BHU to Award Dr Bhagwan Das Gold Medal to Outstanding LLM Student

Banaras Hindu University will institute a gold medal in memory of Bharat Ratna Dr Bhagwan Das, linking one of the institution’s future academic honours to a figure closely associated with the educational life of Varanasi. The medal will be awarded to a meritorious student in the LLM programme in Human Rights and Duties Education at the Faculty of Law.

The endowment is being created through a ₹10 lakh donation from Dr Pushkar Ranjan and Samir Kant, the great-grandsons of Dr Bhagwan Das. They handed the contribution to Vice-Chancellor Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi during a meeting at the university. A properly endowed medal is more than a one-time prize: the underlying fund is intended to support a recurring honour, subject to the university’s financial and academic rules.

Dr Bhagwan Das worked alongside Madan Mohan Malaviya and Annie Besant during a formative period in modern Indian education. His connection with BHU is already reflected in a hostel bearing his name. He also contributed to the establishment of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, giving the memorial particular meaning in a city shaped by both institutions. India awarded him the Bharat Ratna in 1955 for his social, political and literary contribution.

Selecting the Human Rights and Duties Education programme adds a contemporary layer to that history. The course sits at the point where constitutional law, institutions and everyday citizenship meet. A medal can recognise examination performance, but the subject itself asks students to think beyond marks—about how rights are enforced, how duties are interpreted and how legal systems treat people without power.

BHU will need to publish the governing criteria before the first award: the eligible cohort, minimum academic requirements, tie-breaking method and whether conduct or research work forms part of the assessment. Transparent rules protect the credibility of both the donor’s intention and the student who eventually receives the medal. They also ensure that a memorial honour becomes part of the university’s academic architecture rather than a ceremonial announcement.

For Varanasi, the endowment is a small but durable example of a family using institutional memory to support present-day scholarship. Its value will accumulate each year as a new law graduate carries the name of Dr Bhagwan Das into professional life. The strongest tribute will be an award process that is rigorous, public and faithful to the human-rights purpose attached to it.

The medal also offers the Faculty of Law a reason to bring Dr Bhagwan Das’s work into conversation with students rather than leaving his name at the edge of a convocation programme. A public lecture, archival note or student essay attached to the award could make the memorial educational in the fullest sense, connecting historical memory with the legal questions the programme teaches today.