WHEN OSMANIA UNIVERSITY DEGREES WERE DISHONOURED.

Osmania University (OU) may have been a trendsetter in Indian educational system winning accolades from none other than Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, but there was a time when its degrees were not recognised by other universities. It was before India became free from foreign rule in 1947 that the university faced unacceptability. While all universities were imparting higher education in English, the founding fathers of OU preferred Urdu as medium of instruction, irking the British government.
The princely state of Hyderabad was the only 'subsidiary state' in the British India that had freedom to run its own government and institutions including railways and postal services. But other princely states did not enjoy such a freedom and thus, they had no choice but to adopt English as the medium of instruction. By the time OU came into existence, there were seven universities. A couple of them including the University of Madras was, however, in the British Presidency. According to news archives, since the medium of instruction was not English, the educational standards of OU were considered low and thus, the certificates did not carry any academic value. This segregation continued for a few years even after the British left India in August, 1947 and Hyderabad merged with the Indian Union after the Police Action in September, 1948. While proposing to take over OU in early 1952, the Centre cited several reasons. One of them was to improve academic standards by replacing Urdu with Hindi.
When the University was set up in 1918-19 through a firman (decree) in 1917, Rabindranath Tagore lauded the revolutionary experiment. "I have long been waiting for the day when free from the shackle of a foreign language our education becomes naturally accessible to all our people". That several freedom fighters including C. Rajagopalachari supported a vernacular language in OU, only proved counter-productive with its degrees being rejected by other universities.
A perusal of news archives reveal that OU had in fact maintained the highest academic standards. Hundreds of books were translated from English to Urdu. It had also obtained the best of the equipment available those days for science laboratories. One of the oldest medical schools in the world was also affiliated to OU.
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