Institutional inertia

A premier institution like the Nehru Memorial Museum 038; Library NMML deserves better. Named after a scholar-prime minister, conceived as a repository of rich archival and academic material as well as a resource and platform for eminent scholars, it finds itself today 8212; as reported by this newspaper 8212; the Cinderella of academia, headless and possibly eyeless.

The fact that NMML has not had a director, despite one having been appointed a year ago, speaks of an executive council that is more preoccupied with politics rather than academics; of a bureaucracy that cannot sort out a simple matter of an appropriate salary for the director and, above all, of an almost institutionalised inertia that has come to mark its functioning. Consequently, an entity that was once headed by towering figures of Indian academia, considered one of the best of its kind in the field of history and the social sciences and equipped with an outstanding library, is today in clear decline. In a country that has limited academic resources and few avenues for the pursuit of independent research, such a state of affairs is nothing short of tragic. One significant reason for the NMML being run to the ground is the anxiety exhibited by politicians to keep their grip on the institution and use it as part of their network of patronage. It is simply astonishing that the NMML8217;s executive council does not have a single representative of the academic community.

There is no reason why NMML should not be given complete autonomy. Sure, the ministry of culture does list it as an autonomous organisation, but why does NMML even need to exist under its benign, or not-so-benign, gaze? Cannot a board composed of men and women committed to the highest standards of academic pursuit be allowed to run it? The days of 8216;guided scholarship8217; and Soviet-style commissars of culture have long gone. Let entities like NMML provide an enabling environment for the country8217;s 8212; and indeed the world8217;s 8212; most outstanding scholars from variegated backgrounds to freely express and explore their ideas. Let only genuine scholarship, not vested interests, flourish in an institution located in the verdant ambience of Teen Murthi, the home of the country8217;s first prime minister.