Nalanda may become yet another mediocre institution

Meant to serve as an example, lessons must be drawn from its failures

In January 2007, at the East Asia Summit, the government of India shared its plan to establish an international, multi-disciplinary university at Nalanda in Bihar. With the resignation of George Yeo, its second chancellor in as many years, last week, the university looked like a testament to the failed promises of the governments of India and Bihar, as well as its administrators. Mr Yeo, a former foreign minister of Singapore and Amartya Sen’s successor at Nalanda, says that he was not even informed when the entire governing board of the university, which included Mr Sen, Sugata Bose and Meghnad Desai, was replaced. Allegations of political interference and attacks on the university’s autonomy — made against the Central government since before Mr Sen’s resignation last year -- were repeated by Mr Yeo. While MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup has claimed that the government acted according to the rules established by the Nalanda University Act (2010), the impression that the government is actively undermining the autonomy of the university is likely to remain.

At its inception, the new Nalanda University held all the promise of the original — diversity, international recognition, adequate funds and state support and some of the best minds in the world. Nalanda’s administrators must raise their standards of efficiency. And the government must realise that academic and intellectual autonomy are not impediments to its goal, but rather the essential attributes to building institutions that can produce originality and innovation.