Krishna Bharadwaj Memorial Lecture

The Fifteenth Krishna Bharadwaj Memorial Lecture was delivered by the eminent jurist Mr. Soli Sorabji on 12 March 2007 in the SSS. It was hosted by the Dean, School of Social Sciences and presided over by the Vice Chancellor of JNU. This lecture is held annually in the memory of Professor Krishna Bharadwaj, founder Chairperson of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning. Prof. Bharadwaj was an eminent scholar, a great teacher and above all, a warm and caring person. She is remembered warmly by all who knew her. On this occasion the annual Ranjan Roy Memorial Prize for the best MA second year student and the annual Avani Bhatt Memorial Prize for the best first year MA student were also presented. The former prize went to Ms. Kriti Jain and the latter to Mr. Rahul Kumar Rakesh.

The topic of this year’s lecture was Role of Parliament And The Judiciary In The Constitution: Is There A Conflict?  The issue has been widely debated in recent times. Some have questioned the legitimacy of the process of judicial review in a democracy. They have argued that a few judges (who are appointed and not elected) ought not to be able to overrule the will of the people, namely, the decisions taken by the legislature. Mr. Sorabji dismissed this argument as fallacious. He said that the constitution sought to put in place checks and balances on the powers of all branches of the government to safequard the rights of the people.

He stressed the need for an impartial judiciary to check the excesses of those in power. He suggested that the Judges have to be independent . He argued for the need to take a long term view in the matter. Any democracy must protect the rights of the minorities and the marginalized sections of society. He pointed out that were it not for the judiciary’s presence as a watchdog, the Parliament could, hypothetically speaking, pass legislation doing away with regular elections, favoring a particular community or outlawing free speech.

He said that the power of the legislature is not absolute and it is the Constitution that defines the ambit within which legislation may be framed. For instance, the powers of the Centre and the States are defined and they cannot encroach on each other’s arena. It is left to the Courts to decide on whether the legislature is acting within the framework of the Constitution and if not then a particular legislation may be declared to be unlawful. However, this has to be decided within the parameters set in the constitution. He praised the role played by PIL in advancing democracy in India (like, in the cases pertaining to human rights, rights of children and bonded labour) but also decried its misuse from time to time by the powerful and the publicity seekers.

Mr. Sorabji gave several examples (Nationalization of Banks, Privy Purses, President’s rule under article 356, Cash for questions and Keshavanand Bharti case) illustrating how the judiciary had worked with the legislature to strengthen and protect democracy in India. He said that the Indian judiciary had time and again passed judgments that protected and reinforced the fundamental rights of the citizens. In many cases those in power were resorting to non-enforcement of the laws and violating  the rights of the citizens so that,  in these cases, the courts had to step to protect the rights of the citizens by forcing the implementation of the laws.

He observed that the media had indulged in sensationalism and created a “conflict” where none existed. In his opinion, the media chose to report on and highlight only those cases where the judiciary had disagreed with the legislature and largely ingnored the cases where the judiciary had agreed with and supported the action of the legislature. He concluded the lecture by saying that good governance was possible only if both the judiciary and the legislature functioned as envisioned by the founding fathers and complemented each other’s role in society. In his opinion they are both equally important, and surveying the scene broadly, there is no  real conflict between the two institutions barring a few aberrations and it is certainly not there when one considers the roles envisaged in the Indian Constitution for these two branches.  He felt that overall the quest is for social justice.

Archna Aggrawal and Arun Kumar,
Centre for Economic Studies & Planning, SSS

Development Models and Global Integration

A two day seminar on “Development Models and Global Integration” was organized by the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, on 24 - 25 January, 2007, in which many Russian scholars and policy-makers including Mr. Vladimir Yakunin, Railway Minister, Russian Federation, participated. The seminar was inaugurated by Prof. B.B. Bhattacharya, Vice Chancellor, JNU.

A book Russian Civilization editied by Prof. Ajay Patnaik and others containing articles of eminent Indian and Russian scholars was released at the time of the inauguration of the seminar.

Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, SIS

Moonis Raza Memorial Lecture

The Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, have been organizing Moonis Raza Memorial lecture for the past eight years. The Annual Memorial Lecture this  year was delivered by Professor Krishna Kumar, Director NCERT, New Delhi, on the “Concept of Quality in Education” on 9 February, 2007 which, is also the birth month of  late Professor Moonis Raza.

Professor Krishna Kumar started his lecture by paying rich tribute to Late Professor Moonis Raza and recollected some past moments and experiences that he had shared with Late Professor Raza as one of the founder members of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Centre for the Study of Regional Development; as the Director, National Institute of Planning and Administration, and as Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research and Vice Chancellor, Delhi University. He also highlighted the contribution made by Professor Raza in shaping the policies for higher education, Government of India. The speaker made special mention about the relevance of “Quality in Education” in the context of Professor Raza, who he thought had uncompromising commitment for raising the quality of education in India.

The speaker found it difficulty to define “Quality in Education” particularly in the context of India. It is difficult because according to him the purpose of Modern Education in India under colonial administration was never quality oriented. However, he said that there cannot be an education without quality and in this context the contributions of person like Professor Raza was very significant. Moreover, he also mentioned that quality in Education can not and should not be judged on the basis of national or local considerations only. In a Globalised world as that of today quality also has an international dimension and it is part of a  much larger international discourse.

In the context of a nation, quality should be assessed in terms of universalisation of education, and access to education particularly to the subaltern and marginalized sections of our society. In the international context he advocated quality in terms of flow of labour and people for gainful employment across sectors and national boundaries in a globalised economy. Commenting on the state of education in India as well as in other parts of the world he expressed apprehension about increasing instrumentalisation of education at the cost of its empowering and emancipatory potentials. He warned a third world country like India to respond to the new challenges. Undue delays as well as response given in haste would both be equally detrimental to the quality in education, equality and justice.

Over and above all these, the speaker placed strong emphasis on the question of morality, equality and justice in relation to quality in education. According to him, without making concerted and persistent efforts to integrate these four basic components, education degenerates into a minimalist political agenda. As a consequence of this islands of excellence are created in the ocean of mass illiteracy or impoverished education system. It is mainly because of the minimalist agenda of education that quality education has remained confined to a small section of the elites in the society while a large pool or talent has remained marginalized and unexplored so far. In order to remove these anomalies he advocated that quality is not in contradiction to equality and justice. On the contrary, equality, justice and morality are the three defining principles of quality in education.

B.S. Butola,
Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development/SLLCS

Annual Antonio Binimelis Memorial Lecture

The XX Annual Antonio Binimelis Memorial Lecture was held on 26 February 2007, in SLL&CS. Mr. Gonzalo Ortiz, Minister Counsellor, Embassy of Spain, delivered this year’s annual lecture on “Borbonic Reforms in Spain in XVIII Century”. H.E. Mr. Jose Vicente Pimentel, Ambassador of Brazil in India, was the Chief Guest. Dr. Rafael Iruzubieta, eminent Spanish jurist was the Guest of Honour. The dignitaries present on the podium also distributed Dr. Rafael Iruzubieta, Mrs. Irene Paleaz Iruzubieta and Juhi Prasad Awards, 2006. Professor Varyam Singh, Dean, SLLCS, presided over the programme.

Aparajit Chattopadhyay

Symposium on Quantum Information at the School of Physical Sciences

The School of Physical Sciences (SPS), JNU, organized a National Symposium on Quantum Information in the School premises during 16-17 March 2007. Organizing a national meeting in March on a topical theme has been a regular feature in the School since 1994.

The theme of the SPS March Symposium this year was about the general study of the information-processing capabilities of quantum systems.

Although modern computers rely on quantum mechanics to operate, the information itself is still encoded classically. A new approach is to treat information as a quantum concept and to ask what new insights can be gained by encoding this information in individual quantum systems. In other words, what happens when both the transmission and processing of information are governed by quantum laws?

