Jawaharlal Nehru University to have Srimanta Sankardev Chair, informs Assam Education Minister

A chair in the name of Srimanta Sankardev will be set up at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) of New Delhi soon.
Informing the development , Assam Education Minister Ranoj Pegu on january 23 said that the discussion to set up a chair in the name of the great vainshnavite saint of the state was completed with the university.

He said, “Already the state’s higher education department has completed the process with the JNU administration and after today’s cabinet nod, soon Assam government and JNU will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to finalise the matter.”

Pegu added that the setting up of the chair would not only provide ample opportunity for the students to do research on Sankardev and Indology, but it would also take Assam’s age-old culture, history and religious movement before the global platform
Indology is known as the science of Indian Society. The Indological perspective claims to understand Indian Society through the concepts, theories and frameworks that are closely associated with Indian Civilization.

It made a claim that Indian Society is unique in structure, function and dynamics and cannot be associated with the European Society. Indology relies on book view and culture and denounces rigorous empirical investigation.

Indology is both an approach to study the Indian Society and also an independent discipline with Indian Society as subject matter. In both the form Indology consists of studying language, beliefs, ideas, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, rituals, ceremonies and other related components of culture.

Indology demands inter-disciplinary, multi- disciplinary and cross disciplinary approach. Indology is also older than Sociology. It is antique in its origin owing its origin to 1784 by Sir William Jones of Calcutta. It was in the year 1987 that Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal where he introduced the two departments of Sanskrit and Indology. It is the beginning of Indology in India, which has been followed by several other scholars. 

Meanwhile, the Education Minister also said that the state government has decided to regularize the jobs of the contractual teachers in schools which would achieve Grade A rank in the Gunotsav for two consecutive years.

The state government has already sanctioned Rs 10 crore for the purpose and also granted a one-time sanction of Rs 10 lakh to initiate the process, informed Pegu.

“If a school has received Grade-A in 2022 Gunotsav and also secure the position in 2023 Gunotsav, then the jobs of the contractual teachers in these schools will be regularized,” he added.