For a select gathering at the Salar Jung Museum on Tuesday, it was a walk back in time as Adapa Satyanarayana, former Head of Department of History, spoke about Osmania University’s contribution to the development of Nizam’s dominion. The event was the ninth Sheela Raj Memorial Lecture organised by Nizam’s Museum.
“The education reforms in Nizam’s dominion were initiated at the time of Mir Mahbub Ali Khan’s reign by Salar Jung who introduced western education. He felt that the modernisation of State and society was possible only with western languages and education and we had Madrassa Aalia, Nizam College and number of other institutions,” said Mr. Satyanarayana.
“The last Nizam visualised that modernisation was possible with vernacular medium. Intellectuals of last Nizam’s period thought of an alternative medium and chose Urdu. It was also to discount the dominance and hegemony of English. However, English was a compulsory subject in OU,” he said. Mr. Satyanarayana also spoke about the novel role played by the translation and compilation bureau set up at OU.