Prof dinesh singh biography of barack

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today edition dated August 5, 2024)

As someone keen to see the world of academia in India elevated to worthy heights I am often reminded of the lament—from the 1980s—of one of India’s most distinguished academics and a former vice-chancellor of Allahabad University.

His anguish stemmed from the fact that somewhere along the way independent India had been unable to steer our universities in the right direction. By way of illustration, I can provide many insightful instances but perhaps none would be as telling as that which has Srinivas Ramanujan at its centre and which transpired more than a hundred years ago.

As most of us know, Ramanujan’s name had been struck off the rolls of Madras University after he failed to clear his English language examination.

But by then he had already produced some profound work in mathematics and it was ev