Each time I am inside the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, I wonder why people have moved outside it! After all, it comes across as a well structured university township, with an air of connectivity to it. Unlike a typical university campus, there is less of chaos and more of the sprawling spread…complete with lush greenery and tall trees and well defined roads which lead to a destination of sorts.
To an ‘outsider’ or a casual visitor to the JNU campus, it seems an extension of a dreamy academic getaway, set in an isle of calm. Yes, the calm does get broken by stray dogs holding forth at every turn or crossing, intimidating people with ferocious barks and at times attacking them. However, most — insiders and outsiders — seem to overlook this drawback, highlighting the other aspects.
There is no denying that there is something to this university that makes it stand out. It is well known not just in the country but also in the subcontinent and beyond. Why?
As if in answer to that question, the recently launched book, "JNU: The Making of a University" by JNU academic
Dr. Rakesh Batabyal, gives a whole new insight into the inception of this institution, together with the lesser known aspects.
Why did Batabyal think in terms of putting together this volume? He says, "I do not know at what point of time I began writing this book. It was most probably the words of a dear colleague Richa Malhotra that motivated me seriously to look deeper into the university whose air I breathed every day. A history of the institution, I began to understand as the research and writing progressed, requires special historiographical treatment. There are innumerable people associated with an institution and all wish to see reflection of their own lives unto the institution. A historian’s account, I realised, needed to be approximate to that larger canvas of the institution and at the same time not allow the little histories to be treated merely as reflections of the real big entities …"
Batabyal has perhaps well connected the ‘two streams’, and done so with much detail, focus and flow. Last week at a lively discussion on this volume at the India International Centre, it was obvious that the conversation could have gone much beyond the evening, as those lesser known facts and factors together with myths and misconceptions associated with this university were discovered by many of us in the audience. Right from the details to its first vice chancellor, the political ideologies to campus life.
Interestingly, the story is captured only till about 1989. Perhaps that is the year Batabyal joined this university and he did not want his personal views to trickle into the text.
It is a very interesting read and Batabyal’s style is akin to that of a dastangoi storyteller, so that makes it an effortless read.
