Book on history of JNU launched

JNU: The Making of A University by Rakesh Batabyal was launched at Press Club of India, on Saturday.

Batabyal, the history of media teacher at the Centre for Media Studies, is the author of books such as Communalism in Bengal: From Famine to Noakhali (1943-47) and The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches. His latest book, published by HarperCollins, traces the history of the central university (where Batabyal was also once a student) from its inception in 1964 to 1989.

"The reason for writing this book was very specific," said Batabyal at the launch. "I wanted to find out why so many people want to be associated with the university and why an equal number are derisive about it."

A visit of delegates from Yale University, who could not stop waxing eloquent about JNU's academic standards, a few years ago prompted Batabyal to study his alma mater's attractions. At the same time, he found himself defending the university from barbs of colleagues at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, where he was a fellow from 1996 to 1999.

The duality convinced Batabyal to write the book.

In its acknowledgements section, Batabyal writes: "The history of an institution, I began to understand... requires a special historiographical treatment."

That treatment has been provided through painstaking research, including thousands of interviews, analysis of government documents and research of former students as well as private papers of people who have been associated with the institution.

The result: a comprehensive book stretching over 560 pages, describing JNU's establishment in the crucible of nationalist fervour and its development as premier national institution.

"It's long but it must be very interesting," quips Madhubala, a second-year sociology student of JNU who has also attended some of Batybal's classes. "I have read snippets from the book. It seems you can just open any page and start reading. You will be hooked."

The timeliness of the Batyabal's book was also the subject of a lively discussion between the author and the audience. While India steps consciously into a post-Nehruvian era with the dissolution of the Planning Commission, what role can a university named after India's first prime minister play?

"India needs JNU," asserted Batabyal. "It provides the space for the debate that might not be possible elsewhere."

Yet when students like Rukmini pick up the book, they do not get a complete story of their university - it ends in 1989.

Asked the reason for this, Batabyal, the quintessential Delhi academic in a brown jacket and green muffler, said: "There are two reasons: First, 1989 marked the end of an epoch with the fall of the Soviet Union and the disillusionment with China's brand of communism due to the Tiananmen Square massacre. The socialists - faculty and students - who were the mainstay of JNU's intellectual life seemed to lose some of their legitimacy.

"Also that was the year I joined JNU."

So is there going to be a sequel? "It's not yet time for that," said the historian, sipping his tea.