In quantum mechanics, quantum information is physical information that is held in the “state” of a quantum system. The most popular unit of quantum information is the qubit, a two-state quantum system. However, unlike classical digital states (which are discrete), a two-state quantum system can actually be in a superposition of the two states at any given time.

Quantum information differs from classical information in several respects, for example,

• It cannot generally be read or duplicated without disturbance (no cloning theorem).

• There can exist in super positions of different values; quantum information processing can be exponentially more efficient than classical algorithms, as one state can exist in superposition of all possible states at once.

However, despite this, the amount of information that can be both stored and retrieved in a single qubit is equal to one bit. It is in the processing of information (quantum computation) that a difference occurs.

The SPS Symposium on this frontline area of research was able to attract the leading and the young researchers in the country. It generated a lot of enthusiasm and excitement among the participants  indeed the number of participants had to be limited for want of space in the seminar room!

In the first technical session chaired by Professor Deepak Kumar, SPS, JNU, Professor Anil Kumar, Department of Physics and NMR Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, spoke on “Use of geometric phase in quantum information processing by NMR”. Professor K. R. Parthasarathy, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi, made an illuminating presentation on “An invitation to quantum coding theorems”. Dr Arun K. Pati, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, spoke on “The no-hiding theorem in quantum information”. Dr C. S. Unnikrishnan, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, gave an exciting and provocative talk on “Fundamental conservation laws and quantum correlations”.

The post-lunch session was chaired by Professor K. Thyagarajan, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. Professor Subhashis Banerjee, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, gave a talk on “An introduction to quantum algorithms”. Dr Pradyumna Kumar Pathak, Quantum Optics & Quantum Information Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, spoke on “Quantum random walk of photons”. Dr C. Sudheesh, Quantum Optics & Quantum Information Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, spoke on “Wave packet dynamics of entangled two-mode states”. Dr Debabrata Goswami, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, spoke on “Implementing adiabatic quantum computing”. The technical session on the first day ended with an interesting talk by Ms Joyee Ghosh, a Ph.D. student at SPS, JNU, on her on-going work on “Quantum storage in metastable helium gas”. In the evening, the research scholars of SPS displayed their work as posters on the walls of the corridors in the SPS building  there was a lot of excitement as a panel of judges decided on the (book-plus-cash) prizes for the four best posters. Mr Chandra Sekhar Yadav was awarded the first prize, Mr Anil Kumar the second, Mr Rajat Karnatak the third, and a special appreciation prize was given to Mr Prabhat Kumar Jaiswal.

On the second day, the morning session was chaired by Professor R. Ramaswamy, SPS, JNU. Dr Subhashish Banerjee, a Ph.D. degree-holder from SPS, JNU and currently working in the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, opened the session with his talk on “Decoherence without dissipation and its application to quantum computation”. Dr Arvind, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, then delivered a talk on “Some surprises in the dynamics of open quantum systems”. Dr V. Subrahmanyam, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, spoke on “Spin decoherence in quantum dots”. Dr Sibasish Ghosh, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, gave a talk on “Simulation of measurement correlations in two spin-s singlet state involving spin measurements”.

The post-lunch session was chaired by Professor Subir Kumar Sarkar, SPS, JNU. Professor Shasanka M. Roy, SPS, JNU, delivered a talk on “A super-Zeno algorithm to preserve quantum states”. Professor N. Panchapakesan, Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, gave a talk on “Quantum reduction using macroscopic detectors and decoherence”. Professor Prasanta K. Panigrahi, Quantum Optics & Quantum Information Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, gave a talk on “Sub-Planck scale structure in quantum systems”. Dr Tabish Qureshi, a Ph.D. degree-holder from SPS, JNU and currently in the faculty of the Department of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, gave a very clear talk on “Complementarity and Afshar’s experiment”.

Professor Rupamanjari Ghosh of SPS was the convener of the Symposium. The financial support for the Symposium came from the UGC-DRS-III (Conference and Contingency) grant of the School, and also the UPOE Conference Grant of the University.

Rupamanjari Ghosh,
Professor, School of Physical Sciences

35th Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association Foundation Day

JNUTA celebrated its foundation day on March 21. The function was attended by a large number of senior scholars, including former faculty members and office bearers of JNUTA.  The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor B. B. Bhattacharya, also attended the function briefly and congratulated JNUTA for organising the celebration of its foundation day.

The programme started by remembering past presidents and secretaries of JNUTA who had passed away. JNUTA president mentioned that eight presidents and secretaries and two members of constitution drafting committee of JNUTA  had passed away. The gathering paid homage to these former colleagues by standing in silence for two minutes. These former colleagues were Prof. Moonis Raza and Prof Krishna Bhardwaj (members of drafting committee), Prof. Parimal Dass, Prof. Sivatosh Mookhrejee, Prof. V Asthana, Prof. K J Mahale, Prof. Jayshekhar, Prof. P A N Moorthi, Prof. Aijajudin Ahmad and Prof. S K Sahu. They all were outstanding scholars of their respective fields. The gathering then welcomed the new members of the faculty who had joined JNU since October 2006.

An important part of the celebration was to honour all the former presidents and secretaries of JNUTA. The JNUTA has been able to trace from its records and through recollection of current and former office bearers almost all of the former presidents and secretaries. JNUTA honoured all those former office bearers, who were present an this occasion. Many retired Presidents/Secretaries too turned up for this happy gathering, including  Prof. Ashwini Ray, Prof. R R Borges, Prof. S D Muni, Prof. R R Sharma and Prof L K Pandey. Many former office bearers in service were also present.

In particular, JNUTA honoured Professor Yogendra Singh, who was the first president of JNUTA. Professor Chaman Lal, current president, narrated the history of formation of the association, which came into existence on 21^st March 1973. JNUTA records contain reports of the meetings attended by senior scholars like Moonis Raza, Yogendra Singh, Parimal Das, Krishna Bharadwaj, G P Deshpande and many others. He described the formation of a constitution committee, which drafted the constitution of the association, and the process of election of the first team of office bearers. Professor Anand Kumar briefly discussed scholarly achievements of Professor Yogendra Singh.

Professor Chaman Lal mentioned that despite the exemplary role of JNUTA as a democratic association in the university, its  constitution had never been published. The JNUTA has now taken the initiative to fill this gap and  published it as a monograph. Professor Yogendra Singh released the constitution.

The JNUTA also honoured Professor Bipan Chandra who was recently appointed as National Research Professor. Professor Aditya Mukherjee spoke on Professor Bipan Chandra’s contribution to foundations of modern Indian history and his role in shaping the Centre of Historical Studies of JNU. Prof. Chaman Lal spoke of his role in bringing out Bhagat Singh in focus as a brilliant scholar apart from being a brave patriot. Eminent historians like Prof. Romila Thapar, Prof. Suvira Jaiswal, current President of Indian History Congress, and Prof. Mridula Mukhrejee, Director Nehru Memorial Museum and Library were present on this occasion.

Prof. Bipan Chandra presented a copy each of biography of Gadar party hero Kartar Singh Sarabha, written by Prof. Chaman Lal and published by NBT recently, to Prof. Yogendra Singh and Prof. Mridula Mukhrejee. Prof. Chaman Lal presented the copy of his edited book-’itals Complete Documents of Bhagat Singh to Prof. Suvira Jaiswal.

On the occasion of its foundation day, the JNUTA published another document: the convocation address delivered in 1972 by Shri Balraj Sahni, which is known as a historic document. This has not been  available for many years now. Professor Bipan Chandra released this publication. Prof. Kalpana Sahni, niece of Balraj Sahni was also present on this occasion

The programme concluded with a brief but beautiful cultural programme presented by some students of the University.Dr. M M Kunju Secretary JNUTA presented a vote of thanks.

