Ode To An Academic Heritage

Amartya Sen’s autobiography ‘Home in the World: A Memoir’ had been gathering dust in my book shelf for some time now. I decided to use the time sparingly on my own ease, rejoice and peace to read some of the selected chapters of the almost 400-page work authored by one of the most brilliant thinkers of our era who has the rare distinction of pursuing and fusing the intellectual heritage and philosophic traditions of the east and the academic rigour and scientific innovations of the West. As I shuffled through the pages of the Sen’s memoir, I could imagine the vastness of knowledge, depth of understanding and multiverse of reflections that combine into shaping up and making Dr. Sen's intellectual base and edifice. 

I must admit that while running my eyes over the pages of the book I was immensely benefitted and also got better acquainted with the culture, politics, history, literature of India apart from the rich intellectual, philosophic and spiritual traditions that made India to distinguish itself as the powerhouse of oriental cultural and spiritual resources. Though Sen won Nobel Prize in economics, his intellectual endowment and contribution know no disciplinary boundaries. His seminal works titled the Idea of Justice, Social Welfare and Collective Choice, Development As Freedom and so on make one wonder how much a person no matter the intellect can dive into the ocean of knowledge, widen the contours of disciplinary outposts and push the frontiers of human understanding and intellectual pursuits to the limits. Sunil Khilani extols him as the distinguished inheritor of the traditions of public philosophy and reasoning – Roy, Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru. If there was a global intellectual, it was Sen. 

Ancient monument

This article  lifts  from the  chapter that  comprise Dr. Sen's treatise on Nalanda University – an ancient public monument of knowledge and a venerated institution in the then Bihar State of  India – famed  worldwide for rich intellectual quest and pedagogic resources. This location now lies in the Nalanda district of the Jharkhand State which was separated with statehood status within Indian federation from the Bihar state during the 1980s. 

Dr. Sen dedicates several pages to provide a description of Nalanda University – oldest seat of the higher education - in India which flourished as the Buddhist foundation from the fifth to the end of the 20th century. For comparison, according to Dr. Sen, the oldest European University in Bologna in Italy was founded in 1088. Thus by the time the university of Bologna came to life, university in Nalanda had already been functioning for more than six hundred years educating thousands of students  each year from many countries of the world. Since students came from all over East Asia, the so named East Asia Summit in 2009 made a strong attempt to reestablish Nalanda and restore its glory. In fact, it was a very notable moment in the history of higher education in the world as Dr. Amartya Sen was nominated as the first vice chancellor of the university.

In  his autobiography,  Dr. Sen takes a look  into the glorious history of University and recounts, “when classes were held at Nalanda more than 1500 years ago, it was the only place in the world  offering instruction of a kind  that we now expect from universities around  the globe." Nalanda established itself as a distinguished institution not only in Buddhist studies, but also in languages and literature, astronomy and observational sciences, architecture and sculpture, medicine and public health care. It drew students not only from all over India but also from China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries with Buddhist connections. It was, in fact, the only institution of learning outside China to which any ancient Chinese ever went for higher education. 

As the excavations of the old ruins have revealed - both in Nalanda and all over Bihar where educational institutions were springing up inspired by Nalanda's example, it was contributing something of a world value. It is very disconcerting to note that after more than 700 years of successful teaching, old Nalanda was destroyed in 1190s in a series of attacks by the Muslim invading armies led by Bakhtaran Khilji from West Asia who according to a figure killed more than ten thousand students and teachers. The invading armies not only destroyed Nalanda but also other universities in Bihar. The library, a nine-storey building full of manuscripts, is reputed to have burned for several days. According to Dr. Sen, the destruction of Nalanda took place shortly after the development of University of Oxford from 1167 and about a decade before the University of Cambridge was founded in 1209.

Pedagogy remains

Nalanda is part of India's and the world's heritage. Nalanda's method of pedagogy remains relevant for the world today. Its dialogue based pedagogical method was not only unusual but also extremely effective. Nalanda belonged to a globally interactive tradition. The need for which remains strong even today. The campus of newly restored Nalanda, which is a few miles away from the ruins of the old university, is at the edge of old town of Rajgir, then called Raj Griha. This is exactly where, according to Dr. Sen, the first Buddhist Council met long after Buddha's death to resolve differences. 

Nalanda sits next to the location of the very first attempt, possibly in the world to bring about the government by democratic discussion. In the words of Habermas, it is the precursor to deliberative participatory democracy which is gaining ground today as the representative democracy is experienced to have several deficits. Buddha’s and his followers' approach to settle issues through dialogue and discussion without resort to hatred and violent communication and action is relevant in the democratic world today.

(The author is presently associated with Policy Research Institute (PRI) as a senior research fellow.  rijalmukti@gmail.com)