Better attention to studies in international relations: Tharoor

Updated on: Monday, December 07, 2009

Pune: Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor has painted a grim picture of the state of studies in International Relations (IR) at universities and colleges across the country.

Tharoor called for apt attention from institutions to ensure that the younger generation is adequately prepared to face the challenge of globalisation, which is impacting every other individual irrespective of the place s/he lives.

Tharoor was addressing the annual convocation ceremony-2009 of the Symbiosis International University (SIU) at the latter's state-of-the-art integrated academic complex at Lavle in Mulshi taluka, about 20 km from the city, on Sunday. Chancellor of SIU S B Mujumdar presided over the ceremony.

Tharoor said, "Our young Indians do not know the globalised world as well as they should. To thrive in this world, they must speak foreign languages and be comfortable with other ways of thinking. We are not yet there."

According to Tharoor, a former under secretary general with the United Nations, "The situation won't improve unless we can improve the study in international affairs at our colleges and universities where there is a crippling shortage of qualified faculty, poor infrastructure, outdated curriculum and limited research opportunities."

More than half the departments do not have access to the internet and are so deprived of the rich wealth of online resources that students elsewhere in the world can command, he said, adding, books and journals are in short supply. "Little expertise has been developed in specific areas or countries of concern to India," he said.

Tharoo went on to cite the example of the recent Indo-Pak joint statement at Sharm-el Shaikh. "There is no major scholar of Baloch (Balochistan) studies in India to whom either the MEA or its critics can turn," he said.

Foreign languages are poorly taught, resources for study trips abroad are scarce, research is of varying quality and opportunities for cross-fertilisation at academic conferences are practically non-existent, he added.

On the other hand, he pointed out, China, a late comer, has already developed a critical mass of students and scholars in IR. "We are behind and we need to change the way we all think about IR," he said, adding, "the MEA was more than willing to play its part in collaboration with those responsible for educational policy top bring the change."

Tharoor earlier said that foriegn policy was too important an issue to be left to the MEA alone. "Our society as a whole, and particularly its educated young people, must care enough about India's place in the world to participate actively in shaping our international posture."

"And yet," he said, "the picture around us is pretty dismal one. International relations is a neglected subject on our campuses. We do have a handful of thinkers on international issues and a fistful of think-tanks, but in size, quality of expertise and range of output they all have a long way to go before they match the role played, for example, by their equivalents in the United States."

In his chancellor's address, Mujumdar emphasised the need to do away with the mindset of comparing self-financing universities, like the SIU, in India with the established world-class varsities like Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford and Princeton, among others. "Unlike western universtieis, the Indian varsities have to deal with a whole set of constraints that begins with the mindset of looking at deemed varsities with suspicion and painting them in the same brush," he said. "The thrust has to be on developing an identity of their own for the Indian universities based on the Indian ethos," he added.

Principal director of SIU Vidya Yeravdekar, Vice Chancellor Mrunal Raaste, former union cabinet secretary B G Deshmukh, who is a member of SIU governing board, well-known cartoonist R K Laxman, former UGC chairman Arun Nigavekar and other dignitaries were present.

Better attention to studies in international relations: Tharoor

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