Reviving the open society

It also decided to appoint an advisory council of scholars who would be consulted on matters relating to the curriculum and academic structure of the university.

The university will focus in being a Centre of Excellence for research with emphasis on postgraduate studies. The disciplines would include philosophy and Buddhist studies; regional history; business management studies, international relations and peace studies and study of languages including Asian languages, both classical and modern as well as linguistics. It will eventually consider expanding its curriculum to include some subjects like the neuro-sciences at the cutting edge of scientific research.

The multiple challenges that need to be addressed include:

One, the need to imaginatively harmonise its international character with the imperative to confer benefits on the local population. There is obvious need to implement an integrated development plan for the entire region namely Bodh Gaya, Gaya, Nalanda and Rajgir to become a spiritual, educational, cultural and tourist hub. Weaving together a strategy for the surrounding villages to benefit from the Nalanda University entails creating special teaching and research modules suitable for local needs. No doubt Indian scholars and students from other regions would benefit from this international university.

Two, the current initiative of Nalanda represents an ideal form of Centre-state co-operation. It was mooted by President Kalam in his address to the Bihar assembly and fostered by intellectuals like Amartya Sen triggering an initiative of the Bihar government and resulting in a mechanism created by the central government to give tangible shape to the project.

The international interest shown by Singapore and the initiatives taken during the visit of the Chinese president, the Indian prime minister8217;s visit to Japan and the outcome of the East Asian Summit at Cebu represent a congruence of national and international partnership. This coordination among its multiple stakeholders needs to be sustained.

Three, if this university is to truly become a regional initiative based on international partnership and ownership by several countries it would naturally have to be under a separate law, a treaty or a special act. There are not too many examples of this kind of cooperation. The proposed Nalanda University would need to be exempted from some of the more restrictive features of our present educational policies that may have relevance in the national context but cannot become the basis for international cooperation. Creating a new regulatory framework that blends the interest of Bihar, the central government and the international partners is a sensitive but unavoidable challenge.

Four, a financial arrangement that is harmonious with the proposed organisational structure. A large corpus would be needed to meet the cost of establishing the university per se but in addition there would be recurring costs. They must be based on internationally accepted benchmarks on terms, conditions and an emolument package capable of attracting and retaining international talent. The generous support from Asian countries augurs well. We need a satisfactory blend between money and partnership; funding with diversity of ownership and organisational autonomy with due recognition of the role of consortium partners.

During the heyday of the Nalanda University there were 10,000 students with many foreign scholars. Amartya Sen recounted quite effectively at the mentor meeting that almost at the time that Nalanda was being destroyed, Oxford was being established. India then was certainly a much more open society than it is today. Reforming the education policies and creating regulations that can foster a system open to the world and its ideas and that can even vaguely mirror what existed in Nalanda remains a daunting vision for our current policy makers. It is amazing how such an open society over time became so insular. Maybe Nalanda can become a beacon of the changes we desperately need.