Hindustan Times | Delhi University among India’s premier varsities, says minister Puri

Sep 28,2022

Delhi University is a centre of excellence whose legacy needed to be celebrated, said Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday, stressing that some of India’s most prominent nation-builders and opinion-makers had emerged from the premier institution.

Puri made the comments during the launch of a book, Delhi University: Celebrating 100 Glorious Years, edited by him that celebrates DU’s legacy through the accounts of diverse alumni from different walks of life.

He said the anthology was driven with the aim of celebrating the university’s 100th anniversary, which it marked this year, and its contribution towards furthering education in the country.

Besides Puri, a number of DU alumni who contributed to the anthology participated in the book launch that took place at DU’s Hindu College. While recalling his time as a student of Hindu College and Delhi University, Puri said that the visit was like time travelling.

“Great faculty make for great institutions and great institutions are defined by their student body. It’s important to celebrate institutions and this book is a celebration of DU’s legacy,” Puri, adding that the edited volume encapsulates the memories of DU alums who have done well in diverse fields.

The book contains essays by filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, actor Amitabh Bachchan, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and Supreme Court Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud among others.

Puri said that while DU is a leading university, it could do a lot more. “Delhi University is one of the most successful leading centres of excellence in the country but there is much more that can be done so that the university can gain its rightful place among the major centres of excellence in the world,” the minister said.

Recalling excerpts from the book, Puri noted that then vice chancellor Sir Maurice Gwyer did not take action against students for indulging in violence on campus during the Quit India movement in 1942. “No one condones acts of organised violence, but he looked the other way. This again makes the institute a great institute,”said Puri.

Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, a Hindu college alum and a contributor to the anthology, said that returning to the college was a fulfilling homecoming experience. “I have even slept in the aisles of the stage, in the back rooms behind. And every time I am here, I feel a sense of power as though that I’m invincible. It’s like homecoming. A lot of things have come to me from this college and the university,” said Ali.

He said that students acquired a sense of irreverence when they entered DU. “There is a sense of protest... a sense of shedding what you believed in earlier. It could be political views or worldviews. One rebels and acquires a sense of soft power. Delhi University gives you a space where one can have different opinions and still be friends with each other. This sense of irreverence is a unique gift of Delhi University,” said Ali.

He added that movies took a lot of inspiration and input from DU. “Many of my movies are taken from here. The language in my movies is a very Delhi university way of talking Hindi,” said Ali.

Besides Ali, former vice chancellor Dinesh Singh, writer-editor Namita Gokhale, former diplomat Lakshmi Puri among others share their experience of studying at DU.