Former name | Indian School of International Studies |
|---|---|
| Established | 1955; 71 years ago (1955) |
| Affiliation | Jawaharlal Nehru University |
| Location | , |
 | |
TheSchool of International Studies (Hindi:स्कूल ऑफ इंटरनेशनल स्टडीज) (formerly Indian School of International Studies) is an academic institution created in 1955 which merged with theJawaharlal Nehru University in 1970. It was founded by PanditHriday Nath Kunzru, Prof. A. Appadorai and ProfessorM.S. Rajan, under the auspices of theIndian Council of World Affairs. In the 15 years of its existence, it came to be noted as the leading institute of research in the area ofInternational Relations andArea Studies inIndia. Many of its former faculty and students went on to occupy academic positions in other universities and research institutes across the country.[1]
The School was created on the suggestion of the thenPrime Minister andForeign Minister,Jawaharlal Nehru, that there was the need for an institution to help build a pool of academic experts oninternational affairs andarea studies who could give an informed second opinion on India's relations with the world.[2]The school was inaugurated on 1 October 1955 in the presence ofPrime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru andVice PresidentSarvepalli Radhakrishnan.[3] Though initially affiliated to theUniversity of Delhi, it was granteddeemed university status in 1961, and could independently grant degrees.
The School had eleven departments of study.[4]
The school's first director was Professor A. Appadorai, who served from 1955 to 1964. Several steps were taken by him to nurture this first effort of its kind. All students had to compulsorily attend a one-year pre-Ph.D course since they did not have a background inInternational relations.The School's second Director was Prof.M.S. Rajan and he served until the School was merged with theJNU in 1970. The School building at 35, Feroze Shah Road was constructed during his tenure and inaugurated in 1968. Prof. Rajan also solicited fellowships from the governments of the various Indian states for financially disadvantaged students from those states, a practice that continues to this day.
The merger withJNU was opposed by the staff and scholars of the School since it was seen to imposed on the school by the government. However, there was nothing much that could be done since the government held the financial purse strings and began to squeeze the school financially to persuade it to fall in line. Even prior to this action, the School had been in the middle of a controversy in Parliament with a parliamentary committee set up to look into various allegations, in response to an intensive campaign run by various vested interests.[2]
A controversy that followed the merger was the decision to bifurcate the library of the ISIS on the basis of ownership of books, documents and journals. The bifurcation was done in a bureaucratic style without regard to the wholeness of collections built up over a period of time, leading the last Director of the ISIS, Prof.M.S. Rajan to describe it as "one of the tragedies that struck ICWA as well as ISIS".[5]