Banaras Hindu University

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Banaras Hindu University
Established: 1916
Type: Public
Chancellor: Dr.Karn Singh
Vice-Chancellor: Prof. D.P.Singh
Location: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Campus: Urban
Affiliations: UGC
Website: www.bhu.ac.in

Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Hindi: काशी हिन्दू विश्वविद्यालय, is a premier Central University and a world class educational institution located in Varanasi, India.[1] It is regarded as the largest residential university in Asia.[2] The fully-residential campus has more than 128 independent teaching departments. Its 1350 acre (5.5 km²) campus was built on land donated by the Kashi Naresh. The total enrollment in the University stands at just over 15000. Several of its colleges, including engineering (IT-BHU), Agriculture, Law, Science, and medicine (IMS-BHU), are ranked amongst the best in India.[citation needed] IMS-BHU is equivalent to AIIMS and Faculty of Science in BHU is one of the best faculty in Asian countries.[citation needed] This University attracts students from all regions of India.

Contents

[edit] Organisation

The university comprises 3 Institutes,viz. Institute of Agricultural Sciences(IAS), Institute of Medical Sciences(IMS) and Institute of Technology (IT-BHU), 14 Faculties, 124 Departments, 1 DBT Interdisciplinary School of Life Sciences (one of the three in country), 4 Inter-disciplinary Centers, a constituent college for women and 3 constituent schools. It has 7 centre of Advanced Studies, 10 Departments under the Special Assistance Programme and a large number of specialized Research Centers. Notable of the departments in Faculty of Science include Departments of Physics,Zoology,Geology, Botany (All the 4 are UGC Centre of Advance Studies), Biochemistry, Biotechnology(and bioinformatics centre) and Chemistry. The Faculties of Science, Social Sciences, Arts ,Commerce and Management studies are regarded among the best in the country. BHU was the first university in the country to start the management degree course i.e. the M.B.A. way back in 1960's.[citation needed]

[edit] Admissions

The university teaches a vast range of subjects pertaining to all branches of the humanities, social science, technology, medicine, science, fine arts and performing arts. Admissions in BHU are done on the basis of All India level Examination, i.e. UET (for undergraduate courses), PET (for postgraduate courses) and CRET (for research-level courses). In addition to these, IT-BHU has intake from IIT-JEE; IMS from the All-India PMT exam; and the Faculty of Management Science has intake from IIM-CAT Examination.

[edit] Campus

The main BHU campus is 1,300 acres and includes faculty housing and 55 student hostels.

Besides academic buildings and sports facilities, included within the campus are:

  • A Shiva temple (Birla Mandir), popularly known as VT (an abbreviation for Vishwanath Temple), and it is the tallest Hindu Temple of India.[citation needed]
  • An air strip and flying club
  • A channel of library system including the central Sayajirao Gaekwad Library with over 13 lakh (1.3 million) volumes, along with individual libraries in departments and schools
  • A famous museum of rare collections (Bharat Kala Bhavan)
  • A 927-bed hospital associated with the medical college, ayurvedic college IMS-BHU
  • A printing press

Another new campus of the University i.e. the Rajiv Gandhi South Campus at Barkachha, in Mirzapur district, U.P.,covering an area of 2,700 acres (11 km²) has been started, with many new professional courses.[citation needed]

Four off-campus Degree Colleges of the city of Varanasi are affiliated with the University. Apart from the traditional style concrete buildings, the campus features open spaces, greenery and peacocks, the national bird of India, which are found roaming around almost every part of the university.

[edit] History

[edit] The Founding of BHU

The Idea of a Hindu University was mooted in a meeting held in 1904 at Varanasi. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya gave up his lucrative practice at the Bar and launched his mission in January, 1911. Almost at the same time, there was another proposal of Annie Besant for establishing a university at Varanasi under the name of "The University of India". In 1907, she submitted a memorandum for the grant of Royal Charter for the establishment of the University. In April 1911, Annie Besant and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya met and decided to unite their forces and work for a common Hindu University at Varanasi. The Kashi Naresh holds the title of the Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University.[3] The land for establishing the university was given by Kashi Naresh.

Besides the proposal of Pandit Malaviya and Annie Besant, there was another scheme for the establishment of a Sarada Viswa Vidyalaya at Varanasi which was sponsored by a number of prominent Hindus interested in the study of Hinduism under the auspices of the Maharaja of Darbhanga, Sri Rameshwar Singh Bahadur. However, the Maharaja of Darbhanga Sir Rameshwar Singh Bahadur agreed to extend his support to the Hindu University scheme after having been assured of the support of the Government of India. A society under the name, "The Hindu University Society", was soon formed and registered in December, 1911 with Maharaja Sir Rameshwar Singh Bahadur as its President and Sir Sundar Lal, a Judge of the Allahabad High Court, as its Secretary. Its office was opened at Allahabad on 1 January 1912. The then Government of India had required that a sum of rupees fifty lakhs must be collected before the scheme could be put into effect. By the beginning of the year 1915, this target was achieved. Another pre-condition set by the Government of India was that the Central Hindu College should become a part of the University. Annie Besant, Dr. Bhagwan Das and their fellow Trustees of the Central Hindu College agreed to hand over the institution to be made the nucleus of the proposed University. The charge of the Central Hindu College was handed over to the Hindu University Society on 27 November 1915.

