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World's oldest university poised for revival in India after 800 years | Nalanda University, an ancient seat of learning
destroyed in 1193, is poised for revival. According to The Independent, an ambitious plan to establish an international university with the same overarching vision
as Nalanda – and located alongside its physical ruins – has been spearheaded by a team of international experts and leaders, among them the Nobel-winning economist
Amartya Sen. This week, legislation that will enable the building of the university
to proceed is to be placed before the Indian parliament. "At its peak, it offered
an enormous number of subjects in the Buddhist tradition, in a similar way that
Oxford (offered) in the Christian tradition – Sanskrit, medicine, public health
and economics," Sen said yesterday in Delhi . "It was destroyed in a war. It was
(at) just the same time that Oxford was being established. It has a fairly extraordinary
history – Cambridge had not yet been born." He added, with confidence: "Building
will start as soon as the bill passes." The plan to resurrect Nalanda – in the
state of Bihar – and establish a facility prestigious enough to attract the best
students from across Asia and beyond, was apparently first voiced in the 1990s.
But the idea received more widespread attention in 2006 when then president, APJ
Abdul Kalam set about establishing an international "mentoring panel". Members
of the panel, chaired by Sen, include Singapore's foreign minister, George Yeo,
historian Sugata Bose, Lord Desai and Chinese academic Wang Banwei. A key challenge
for the group is to raise sufficient funds for the university. It has been estimated
that 500 million dollars will be required to build the new facility, with a further
500 million dollars needed to sufficiently improve the surrounding infrastructure.
The group is looking for donations from governments, private individuals and religious
groups. The governments of both Singapore and India have apparently already given
some financial commitments. Some commentators believe a crucial impact of the
establishment of a new international university in India would be the boost it
gave to higher education across Asia . Indian authorities believe the establishment
of the college would act as a global reminder of the nation's history as a centre
of learning and culture. |
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