The university system in India was introduced by British rulers in 1857. The first ever university in India – the University of Calcutta – was set up on January 24, 1857, just a couple of months before the Barrackpore sepoy revolt exploded in March. The same year, on July 24, 1857, the University of Bombay was set up and later, on September 5, 1857, the University of Madras was founded.
In fact, all three of these universities were set up under East India Company’s dominance in India as the direct British colonial rule began only in 1858 following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
The University of the Punjab in Lahore (PU Lahore), the fourth university of India, was set up fifteen years later on October 14, 1882, but it was the first university which expanded its scope from just an examining university to teaching and examining both. The fifth university was established in Allahabad on November 16, 1889, after which no new varsity was set up for 25 years until 1916, when BHU was founded in Banaras.
Initially, all universities had their own statues but in 1904, under the Indian Universities Act VIII, all five universities were brought under a common act. Many of its features can still be seen at all these universities, including the concept of elected Senate and Syndicates.
An archival image of University of the Punjab, Lahore. Photo: Special arrangement
After partition, University of the Punjab went through a traumatic time, particularly in the Indian part of East Punjab. It was agreed at the time that examinations will be conducted by the university on both sides. The examination registrar at the university, Madan Gopal Singh, who was in India at the time of Partition, travelled to Lahore from Shimla, leaving a note for eminent artist Krishan Khanna’s father.
He wrote: “See you when I get back, that is, if I get back!”
He was murdered by his personal assistant in his office at the university. Professor Brij Narayan, a renowned progressive economist who wrote on ‘Sufferings of Peasants’, was the head of the economics department there. He had also opted to stay back in Lahore and was similarly murdered in his office.
Justice Teja Singh, the founder vice chancellor of the Panjab University, Chandigarh. Photo: Special arrangement
So, the long shadow of hatred destroyed the University of the Punjab, and Lahore’s humanist tradition and the nascent government in East Punjab was compelled to bring an ordinance to set up the East Punjab University on September 27, 1947 – later renamed as the Panjab University. The varsity opened on October 1, 1947, in Chandigarh, with Justice Teja Singh as founder vice chancellor.
On progressiveness
It is strange that despite having well-known scholars like former prime minister Manmohan Singh, not a single Sikh scholar was appointed its vice chancellor until now with Professor Renu Vig, who is the first woman and Sikh vice chancellor at the varsity.
Meanwhile, PU Lahore appointed their first ever woman vice chancellor, Professor Nasira Jabeen, in 2018 after 136 years of its inception. This was despite the fact that during the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto regime, women’s seats were reserved in the university senate and syndicate.
While most of the common statutes continued in PU Lahore and Panjab University, there were some changes. Most of the statutes in PU Lahore were radicalised in 1972, during ZA Bhutto’s regime in Pakistan. These were more democratised than in the Indian side of Punjab. The students union was given an elected representation in the university senate and syndicate. Women representation in university bodies was made statutory by reserving some seats.
During the Zia-Ul-Haq regime, however, these democratic statutes were repealed, but the women’s reservation still continued.
Shankar Dayal Sharma (top), Manmohan Singh (bottom) and IK Gujral (right), alma maters of Panjab University, as in a coffee table book by Panjab University. Photos: Special arrangement
How University of the Punjab Lahore played a role in the freedom struggle
PU Lahore and its affiliated colleges had also played a role in the freedom struggle. On October 8, 1930, an incident happened at DAV College when police entered the campus and beat up a professor and some students in his classroom.
The context to this goes a day back to October 7, 1930, when the Lahore conspiracy case tribunal announced its verdict sending Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru to the gallows.
Also read: The Notable People Bhagat Singh Touched During His Lifetime
On October 8, spontaneous protests of students and teachers broke out in Lahore and police tried to suppress it by entering classrooms.
The PU Lahore senate protested and passed a strongly worded resolution condemning the police action, saying that without the principal’s consent, the police cannot enter the campus.
Senate Hall, University of the Punjab Lahore. Photo: Special arrangement
Except for student union elections, in which Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, is more advanced as the student body conducts its elections itself in the most democratic manner, the administrative structure of the two Punjab universities and the other four universities set up during the time continue to have some features of the Universities Act of 1904.
However, reforms are always required in the academic and administrative structure of a university to suit the needs of changing times, and there are some reforms required in the Panjab University act and calendar too.
Why senate and syndicate is important
Various committees formed by the university senate earlier have made efforts to bring in changes. While those reports and some other suggestions may be taken into account by the present senate – whose term may be extended to complete its four years full term – it needs to form a new committee to comprehensively review earlier reports and invite new suggestions from all stakeholders of the university to reach a consensus for the changes in the senate and administrative structure of the university.
As a concerned alumnus and ex-fellow, nominated by Janab Hamid Ansari as the chancellor of the university from 2016-2020, later elected dean of faculty of languages in 2020, I will present my observations and suggestions, but before that, I must underline the different conduct of the two chancellors.
Between 1947 and 1966, until Haryana was created as a separate state, the Panjab University, Chandigarh, was part of the larger Punjab state with the governor of Punjab as its chancellor. However, after the creation of Haryana, Chandigarh became a union territory and Panjab University got the status of an interstate university – perhaps the only such university in the country. The vice president of India was designated as its chancellor.
