Program of Study

The Centre for Political Studies was founded in 1971, with Professor Rasheeduddin Khan as its founder-Chairman, and three other faculty members. In the first year of its existence,the Centre launched the M.Phil programme with 15 students and in the following academic year, 1972-73 the M.A. Programme of the Centre was inaugurated.

Since that date,approximately 52 Ph.D., 294 M.Phil. and several hundred M.A. degrees have been awarded by the Centre. The initial programme of the Centre for Political Development, as it was known till 1973, was formulated by an Academic Advisory Committee of distinguished scholars including Professors S. Gopal, A. Appadorai, Rajni Kothari, J.P.S. Uberoi, Sukhamoy Chakravarty, Randhir Singh and P.N. Dhar.

In keeping with the spirit of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Act of 1966, and the brief of the School of Social Sciences, the Centre for Political Studies incorporated a strong interdisciplinary emphasis in the structure and design of its syllabi. This emphasis drew primarily upon the intellectual resources of the neighbouring disciplines of sociology and economics.

Indeed , looking back on the initial design of the Centre's courses, in the context of the development of the discipline, we find an interesting reflection of two tendencies, in both of which the perspective of the Centre departs form the conventional ways in which political science was being taught and researched in other Indian universities at the time.

There is, firstly, a strong reflection of the then dominant behavioural tradition in American political science, manifested in concerns such as political development. Secondly, there is a notable concern with radical politics of all kinds, variously expressed in the emphasis on political economy, as well as in courses on socialist theory and socialist movements. This paralleled, of course, the strong association of JNU with radical student and teacher politics and indeed with the ways in which history and economics were also being taught within this university.

This twin emphasis is reflected in an early statement of the Centre's academic perspective which identifies the five broad rubrics around which the academic programme of the 1970s was organized:

A. Comparative Politics
B. Government and Politics in India
C. Political Theory and Ideology
D .Socialism in Theory and Practice
E. Political Economy of Development


The areas of specialization identified for faculty and student research included various aspects of political development, the economic foundations of democracy in India, and institutional aspects of Socialism with reference to India. In the course of the last twenty-five years, the Centre's perspective and consequently its course list and research agenda has been substantially revised and extended, reflecting both major changes in the discipline of political science, as well as contemporary-political concerns.

There have been at least two major exercises of revision of the course structure in 1974 and again in 1987. In the latter exercise, the courses in the M.A. Programme were restructured in accordance with the principle that there should be a pronounced emphasis on the area of Indian Government, Politics and Society, corresponding to the main areas of interest of theCentre's faculty. As a consequence, a four -course module on Indian politics - spanning the four semesters of the M.A. Programme was introduced as part of the compulsory requirement.

While periodic reviews, perhaps inevitably, reflect a certain shift in the defining of priority areas of research, the Centre has through out retained its inter-disciplinary perspective. Thus, in the study of political theory and philosophy, the interaction between political ideas and social history is highlighted. Similarly, the study of Indian political processes is substantially focussed on the relationship between the polity, the economy, society and culture. Courses incomparative politics emphasise not the study of governmental systems of individual countries,but rather the inter-dependence of the capitalist, post-socialist and post-colonial countries in the context of the new global order.

In addition to the core areas of the discipline, the Centre attaches importance to the cognate areas, keeping in view the interface of Political Science with other social science disciplines. These am-as include Political Sociology, Political Economy,Public Administration and International Politics.Currently, the Centre's concerns are defined in terms of an emphasis upon the following areas of study :

1 . Political Theory,Thought and Ideologies
2. Approaches and Methods of Political Analysis
3. Indian Government and Politics
4. Comparative Government and Politics
5 . Public Administration
6. Political Sociology
7. Political Economy
8. Federalism
9. Socialism
10. Foreign Policy Studies
11. Politics of National Liberation Movements
12. Policy studies
13. Imperialism Neo-Colonialism and Multinational Corporations