Jnu: The Making Of A University

by Rakesh Batabyal

Jawaharlal Nehru University, or JNU as it is popularly known, is perhaps India's grandest of nationalist institutions. It embodies the spirit of an earlier nationalist quest for autonomous and excellent intellectual life. In the choice of the issues and the confidence with which the disciplinary boundaries were questioned, JNU tried to constitute itself as an ethical alter ego of the The Making of a University is an examination of how an institution comes to life - from its conception in 1964, to 1989 when it entered a phase of major transition. It brings to life the intricate web of relationships between the founding principles of the university, contemporary politics, social transformations and the historical trajectories of Indian intellectual and institutional lives. The book is a chronicle of how the community of scholars and students navigated contested domains of emerging disciplines and organized politics, and how they tried to infuse life and movement into them in a completely new and uninhabited physical and intellectual space. Packed with details - based on parliamentary proceedings, newspaper accounts, interviews, pamphlets and a host of other primary sources - and replete with anecdotes and a rare intimate knowledge, this is not just the story of a university; it is also an intellectual history of India.

697 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 15, 2014

Reviews

[Anup Das]

A nice book depicting formation of a national research university in an emerging economy

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is one of the premier research universities in Indian sub-continent. It was formally established by distinguished educationists in 1969 in the heart of national capital of India, i.e., New Delhi. Since its inception, the university has produced several finest academicians, civil servants, career diplomats, policy analysts, social activists and writers. Since its early days, students of JNU are exposed to leftist and socialist politics either as participants or as close observers. Many national social movements got initiated at JNU by the student activists, which later spread across the country.

In book "JNU: The Making of a University" author Rakesh Batabyal explores different dimensions of student politics emanated from JNU, particularly during the turbulent times of emergency, Naxalite movement, Bhopal Gas tragedy, Babri Masjid demolition, and so on. A book excerpt "How the Left won JNU: The fight was seldom between the Left and the Right, but between different shades of red" is available at http://scroll.in/article/698767.

This book also elaborates formation of different academic departments in humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines and Area Studies programmes in India, which later followed by different South Asian universities. This book gives us an extensive history of a national research university in an emerging economy, which has many international research collaborators in all major subject areas. This book was launched at the 75th Session of Indian History Congress in December 2014.