‘We should find our own lexicon’: Nalanda Vice-Chancellor Sachin Chaturvedi on India’s soft power

Nalanda University (NU) Vice Chancellor Sachin Chaturvedi speaks to The Indian Express about the university’s planned library, its research on Shastra (weapons) and shaastra (philosophical treatises), the revival of Shaastrartha (debate) and the Nalanda University Press.

He also addresses ongoing debates on Sanatan and the saffronisation of education and explains why the international university is taking longer to establish itself than institutions like JNU. We have planned our library meticulously.

The five-storey, stupa-shaped library — with quadrants on each floor — will begin with approximately 3.5 lakh books. The first floor will be devoted to handwritten works such as the Pragya Paramita by Acharya Nagarjuna, one of the foremost among 28 Nalanda masters whose works are being translated into English.

We will also have transcriptions of these texts by students, digital analytics and coding of works by experts from IIIT Hyderabad. Since these texts are in Pali, Prakrit, Sanskrit, and other languages, they will first be translated into English.

There are about 1,500 to 1,800 volumes of such works. PM Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the library in December. There will also be a floor devoted to complete digitisation — to help avoid the destruction that befell the ancient university.

We will have segments on commentators on Nalanda University, physical dissertations from our students and a range of contemporary books across genres. Western philosophy talks about the rule of law, but we need to talk about the rule of justice — drawn from Kautilya's philosophy.

The Hormuz crisis and South China Sea crisis are fundamentally cases of rule of law versus rule of justice. We have to revisit the concept of global governance. "Soft power" is a Western concept, we need to find our own lexicon from the ways ancient India practised diplomacy.

Soon, we are opening the Gandhi Zayed Centre for Peace, Tolerance and Sustainability, engaging Indian and UAE experts. We are also adding Jain philosophy alongside Buddhist and Hindu philosophy for a comprehensive understanding of statecraft.

We have to understand the growing binary in the post-Hormuz world while reading along the works and interpretations of Indian masters of the past. The Hormuz crisis witnessed the use of both shastra and shaastra . We will launch our own publication, the Nalanda University Press on the inauguration day with an edited volume on "Shastra and Shaastra" by eminent scholar Amrita Narlikar, with contributions from 20 leading foreign policy experts.

The idea is to amalgamate and differentiate philosophical inquiry and statecraft. Shaastrartha — structured intellectual debate in the tradition of the ancient university — is all the more important in an era of AI overdose.

There is a delicate line to follow — between restraint and ensuring that arguments are placed on the altar of intellectual discussion rather than misinformation. It is important for academics to put facts, history, and wider public understanding together.

The fact that Gautam Buddha himself practised several elements of Sanatan Sanskriti (culture) may be contextualised against the differences within Buddhist philosophies. Nalanda University always supported multiple knowledge traditions — Buddhist, Hindu, Jain — from the 7th century onwards.

Even now, students from 36 countries are studying here, including religious courses, and we received applications from 72 countries. The response has been strong enough to help us meet our target of 1,000 students. We will hold a meeting this month bringing together linguists from Northeastern India and Southeast Asia to understand the linguistic dynamics of the region, in line with the Act East policy endorsed by the Prime Minister.

In language, we have incorporated Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi to revive regional languages and prevent their erosion. Ancient Nalanda did not travel to 200-odd neighbouring villages merely to procure rations — it went there to learn Pali, Prakrit and Sanskrit.

It is happening, it is just a matter of time. IRPS has been a major preference of students from several states who preferred NU over JNU or DU. In CUET preference rankings, Nalanda University is among the top six or seven institutions.

It is difficult to draw students from metro cities to a rural setting. But those who stay here know that the campus ambience is comparable to that of any top university in the world, with significantly better AQI than large metros.

Santosh Singh is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express since June 2008. Expertise He covers Bihar with main focus on politics, society and governance. Investigative and explanatory stories are also his forte.

Singh has 25 years of experience in print journalism covering Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. ... Read More