The quest for the universal must be married to a sympathetic interest in what concerns our immediate neighbourhood, what Gandhi and Rabindranath understood by swadesh. The principle of universality which belongs to the idea of a university, has to be balanced by what may appear, but only appears, to be an opposite idea. This is an enterprise in which a university must participate with all its heart and its strength.

Higher knowledge is a joint product of direct and indirect cooperation of scientists and seekers of truth all over the world.īy this worldwide cooperative enterprise of a very special kind, the frontiers of knowledge are guarded and extended continuously in all vibrant societies. They function as if they are not meant for advancement of knowledge.

They have turned themselves from temples of academic excellence to mere teaching centres without making efforts to build and develop knowledge based on the hierarchy of thoughts. Did you know both Jagdish Chandra Bose and Einstein came up with their great theories while working outside the university system Ramanujam worked on most of his deductions while working as a clerk in a South Indian post office Jayanti Narlikar almost touched the Nobel Prize while working in a Western university but on return home did not join a university department most of the quality research outputs in India are coming from IITs, IIS and similar institutions and not from the universities? Why? The answer lies in the fact that our university systems have, by and large, failed to nourish scholarship and academic excellence.

Disappearing quests state of decay 3