October 23, 1963: Vice chancellor AC Joshi and Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurating a library at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Photo: Special arrangement
As a result, the Union government took to bear 60% of the budgetary provisions of the university, while 40% became the liability of Punjab. For many years, some colleges of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh continued to be affiliated with PU Chandigarh, with some of the budgetary provision borne proportionately by these states.
As new universities came up in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, only colleges within the state of Punjab remained affiliated to Panjab University. However, most of these colleges also got affiliated to newer universities in the state, such as the Punjabi University, Patiala, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
Now, the BJP-led government in Haryana and the Union government is once again trying to affiliate colleges in Haryana with Panjab University, something that has been strongly resisted by the government in Punjab and the university senate.
Emerging partisan tendencies
It is interesting to note that throughout history, the democratic structure of Panjab University has been largely maintained, even after it became an interstate university. The vice president, as the chancellor of the university, appoints the vice chancellor and nominates 35 of the 91 senate members.
When Hamid Ansari was the chancellor, he took extra care in being democratic with the nominations of the senate by including MPs and leaders from all major political parties – the ruling and the opposition – along with highly rated academicians.
However, the present chancellor – Jagdeep Dhankhar – who is also the chairman of Rajya Sabha, has been completely partisan, nominating only BJP members and associated academic persons. He has also withheld the constitution of the senate at the Panjab University.
Also read: Vice-President Dhankhar Is Not Expected to Take Part in the Modi Government’s Publicity
When Hamid Ansari’s term as the vice president and chancellor ended, there were attempts to treat him the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi once treated him in the Parliament by insulting him.
Although there were no verbal insults against him in the PU Senate, there was no official appreciation either. A courtesy of formal thanks and appreciation for serving ten long years as the chancellor was denied or neglected by the university administration until a resolution of appreciation for the chancellor was moved by Pawan Kumar Bansal, former MP, minister and nominated senator, seconded by me as also a senator.
Some observations and suggestions
- With two influential women academics – vice chancellor Renu Vig and dean Rumina Sethi – now holding the helm of affairs at Panjab University, it is high time that women academicians, whether student or faculty, should get their due significance. The number of girl students at most universities is almost always more than boys, and the same may be at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Women faculty are less in numbers, although there is no dearth of women scholars, and the number of researchers in universities may be almost equal to men.
I suggest that like PU Lahore, the Panjab University has an equal number of women in the senate – or at least a minimum of 33%, as has been reserved in the Indian parliament. If PU Lahore could have this in 1972, why should a supposedly democratic country like India lag so behind? - PU Lahore had an elected student representation in the senate and syndicate in 1972. I suggest that Panjab University can have it at least five decades later in 2024. In fact, all three components of the university – students, faculty and staff – should have an elected representation in the administrative structure through senate and syndicate.
- In my view, the number of nominated members by the chancellor should be reduced to ten only, that too, only reputed academicians and a local elected member of parliament may be included in that list.
- The number of elected members through the graduate constituency may be increased to 20 but the qualification may be raised to post-graduate and doctoral level – 10 members from post graduate constituency including professionals like lawyers, doctors, engineers with PG qualifications and 10 professionals from doctoral constituency.
The graduate constituency is often the root cause of many problems and sectional politics. The graduate constituency was created in 1904 when there were barely a few thousand graduates. It was reasonable to elect 15 members from those numbers, but with more accessibility to higher qualifications – post-graduates and doctorates in lakhs – it is only reasonable to raise the bar for qualification.
The data on the number of graduates, post-graduates and PhDs – from 1904 to 2024 – should be made public on the university website. - The Panjab University has also seen resentment from campus faculty over the election of deans.
In other universities, deans of faculties and schools are from that particular faculty itself, and are appointed on the basis of seniority, on a rotational basis.
In Panjab University, deans are elected. This has led faculty to demand that rules be put in place to ensure that an elected dean be a senior academic of the same faculty. This is so that teachers of the departments under that faculty are able to look to the dean to ease cooperation and smooth functioning with the least friction. Another solution is for the senate of the university to do away with the election process and unanimously decide that deans of faculties be from university departments within the faculty, appointed on the basis of seniority.
Need for greater democratic values
It is ironic that the British colonial rulers created a democratic structure by founding the first five universities in India but some people from the ruling dispensation have tried to demolish the democratic structure of the universities created even in free India.
Nasira Jabeen, former vice chancellor of PU Lahore; and Renu Vig, vice chancellor of Panjab University, Chandigarh. Photos: Special arrangement
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), considered one of the most liberal universities in terms of ideas and academics, does not have the provision for elected representation of teachers, students or staff in its administrative bodies like executive and academic council, equivalent to the Panjab University’s syndicate and senate, respectively.
JNU got its first elected teacher representation in the executive council in 2008, when an assistant professor, associate professor and a full-time professor were chosen. Prior to that, faculty members were nominated by the higher education ministry or a visitor (President of India). There is still no representation of elected students or staff in the council.
The Panjab University syndicate, on the other hand, is fully elected by members of the senate, while the vice-chancellor and other officials become syndicate members through their designation.
Interestingly, in PU Lahore, during the ZA Bhutto regime, there was an elected representation of both students and teachers in the senate and syndicate, along with reservation of women.
The Zia Ul Haque regime demolished this democratic structure. There are apprehensions that Zia ul Haque’s model is being chosen for now at Panjab University. Can it be saved from the doom?
Chaman Lal is a retired JNU professor and an honorary advisor at Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi.