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Ajay Kumar Verma

Ajay Kumar Verma

AJAY_WEB_PIC
Ajay Kumar Verma
Professor
Centre/School/Special Centre
Centre for Philosophy,
School of Social Sciences
Residence
09818625769
Email
ajayverma@jnu.ac.in , thinkajay@yahoo.com
Personal Webpage
https://jnu.ac.in/Faculty/ajayverma/CV.pdf
Qualifications

M.A., M. Phil. and Ph.D. in Philosophy (University of Delhi)

Areas of Interest/Specialization

Indian Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy and Religion

Experience

23 years of teaching experience

Held faculty positions at Hindu College, Lady Shri Ram College and Zakir Husain Delhi College, Delhi

Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi (2005-2014)

Centre for Philosophy, Jawaharlal Nehru University (since 2014)

Awards & Honours
  1. Awarded Indian Philosophy Congress medal.
  2. Awarded N.V Thadani memorial prize.
  3. Awarded Raman Fellowship for Post Doctoral Studies at University of Texas in El Paso and University of Massachusetts for the year 2013 (could not avail).
International Collaboration/Consultancy

International Collaboration/Consultancy

Best Peer Reviewed Publications
  1. Verma, Ajay and Rathore, Aakash Singh (Editors), "Dr. Ambedkar’s Buddha and His Dhamma : A Critical Edition", Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2011. 
  2. Verma, Ajay (2025) "Is Buddhist View of Mental States in Consonance with the Foundational Tenets of their System?: Investigating Nyāya and Buddhist Debate on Perception in Jayanta Bhatta’s Nyāyamanjari," Comparative Philosophy: Vol. 16: Iss. 1, Article 9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55917/2151-6014.1757 . Available at:  https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/comparativephilosophy/vol16/iss1/9
  3. Verma, Ajay. Interrogating the One Who Started It All: A Critical Appraisal of Jaina Critique of Nyāya Notion of God in Guṇaratna’s Tarka-Rahasya-Dīpikā. Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research Volume 42, Issue 2 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40961-025-00361-8. Available at: https://rdcu.be/etBjH 
  4. Verma, Ajay. Bhartrhari’s Verbal Holism: Some Hermeneutical Queries, Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, June 2015, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp 211-226, First online: 16 April 2015, JICPR Springer. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40961-015-0021-y.
  5. Verma, Ajay. "Systems and Lifeworlds: A Habermasian Overview of Major Trends in Classical Indian Philosophy" Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Journal of the Inter-University Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. XVIII, Number 1& 2, 2011 Editor Varsha Bhagat-Ganguly.
  6. Verma, Ajay,‘I and the Other: A Hermeneutical Study of the Epistemological Models available in Indian Philosophy’ in Journal of East and West Thought, Summer No. 2, Vol. 4, 2014, California, USA, p.81-97.
  7. "Play and Method: A Review of Gadamer and Habermas Debate", The Philosophical Quarterly, Amalner, Vol. VI, No.3-4, July- October 2000, pp. 77-92.
  8. "Envisaging the Possibility of Ethics in the Postmodernist Lifeworld" The Philosophical Quarterly, Amalner, Vol. XI, No.1-4, January- October 2005, pp. 103-113. 
Recent Peer Reviewed Journals/Books
  1. Verma, Ajay (2013), ‘Ethics of Jainism’ in Understanding Ethics, Sahni P. and Chaturvedi, V.(editors), Macmillan Press, Delhi.
  2. Verma, Ajay (2017) Reason, Emotion and Beyond: Revisiting Schopenhauer, Bhartṛhari and Abhinavagupta in Schopenhauer on Self, World and Morality, Arati Barua (editor), Springer.
  3. Verma, Ajay (2019) Perception, Apperception and Understanding of the ‘Other’ in A Phenomenological Appraisal of Nyāya, Buddhist and Advaitin Theory of Knowledge in Problem of the Self: Consciousness, Subjectivity and the Other, Manidipa Sen (editor), Aakar Publications.
  4. Verma, Ajay (2019) Sanction and Sanctity of the Vedic Word: A Review of K. Satchidananda Murty’s Vedic Hermeneutics in Reason and Revelation, Reason, Revelation and Peace: Evaluations of K. Satchidananda Murty's Philosophy, Ashok Vohra(editor), Motilal Banarasidass Publishers, Delhi.
  5. Verma, Ajay (2020) ‘Ambedkar and the Metaphysics of Social Justice’ (editor) Rathore, Aakash Singh, B.R. Ambedkar: The Quest for Justice volume two, Oxford University Press.
  6. Verma, Ajay (2020) ‘Epistemological Foundations of Caste-Identities: A Review of Buddhist Critique of Indian Realism’ in Classical Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism and the Question of Caste edited by Professor Pradeep Gokhale, Routledge. 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.