ‘best endeavours’ to set up an ‘inspirational research facility’, i.e. an Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development, in a building on our site, and we are using our best endeavours to achieve the funding for a building that will indeed house the Indira Gandhi Centre”.