Nalanda’s New Sage

As India revives its most storied ancient university, a seasoned development economist takes the reins with grand visions for global dialogue and post-Western pedagogy.

The venerable town Rajgir in Bihar, nestled between sacred hills and Buddhist relics, is about to hum with new academic purpose. Nalanda University, once the jewel of ancient Indian learning, home to 10,000 students and 2,000 monks, has been undergoing a renaissance. At the helm of this ambitious revival stands Professor Sachin Chaturvedi, a scholar of development economics and global policy, who recently took charge as Vice-Chancellor.

His swearing-in ceremony marked the beginning of what he calls the university’s “take-off mode” in a nod to both the newly completed campus and a renewed intellectual mission.

Professor Chaturvedi is a heavyweight in India’s policy and academic circles. As Director General of the Delhi-based think tank RIS (Research and Information System for Developing Countries), he has been a voice for South-South cooperation long before it became a buzzword. He has advised governments, authored several books and currently sits on the board of India’s central bank. His brand of diplomacy is economic laced with the philosophical. “With the collapse of the Washington Consensus,” he says, “we need a new development philosophy for the Global South.” Nalanda, believes Chaturvedi, is the perfect launchpad.

That is no small ambition. Founded by Gupta emperor Kumargupta I in the 5th century AD, the original Nalanda Mahavihara drew scholars from China, Japan, Korea, and beyond, before being destroyed in the 12th century. Its contemporary avatar, declared an “institution of national importance” by Parliament in 2010, is now backed by 18 member countries of the East Asia Summit. The Ministry of External Affairs oversees its functioning, emphasising its role as a soft power project as much as a scholarly one.

Chaturvedi’s vision for Nalanda blends this soft diplomacy with serious academic heft.

That tradition, however, requires infrastructure. Thankfully, the heavy lifting is nearly done. Designed by the late BV Doshi, a Pritzker-winning architect, the university’s new eco-conscious campus sprawls across 455 acres. It includes 100 acres of water bodies and 300 acres of forest, in line with Doshi’s vision of Vaastu-aligned, carbon-neutral construction.

Already, the student count stands at 540 and is expected to cross 900 this year. More importantly, Chaturvedi wants the university to become a hub for cross-border discourse, drawing students, scholars, diplomats, and policymakers alike. Unlike the South Asian University run by SAARC, Nalanda is entirely Indian-led, which gives Chaturvedi the autonomy to think big.

And big he does. His plans include bringing Indian philosophy into direct conversation with modern policy-making by linking ideas from the Upanishads and Buddhist ethics to global governance, climate justice, and inclusive growth. It is a bold attempt to decolonise curriculum without lapsing into nostalgia.

Indeed, Nalanda’s revival under Chaturvedi might ultimately hinge on his ability to strike a balance between global relevance and civilisational pride. In this, he follows in the footsteps of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the university’s first chancellor, and works alongside Arvind Panagariya, its current one. With Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi both taking active interest, the political winds seem favourable.

But academia is rarely smooth sailing. Funding and establishing credibility on the global stage will be uphill tasks. Yet, if Chaturvedi succeeds in his mission, Nalanda may once again become what it once was: a lighthouse of learning in a world adrift in ideological darkness.