Chaman Lal
Chaman LalIn March 1857, just a few months before the mutiny broke out in Barrackpore Cantonment, the British rulers had introduced the university system in India. Kolkata University was started on 24 January 1857 which was the first university in India. Bombay University was established on 24 July 1857 in the same year and Madras University was established a few months later on 5 September 1857. The following two universities were established after the start of the Ghadar movement. When these three universities were built, India was under the rule of the East India Company and the direct colonial rule of the British began in 1858. 15 years later, on 14 October 1882, the Punjab University was established in Lahore, but it was the first university in India to conduct examinations as well as teaching. The fifth university in British India was established in Allahabad on 16 November 1889, after which no new university was established for 25 years. Then in 1916 Banaras Hindu University was formed.
By 1904 all universities had their own statutes. Then all the five universities were jointly brought under the Indian Universities Act, 1904. Many of its common features were continued in these five universities, including an elected senate and syndicate.
After the partition of the country, especially in Eastern or Upper Punjab, Punjab University also had to go through a tragic period. At the time of partition, it was decided that the examinations in both the ascending and descending Punjabs would be conducted by the Punjab University, Lahore. For this reason Madan Gopal Singh, Registrar (Examinations) of Panjab University went from Shimla to Lahore with a message to the father of eminent artist Krishna Khanna that he would contact him if he could return. He (Madan Gopal Singh) was murdered in his office in the university by one of his assistants. Similarly, Brij Narayan Singh, a prominent economics professor at the university (who had decided to stay in Lahore) was also murdered in his office. He wrote articles on ‘Farmers’ Suffering’. The storm of hatred had destroyed the humane traditions of the Punjab University, so that the newly formed government in Punjab had to issue an ordinance on 27 September 1947 to establish the East Punjab University and it came into existence on 1 October 1947. Although most of the constitutions of Punjab University Lahore and Punjab University Chandigarh were similar, there were some interesting changes. In Pakistan in 1972 during the rule of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the charter of Punjab University, Lahore was witnessed. These treaties were more democratic than the Indian Punjab. At both the college and university levels, the student union was represented in the university senate and syndicate. Special provisions were made in the statutes to reserve certain seats for women’s representation in university bodies. During Zia-ul Haq’s military rule, these democratic provisions were removed except for students, but reservations for women continued.
During the freedom struggle, the role of Punjab University, Lahore was glorious. According to the calendar of 1932, the incident that took place in DAV College Lahore on 8th October 1930 is recorded in Mutalaq Senate proceedings when the police entered the college campus and beat up a professor and some students in the classroom. The context was that on October 7, when the tribunal sentenced Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru to death in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, students and teachers spontaneously protested in Lahore, in response to which the police cordoned off classrooms. Tried to spread panic by entering. The senate of Punjab University protested against this and passed a resolution condemning the police action in strong terms that the police have no right to enter the campus without the permission of the principal.
The traditions of Punjab University are very honorable. I think its structure is the most inclusive and democratic structure of all the universities in the country which Punjab can be proud of because fundamentally it is the University of Punjab. Only in terms of student union elections, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is more progressive where the student council itself conducts its own elections. Some provisions of the Universities Act of 1904 are still applicable in the administrative structure of Panjab University or the five other universities that preceded it.
There is need of time to improve the academic and administrative structure of the university. In this regard, some reforms were needed in the Punjab University Act and the calendar as well. Efforts have been made by the university senate by forming different committees for this purpose. These reports and some other recommendations can be considered by extending the tenure of the current senate or a new committee can be formed to review the previous reports and get some new recommendations from the stakeholders so that the senate and the university structure can be improved. A general consensus can be established to remove the existing hurdles.
As a concerned alumni and academic member my comments and suggestions are as follows:
1. With two distinguished and powerful women academic members (VC and DUI) occupying top positions in the Punjab University administration, it is high time that women academic members, be they students or faculty, should be accorded due rights. In most universities now the number of girls as students is always more than boys, somewhere in Panjab University, Chandigarh it will be more. Female faculty may be few in number but there is no dearth of female scholars, the number of researchers in universities is probably almost equal to that of men. I suggest that like Panjab University in Lahore, Panjab University in Chandigarh should have equal number of women in the senate. At least 33 percent of the seats should be reserved, as is the case for reserved seats in the Indian Parliament under the recently passed law, which may come into effect from the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. If Punjab University, Lahore can do this only in the year 1972, how come a democratic country like India is so far behind?
2. If the Punjab University of Lahore can recognize the representation of students in the Senate and Syndicate in 1972, why can’t the Punjab University of Chandigarh adopt it even after five decades at least in 2024? All three sections – students, faculty and staff – should elect representatives to the administrative structure through the Senate and Syndicate.
3. In my opinion the number of members to be nominated by the Chancellor should be reduced to only 10, an eminent academic member and a local Member of Parliament can be included in the list.
4. The number of members to be elected through the graduate constituency should be increased to twenty, but the qualification can be increased to postgraduate and doctorate. Ten members may be drawn from the post-graduate constituency and ten from the doctoral field. The graduate constituency is the root of many problems and departmental politics. When the graduate field was created in 1904, there were barely a few hundred graduates. It was reasonable to select 15 members out of those hundreds or few thousands of graduates, but now doctors (PhD) are in thousands and post-graduates in millions, so it is reasonable to increase the qualification level. Universities should make public the number of graduates, post-graduates and PhD holders by decade to know how much the numbers have grown. Therefore, information up to 1904, 1914, 1924 and 2024 should be uploaded on the Punjab University website. No one will like to say this and perhaps I will be ridiculed, but the fact remains that thousands of members of the graduate constituency are no longer alive and the lists have not been improved in any way. There are thousands of people abroad who have no interest in these elections. Some political factions, irrespective of colour, want to retain the graduate constituency, even though they know how difficult it is to reach them and only use postcards and social media to contact them. My personal opinion is that this constituency should be upgraded to doctorate level because they are the ones who will really take interest as most of them are in the academic field in some way or the other, still steps have to be taken gradually. Post-graduates should keep a few more years in it.
5. Another displeasure is from the Panjab University campus faculty in the matter of the selection of the Dean from the Senate. In other universities, the Deans of Faculties/Schools are from the Faculty themselves who are appointed on a rotating basis on the basis of seniority. If different faculties continue to elect deans, it may be found in the rules and bye-laws that the dean of the faculty should be the senior academic member of the same faculty and, if he is from the senate, the rank of senior professor. It should be so that the local faculty is not angry with the other departments of the university and can cooperate wholeheartedly with the elected dean. If the senate unanimously decides that the deans of the faculties will be from the departments of the university on the basis of seniority, the issue will be settled amicably by itself.
* The writer has been a member of Punjab University Senate and Dean of Language Faculty.