Once the epicentre of India’s freedom struggle and the alma mater of three prime ministers, two vice-presidents and a president of India as well as of authors, artistes and senior bureaucrats, this 131-year-old university has experienced a steady descent into a whirpool of student violence, corruption, caste politics, faculty recruitment scams and lawlessness – Autar Nehru AU facts file Estb. 1887 Campus area: 232 acres (four campuses) Budget 2017-18: Rs.417.6 crore No. of students: 25,000 No. faculty: 317 Faculties: Arts, Science, Commerce & Law Institutes/centres: Institute of Inter-disciplinary Studies, National Centre for Experimental Mineralogy & Petrology, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Sciences Institute, Centre for Behavioural & Cognitive Science, Centre for Women’s Studies, Institute of Gandhian Thought & Peace Studies, Design Innovation Centre, Institute of Professional Studies Affiliated colleges: 10 Tuition fees (per year): Rs.1,200-1,500 Hostels: Nine men’s and six women’s hostels. Board & lodging: Rs.13,000-14,000 per year Famous alumni Politicians: Motilal Nehru, Congress party president; Shankar Dayal Sharma, President of India; Chandra Shekhar & V. P. Singh, prime ministers; Murli Manohar Joshi & Arjun Singh, Union HRD ministers; N.D. Tiwari, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh; Surya Bahadur Thapa, Prime Minister of Nepal Poets/Writers: Firaq Gorakhpuri, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Mrinal Pande Law: Chief Justices of India Mohammad Hidayatullah, Kamal Narain Singh, V.N. Khare, J.S. Khare; Supreme Court lawyers Shanti & Prashant Bhushan The fourth oldest modern university of India (established in 1887 shortly after the Presidency universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were decreed in 1857), Allahabad University (AU), once known as the Oxford of the East for its academic excellence and vibrant institutional culture, is struggling to regain its past glory. The alma mater of three former prime ministers (Gulzari Lal Nanda, Chandra Shekhar and V.P. Singh), one president, two vice presidents, well-known authors, artistes and senior bureaucrats (see box p.82), this 131-year-old varsity sited in the historic city of Allahabad (pop.1.21 million) — ill-advisedly being renamed Prayagraj by the state BJP government headed by prelate-turned-chief minister Yogi Adityanath — which was an epicentre of India’s freedom struggle and the hometown of its first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has experienced a steep fall of reputation. Once the showpiece university of the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh (UP, pop.220 million), over the past four decades AU’s academic landscape has been marred by its steady descent into a whirlpool of student violence, corruption, caste politics, faculty recruitment scams and lawlessness. In the latest National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2018 of the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry, AU is ranked a dismal #68 behind several newly promoted private universities. Thirteen years ago to enable its upliftment, AU was conferred Central university status through a special University of Allahabad Act, 2005 passed by Parliament. But this initiative has failed to rejuvenate or revive this once widely admired institution of higher learning. On June 6, an FIR (first information report) was registered by the UP police against 400 AU students following violent protests on campus over the administration’s decision to evict 4,000 of…
