In a move that has sparked outrage, Bhopal’s Barkatullah University is set to erase its namesake. On June 3, 2026, the Executive Council unanimously approved renaming it Vagdevi Bhojpal University, honouring Goddess Saraswati and 11th-century ruler Raja Bhoj. The proposal, now with the Governor, dismisses Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali as having “no significant contribution” beyond being born in Bhopal.
Critics call it outright erasure: sidelining a Muslim revolutionary for a Hindu icon in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.Who Was India’s Forgotten First Prime Minister?Born July 7, 1854, in Bhopal’s Itwara, Mohamed Barakatullah was a firebrand polyglot, scholar, journalist, and global revolutionary. He fled British surveillance after tearing into Gladstone’s racist jabs in England, then blazed across continents.
He taught in Tokyo, published anti-British tracts in Japan, co-founded the Ghadar Party in San Francisco in 1913, and rallied expatriate Indians, especially Sikhs and Punjabis, for armed revolt. His words reached revolutionaries worldwide. His crowning act came in 1915. In Kabul, he helped proclaim the Provisional Government of India – the country’s first government-in-exile. Hindu prince Raja Mahendra Pratap was President. Maulana Barkatullah served as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. This bold symbolic strike sought alliances with Germany, Turkey, and later Soviet Russia to smash British rule.
He met Lenin in 1919, positioning himself as an anti-imperial ally. Barkatullah died in San Francisco in 1927, with Raja Mahendra Pratap at his side. He lies buried in Sacramento.Champion of UnityBarkatullah didn’t just fight the British — he fought division. In letters to Hasrat Mohani, he preached ironclad Hindu-Muslim unity as the only path to freedom. British “divide and rule” was the real enemy. His seamless partnership with Hindu leaders proved syncretic nationalism wasn’t rhetoric; it was action.
Cultural Reclamation or Selective Amnesia? Supporters say the rename celebrates Bhopal’s ancient glory through Raja Bhoj. The university, founded in 1970 as Bhopal University, got its current name in 1988 under Congress to honour the freedom fighter.
Opponents, including historians like Irfan Habib, see a pattern: diminishing Muslim icons in public memory. Defenders rightly note Barkatullah wasn’t just a “local son”, his global war against empire advanced India’s cause. Ironically, the Centre promotes Raja Mahendra Pratap while sidelining his closest comrade.
Why It Matters: Barkatullah embodied the overlooked internationalist wing of the freedom struggle, diasporic, intellectual, borderless. While Gandhi and Nehru dominated the home front, he waged war from Kabul to California. His life proves independence was a global, multi-faith fight.
Erasing him doesn’t just rewrite one university signboard, but weakens the pluralistic idea of India that freedom fighters like him died for. As historian Chaman Lal argues, don’t rename, teach him. Put his story in curricula. Honour the grave in California and the exile government in Kabul.
The debate has ironically revived Barkatullah’s name. But if the rename sticks, future students in Bhopal will learn less about the man who was India’s first Prime Minister, decades before Nehru, and more about erasing inconvenient legacies.
