From 12 students to over 1,200: Inside the new campus of Nalanda University

Indian Express

2 days ago

His back against the whiteboard, Associate Professor Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedi tells his 34 students, pursuing their master's degree from Nalanda University's School of International Relations and Peace Studies (IPRS), why India was well within its rights to put in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.
'Its provisions clearly describe that the pact can be put in abeyance in case of disturbance of internal peace,' he tells the class. The students, including 11 international ones, agree with the professor, who heads the school. Introduced by the university in 2024-25, IRPS is a huge draw for scholars and one of its six schools offering master's courses.
From just 12 students after it was established in 2014 under a special Act of Parliament, Nalanda University now has 1,270 students, within a year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating its new campus in June 2024 in Bihar's Rajgir town.
The university's state-of-the-art 455-acre campus stands in the foothills of the imposing Vaibhar Giri hill, considered the seat of both Buddhism and Jainism. Barely 12 km from the new campus — and over 70 km from Bodh Gaya, considered the site of Gautam Buddha's enlightenment — lie the ruins of the ancient Nalanda University, perhaps the world's first Ivy League university.
Conceived as an international institute of excellence where the old and new knowledge systems coexist, the new Nalanda University was established under the Nalanda University Act, 2010, by the Ministry of External Affairs. Then President A P J Abdul Kalam was its first Visitor, while economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was its first Chancellor. Sixteen countries had come together to support its establishment.
Before moving to its new zero-carbon campus, the university functioned out of 'borrowed' buildings at the Rajgir Convention Centre and had just two international students.
At the new 'car-free' campus, a pathway flanked by canna lilies and street lights leads one inside the university. With a built area of just 8%, the campus, designed by renowned architect B V Doshi's Vastu Shilpa Consultants, attempts to 'match the architectural and geographical setting the ancient Nalanda University would have provided'.
Its exposed brick buildings — similar to the signature image of the Nalanda ruins — and elevated staircases are surrounded by 15 water bodies, christened 'Kamal Sagars' and spread over 100 acres. University officials say the area's water table has gone up 'substantially' since the new campus came up.
The ancient Nalanda University is believed to have been established in the 5th century CE and faded out around the 13th century due to a combination of factors, including the rise of Hinduism, the decline of Buddhism and invasions by foreign invaders.
Post-doctoral fellow Azad Hind Gulshan Nanda, who quit his job at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Trombay and the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata to research Nalanda at the university, says, 'It is believed that the ancient university was destroyed by fire, though its ecological degradation over the years cannot be ruled out.'
The fire theory was referenced by PM Modi in his campus inauguration speech, 'Aag ki lapton mein pustaken bhale hi jal jayein, lekin aag ki laptein gyan ko kabhi mita nahi sakti (Fire can destroy books but not knowledge).'
Today, the university's regular courses are being pursued by 402 students, including 224 international scholars from 21 countries, while many others have enrolled in its 37 regular and short-term courses, including online diplomas and certificate languages courses, or its master's degree in eight disciplines at its six schools. At full capacity, the campus can accommodate around 7,500 students and teachers.
Besides using only harvested rainwater for all its needs, the campus also has a drinking water treatment plant, a water recycling plant, a yoga centre, auditorium, an archival centre and a fully equipped sports complex. Then there is the Bodhi tree — the PM had planted the sapling during the inauguration — which is now over six feet tall. Officials said the Prime Minister's Office keeps tabs on the tree.
In the hostels, two scholars share one 12 x 12 room, and two rooms one common washroom. A few hundred metres from hostels are the libraries, housed in two big halls. The construction of a dome-shaped library, modelled on the Sanchi Stupa, a Buddhist monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Madhya Pradesh, is in its final stage.
As the sun sets and the campus lights up, the students gather in the common dining hall, which has flags of the university's 16 member nations on a wall and can easily seat 1,500 people at a time.
Instead of the guru-shishya parampara (teacher-disciple tradition) at the ancient university, Patna-based Fahad Zeya, a student at IRPS, says the new campus follows the 'cafeteria model' of education. 'There is free interaction with teachers here beyond classroom hours,' he says, before walking towards the cafeteria for lunch.
Claiming that 'we are perhaps the first university in the world to teach both international relations and peace studies as one subject', Prof Chaturvedi says, 'IRPS was conceived as a subject based on India's age-old approach of looking for peace in its international relations.'
While Samriddhi Khandelwal from Rajasthan, Xaysin Pongxaiyavonh from Laos and Soy Kimhong from Cambodia decided to pursue IRPS since it 'talks about relations, conflict and peace from BCE till present time', their classmate Aman Kumar, a graduate in computer sciences, tells The Indian Express that he enrolled in the course to prepare for the civil services examinations.
Cambodia's Va Souvann says, 'Studying international relations of various countries from ancient times gives us great clarity when it comes to getting to the crux of the problem in connection with international ties.'
Like its ancient counterpart, Nalanda University too has a teacher-student ratio of 1:5, thanks to visiting faculty. Though the university has 67 teachers, including 26 regular teachers, the number of visiting faculty members can rise to 100, say officials.
When it comes to other popular subjects, Abhay Kumar Singh, the university's former Vice-Chancellor and the dean of the School of Historical Studies, listed environment and Buddhist studies. 'Several of our students have got very good jobs in monasteries in South-East Asia. Instead of offering general courses, our focus is on in-depth research and knowledge creation, just like our ancient namesake,' Prof Singh says, while sitting in his office.
Onanna Aklero from Bangladesh agrees with Prof Singh, as do Lesha Piumi Dilhara from Sri Lanka and Thi Thun Tha from Vietnam. While Onanna and Thi Thun Tha are master's students at the School of Historical Studies, Lesha Piumi Dilhara is pursuing a PhD from the same school.
Toshabanta Padhan, who heads the Department of Archaeology, says archaeology is evolving fast as an independent subject for master's courses at the university. Calling it a 'very engaging subject', Patna's Shreya Anand, who is pursuing her master's in archaeology, says, 'Archaeology is linked to history, politics and economics. I want to be a researcher. Working at the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is my dream job.'
A professor says Nalanda University has also entered into memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with 23 institutions for 'knowledge exchange programmes', including the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), Asiatic Society, ASI, Syiah Kuala University in Indonesia, Dongguk University in Korea, Otani University in Japan and Bronx Community College in the US.
However, Prof Singh says references to the university as 'Brand Nalanda' sadden him. He adds, 'The world discusses tomorrow what Nalanda discusses today. Nalanda is the chaste spirit of knowledge, a light, pure and unadulterated.'