BANGALORE, INDIA, August 16, 2007: All through its 60 independent years, free India had one national icon to encapsulate all that which stood for freedom: Mahatma Gandhi. But the Bangalore University Center for Gandhian Studies could not attract a single student for its postgraduate diploma and certificate courses on Gandhi. There are just no takers for an infrastructure worth millions of dollars, two courses with a combined intake of 40, and a department launched 42 years ago by the former President S. Radhakrishnan.
Inaugurated in 1965 by Dr. Radhakrishnan, the Center for Gandhian Studies grew to a picturesque campus within campus in Jnanabharathi, complete with a 200-seater auditorium, Gandhi Bhavan. Eminent dramatist C.G. Krishnaswamy added an open air theatre and the university regularly appointed senior faculty members from other departments as its directors. With the university budget allocating US$150,000 every year, money was not a constraint. Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, the late Ramachandra Gandhi, was invited a visiting faculty. But the rejuvenation efforts simply proved a non-starter.
Dr. Kumar has now pinned his hopes on a new strategy to attract students: The diploma course offered as an add-on for students of other departments housed at the hostel. Enthused by the first trickle of applications, Dr. Kumar is finally confident that this might work.