New Delhi: If all goes according to plan, two universities in Jammu — one state and one central — will soon get chairs in the names of RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay and Arya Samaj founder Dayanand Saraswati respectively.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had earlier formed a committee to identify universities that can have chairs in the name of the two Hindu leaders. The committee has sent its recommendations to UGC chairperson DP Singh for final approval after scrutinizing the various available proposals. The three-member committee met on January 10 and January 11 to finalize its recommendations.
According to sources in UGC, the committee has recommended four universities for the Deendayal Upadhyay chair and three for Dayanand Saraswati. The University of Jammu is common for the chairs of both these leaders.
While Upadhyay was one of the first leaders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Saraswati was a Hindu religious leader who founded the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reforms movement.
A UGC official added, “Our universities have chairs named after eminent personalities, thinkers, freedom fighters and leaders. But we do not have one on Deendayal Upadhyay and Dayanand Saraswati. Today, we need to create awareness about their philosophy, their life and times and critique them. The university with a chair in their names would hold workshop, seminars, presentations and symposiums on them. It is important to create awareness about these leaders.”
The committee has also proposed the names of other universities from Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Maharashtra. Delhi University had also applied for the same but was not approved by the committee.
A chair facilitates research and study on the person on whose name it is established. The university may get funds from different organisations and individuals in the name of the chair and the research work it would conduct.
The committee considered the “quality of proposals, evidence of interest of research in the subject, institutional reputation, grading, courses and departments” to consider the proposals of the universities.
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