Amid much promised fanfare, the inauguration of the new campus of Nalanda University next to the serene ancient ruins in Bihar’s Rajgir on Wednesday has got its deserved attention.
Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar and other top officials, the event was attended by the ambassadors of 17 participating countries.
The new campus may well be a suitable metaphor for India’s developing diplomatic strategy that focuses on the nation’s Buddhist heritage. After all, it was in India that the founder of Buddhism preached his philosophy of the impermanence of everything.
PM Modi posted on X: “Visiting the excavated remains was exemplary. It was an opportunity to be at one of the greatest seats of learning in the ancient world.”
Quite in alignment with India’s professed stature of ‘vishwa bandhu’, the PM added, “Nalanda has created an intellectual spirit that continues to thrive in our nation.”
Pointing out that the university’s destruction marked a downturn in India’s history making way for a ‘dark phase’, Jaishankar was more upfront, “In the rebuilding of the Nalanda University, there are multiple messages, both national and international… it underlines Bharat’s endeavour to emerge as a Vishwa Bandhu… It reflects the seriousness with which we pursue our ‘Act East’ policy.”
The ‘Act East’ policy focuses to promote closer ties with the countries in the extended neighbourhood in the Asia-Pacific region—including Vietnam—in pursuit of the country’s political, strategic and cultural aims.
An international university now, the decision to set up the university was taken in 2010 but it started in 2014 from a makeshift location with just 14 students while construction work began three years later.
Set up in the fifth century, the Nalanda University drew students and scholars from all over the world. It flourished for about 800 years before it was razed to the ground by invaders in the 12th century.
The 17 nations that have signed MoUs in support of the university include Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The University has been attracting foreign students year on year. For PG programmes in the last three academic years, there were 169 international students in 2021-22, 173 in 2022-23 and 253 for 2023-24.