The Banaras Hindu University Bill was introduced in the Imperial Legislative Council in March, 1915 by Sir Hartcourt Butler. The Bill was referred to a Select Committee and it came up along with the report of the Select Committee for final reading before the Imperial Legislative Council. The Council passed the bill on 1 October 1915 and the same day it received the assent of the Governor-General and Viceroy of India which made it an Act. On 4 February 1916 Lord Hardinge, the then Governor-General and Viceroy laid the foundation stone of the University. A series of lectures which have come to be known as the University Extension Lectures were delivered on the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8 February 1916 by distinguished specialists like Sir J.C. Bose, Dr. PC. Ray, Dr. Harold Mann, Prof. Sam Higginbottom, Mrs. Annie Besant, Prof. C. V. Raman among others. Mahatma Gandhi who had just returned to India from South Africa and had come to Banaras to attend the Foundation stone laying ceremony addressed his first public lecture in India on 6 February. The closing functions were held on 8 February 1916, on the day Vasant Panchami.By a Notification published In the Gazette of India on 25 March 1916 the Banaras Hindu University Act of 1915 was brought into force from 1 April 1916. Dr. Sir Sundar Lal was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor.

The University started functioning from 1 October 1917 with the Central Hindu College as its first constituent college. In July, 1918 the College of Oriental learning and Theology was opened and in August 1918, the Teachers' Training College. The first University examinations were held in 1918 and the first Convocation on 17 January 1919. The Chancellor of the University, Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV of Mysore who had come to preside over and address the Convocation, also performed the opening ceremony of the Engineering College Workshop buildings. An Artisan course was started on 11 February 1919. Thus the Engineering College was the first to start functioning in the University campus and within a couple of years it started attracting students from all parts of India.

The late Kashi Naresh and Maharaja Dr. Vibhuti Narayan Singh had a great impact on this institution.

[edit] A "Hindu" University

Though the name of the university includes the word "Hindu," the university has always been accepting of the various religions of its members, including students and faculty. A message on its website says:

"India is not a country of the Hindus only. It is a country of the Muslims, the Christians and the Parsees too. The country can gain strength and develop itself only when the people of the different communities in India live in mutual goodwill and harmony. It is my earnest hope and prayer that this centre of life and light which is coming into existence, will produce students who will not only be intellectually equal to the best of their fellow students in other parts of the world, but will also live a noble life, love their country and be loyal to the Supreme ruler".[4]

[edit] The Central Library

The Banaras Hindu University Library system, the largest University Library System in the country,[citation needed] germinated from a small but precious collection donated by Prof. P.K. Telang in the memory of his father Justice Kashinath Trimbak Telang in 1917 and housed in the Telang Hall of the Central Hindu College, Kamachha. It was nurtured in its infancy by the renowned historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar. With the University taking shape at its present premises, the library was also shifted in 1921 to the Central Hall of the Arts College(now Faculty of Arts) and then in 1941 to its present majestic building built with the munificent donation from Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda, on the pattern of the great library British Museum in London on the suggestion of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the founder of university, after his return from the Round Table Conference, London in 1931. Its majestic circular Central Hall has been furnished with elegant furniture made of famous and rare variety of Burma Teak woods.

Beginning with a small but precious donated collection, its grew by leaps and bounds with magnificent donations of personal and family collections from many eminent personalities and families like Lala Sri Ram of Delhi, Jamnalal Bajaj of Wardha, Roormal Goenka, Batuk Nath Sharma, Tagore Family collection, Nehru Family collection, etc. amongst a score of others and purchase of books and journals out of the regular fund with the result that it has a collection of around 60,000 volumes in 1931 itself. The trend of donation of personal and family collection to the library continued as late as forties with the result that it has unique pieces of rarities of books and journals dating back to 18th century.

With this sound footings and background, the library took long strides during sixties and seventies in its development and metamorphosed in a system of libraries with the establishment of institute, faculty and departmental libraries during the period. Presently the Banaras Hindu University Library System consists of Central Library at apex and 3 Institute Libraries, 8 Faculty Libraries, 25 Departmental Libraries, with a total collection of over 13 lakh volumes to serve the students, faculty members, researchers, technical staff of fourteen faculties consisting of 126 subject departments of the university. [5]

The late Kashi Naresh and Maharaja Dr. Vibhuti Narayan Singh had a great impact on this institution.

[edit] Notable faculty and graduates

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rediff news
  2. ^ "BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY" (PDF). Indian Academy of Sciences. 2005-07-26. http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/sep102005/899.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-04-19. 
  3. ^ [1] Short biography of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. Look under the heading Important Dates.
  4. ^ "Official home page of BHU". http://www.bhu.ac.in/. Retrieved on 2006-08-28. 
  5. ^ History/Genesis: Central Library BHU

[edit] External links

[edit] Books

  1. ^  Leah Renold, A Hindu Education: Early Years Of The Banaras Hindu University (Oxford University Press).

Coordinates: 25°15′52″N 82°59′42″E/25.264413°N 82.995014°E/25.264413; 82.995014

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