Chaman Lal,
President, Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association

Sanskrit Literature : An Innovative Approach

Sanskrit verbal discourse is ’continuous’ and ’cumulative’ and amazingly innovative. It has shown exemplary strength of sustenance and development through its various phases of creative and critical traditions. It is the fountain-head of the Indian thought systems and remained a ’donor tradition’ for long time, enriched the wisdom of the world and has always widened the mental spheres of the communities. In the changing contemporary times, Sanskrit did not remain stagnant but has adapted itself to express the complex experiential contents of the modern times. The innovative approaches in Sanskrit can be observed ranging from the creative writing to the critical works (commentary traditions) across the various intellectual domains.

In the one day seminar on 28 March, 2007, on the theme mentioned  above,  many Sanskrit scholars and poets of national and international repute underlined the relevance, necessity and also the national pride which Sanskrit has earned in the international community. This was the first seminar under the supervision of the  new Chairperson of the Centre Dr. C. Upender Rao, a scholar of Pali and Sanskrit. In the inaugural session Dr. Rameshwaradutt Sharma, Director Haryana Sanskrit Akademi, Prof V.R. Panchmukhi, Hon. V-C Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeth, Triupati, and the Hon. Professor Satyavrat Shastri stated that contemporary Sanskrit world involves multi-faceted creativity. It has experimented with multiple literary genres emanating from the world literatures and has successfully expressed the modern sensibility. It is a matter of concern that the contemporary readers and scholars are not much familiar with the substantial and abundant 20^th -21^st century’s writings in Sanskrit. At the outset, Dr. C. Upender Rao explained the aims and objects of the seminar in Sanskrit language. Prof. Panchamukhi stated that in the scholastic traditions of the shastras new insights and interpretations have always been accepted. He referred to his university where computational language technology has been given prime importance and the knowledge of Sanskrit has brought in considerable advancement in the related research projects. He also emphasized the need to write books in Sanskrit on contemporary issues and also in much demanded disciplines like management, computer, jurisprudence, economics, physical sciences etc. It is noteworthy that Prof. Panchmukhi is also the author of a well received book on the Relevance of the Bhagavadgita in Management. The Chairman of the session Dr. Sharma presented the plan of expansion of Sanskrit. Vote of thanks was delivered by Prof. Shashiprabha Kumar and this session was convened by Dr C. Upender Rao.

In the second session Dr. Iccharam Dwivedi and Dr. Baladevanand Sagar read their papers under the chairmanship of Dr. Ramakant Shukla. Through the various examples they introduced the new tendencies and processes in the creative world of Sanskrit. The editor of the Sanskrit journal Arvachina Sanskrit, Dr. Ramakant Shukla illustrated the phase-wise development of modern Sanskrit. He also recited his well known revolutionary Sanskrit poem on the present state of Indian democracy. In his indepth analytical and scholastic style Prof. Satyavrat Shastri Ji brought forth the innovative insights of the Sanskrit poets and critics/poeticians. He particularly focused on the role of great commentators who had always added new dimensions to literary works. Dr. Santosh Kr. Shukla convened this session.

Dr. Baladevanand Sagar chaired the third session. Then Dr. Santosh Kr. Shukla, Dr. C. Upendra Rao and the Ph.D. scholar Sh. Kuldeep Kumar read their papers. They all examined the innovative perspectives of Sanskrit literature. This session was convened by Dr. Ram Nath Jha.

Prof. Shridhar Vashishtha, former V.C. Shri Lalbahadur Rashritya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, delivered the valedictory lecture. He emphasized that the Sanskrit scholars must perform their constructive role in re-establishing the prestige of Sanskrit. He also talked at length about the new compositions in Sanskrit. Prof. Shashi Prabha Kumar chaired the valedictory session.

At the end of the day-long seminar, the Chairperson of  the Centre Dr. C. Upendra Rao delivered the vote of thanks.

Rajnish Kumar Mishra,
Assistant Professor, Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies