JNU: Nationalism & India's Uncivil War

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9 February 2016 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) erupted in anti-national' slogans. Arrests of student leaders, the shutdown of the university, a lecture series on What the Nation Needs to Know a student's disappearance, another's suicide and a number of even more disruptive protests ensued.

INU Nationalism and India's Uncivil War, by a long-standing JNU professor, is a ringside account of what happened. Delicately and incisively crafted, it is an empathetic insider's account of JNUS problems from an expert in the field of higher education. Through this book. the author makes an impassioned plea to transform rather than destroy JNU, and also reform the Indian higher education. But more than that, this book is a history of our times, of India's ongoing transformation, the story of the changing self-apprehension of a nation.

Examining the multiple meanings of nationalism in our time, Paranjape delves deeply into what it means to be Indian today. He offers his perception and understanding of the new India that is fast emerging as the nation celebrates its 75th year of Independence.

In JNU's 'rukde rukde' phase, Makarand R. Paranjape, professor of English, was one of the few who stood up to the 'anti-national lobby. Formerly director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, Makarand was educated at St. Stephen's College. University of Delhi, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he got his master's and PhD in English. Author/editor of over 50 books. in addition to hundreds of academic papers sand popular articles, he is also a well-known poet and public intellectual. His latest books include Swami Vivekananda: Hinduism and India's Road to Modernity (2020). New Perspectives in Indian Science and Civilization (2020) and The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi (2015).

In 1999, Makarand, who was then associate professor in Humanities & Social Sciences at IIT-Delhi, literally moved across the road when he was appointed professor of English at JNU. He is currently the university's senior-most professor.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages