Urdu, Arabic Inscriptions Replaced By Telugu, Hindi, Thousands Sign Petition To Restore Osmania University’s Old Logo

Over 18,000 people have signed an online petition over the past weekend demanding the prestigious Osmania University’s logo to be restored to its original form. The demand came after many people realised that consecutive state governments changed the logo over a period of time.

The petition, started by Zuhair Madani on change.org, has so far garnered over 14,400 signatories. The original logo of the Osmania University had both Arabic and Urdu inscriptions. The upper part of the logo had the turra (crown) of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh (and last) Nizam and founder of Osmania University.

The crown was surrounded by wandering beams of lights and the words ‘Noorun Ala Noor’ were printed in Arabic. Over a period of time, Urdu and Arabic inscriptions were replaced by Telugu and Hindi texts in the logo.

“After Hyderabad was merged in to India, Nizam’s crown was removed from the OU emblem. This is clearly unfair, it was the Nizam who built Osmania University, slowly the Urdu inscription was also removed. Urdu medium courses were changed to English and the language become extinct in OU.” the petitioner said.

“Urdu is integral to this region. Its removal from the emblem is irrational as OU was the first university in the country to start courses in Indian languages,” he added. #OUlogo trended on Sunday as many people took to Twitter and demand to restore the original logo of Hyderabad’s Osmania University.

Osmania University was one of the earliest universities in India, established in 1918 after Osman Ali Khan issued a farman (order) to set it up in 1917. It was the first varsity that had provided higher education in Urdu medium. The seventh Khan founded the university, but after the annexation of the erstwhile Hyderabad state (1724-1948) to India, the medium of instruction was changed to English eventually.