It is hard to imagine that Bollywood filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, BJP minister Hardeep s. Puri, Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor actually share something deeply personal. But then, that is what a 100 year institution can do.
Hardeep S. Puri’s book Delhi University Celebrating 100 Glorious Years with essays by 13 public figures was launched at the heart of Delhi University–North campus on Tuesday, 27 September 2020.
The panel of decorated alumni took the audience back to the ‘good old days’ when the university housed politicians, celebrities, intellectuals and trouble makers of today.
“Every time I come here, I feel like I have come home and nothing bad can happen to me here,” Imtiaz Ali said, looking around the Hindu College auditorium. “DU is a place which gives you a head of your own,” he added.
In his essay, Ali recalls bus rides that he never paid for, the dramatics society he founded at Hindu College and the principal during his time who gave him the gift of attendance in exchange for two theatrical productions.
Well-known public figures such as law minister Kiren Rijiju, former DU vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh, educationist Meenakshi Gopinath, Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, former UN assistant secretary-general Lakshmi Puri, Sahitya Akademi awardee Namita Gokhale, economist Bibek Debroy, legal strategist Raian Karanjawala, economist Sanjeev Sanyal, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma have contributed to the collection of essays.. Bollywood’s finest Amitabh Bachchan has written the foreword of the book.
Puri, who edited and curated the book, takes pride in the list of diverse contributors with contrasting political views. His idea was to have the chapters written by people who stand out in their respective fields.
“Great institutions are made up of great faculty members. A good institution is defined by its student body,” he said. He also talked about the spirit of the university, which has always encouraged students to protest and agitate.
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DU—grounded, generous, liberal
Sahitya Akademi award winner Namita Gokhle, who was part of the panel, talked about her time at the Jesus and Mary College where she discovered modern Indian literature and lost interest in Chaucer. The author, who once considered a career in academics, writes, “I am not a graduate and I am proud of it.” She then sent both her daughters to DU because she considers it “one of the most grounded, generous and liberal institutions anywhere.”
Former vice chancellor of Delhi University and an alumnus of St Stephen’s College, Dinesh Singh shares the same sentiment. When his son expressed the desire to go abroad for higher education, Singh convinced him to get his first degree from DU. Singh says his son is forever grateful for those years in the North campus, just like him.
He spoke of the practical joke he pulled at the Wodehouse Society of St Stephen’s College. His batchmates got ready to attend a concert by Pakistani ghazal singers but the in-house performer on-stage ended up belting out ‘baa baa black sheep’ instead. “Everyone was laughing. This is what Delhi University is all about. Nothing is taken in the wrong spirit,” he said.
While the talks of yesteryear’s irreverence, dissent and disobedience received guffaws from the audience, there was no mention of the recent protests on the campus.
When the floor was open to questions, former principal of Hindu College and a well-known scholar Kavita Sharma had a question for Dinesh Singh and Hardeep Puri who had said that a university is as good as its faculty. “Today if I ask in a classroom who wants to be a teacher, no hands will be raised,” Sharma said. She asked what a university should do to secure the place of its faculty. Both Hardeep Puri and Dinesh Singh agreed on the importance of academic autonomy.
“What we really need the government to do is find good people to lead the university. I would need my friend Hardeep Puri’s help in getting that message across,” Dinesh Singh said.
(Edited by Prashant)