NLSIU Bengaluru has selected three candidates for its first privately-funded PhD scholarship programme with Rs 74.55 lakh, which we had first reported on in May and September 2020.
NLSIU is not the first or only NLU to have fully-funded PhD programmes, though it is interesting since the funding for it came entirely from a corporate, General Electric (GE).
There had been a total of eight applicants for the three fully-funded scholarships, confirmed a university spokesperson.
Each spot includes a monthly cash stipend of Rs 40,000, as well as additional costs and expenses, aggregating to Rs 24.85 lakh per candidate over three years.
The interview panel comprised of VC of Tamil Nadu Law University Dr Kamala Sankaran, and NLSIU professors Prof Ramakrishna and Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy (who is also vice-chancellor (VC), of course).
According to an announcement on NLS’ website, the selected new PhD scholars under the programme will be researching insights of Indian spiritual traditions with political theory, Indian legal system reform and Ambedkarite jurisprudence.
The selected candidates are:
- Raag Yadava, who is a 2013 NLSIU LLB graduate and Rhodes Scholar, who has recently joined NLSIU’s faculty. His research would entail:
My work is inspired by Sri Aurobindo, who presents an evolutionary account of the development of human societies that marries the rich insights of the Indian spiritual traditions with political theory. Given the deep challenges to liberalism we witness today, I hope that this work can ground an informed and constructive debate moving forward.
- Varsha Aithala, who is a Nalsar Hyderabad LLB with a corporate law master’s from Cambridge University. She said in a statement:
The fellowship recognises the vision of Dr. Menon of striving for excellence in education with an emphasis on the values of integrity and empathy. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and hope that my work on Indian legal system reform can contribute to advancing research in this critical area.
- Arvind Narrain, an 1998 NLSIU LLB grad and a Warwick University LLM. He is also a founding member of the Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum NGO. He said:
I am pleased to have the opportunity to spend a bit of time thinking and writing about the contribution of one of our seminal thinkers – Dr. Ambedkar – to a philosophy of law. The concepts we associate with Dr Ambedkar, be it fraternity, constitutional morality or democracy as ‘associated living,’ are deeply relevant to India’s constitutional future. In my PhD, I plan to explore what I would call an ‘Ambedkarite jurisprudence’, based on a deeper study of these concepts.”
Comments
As a person from non NLU background I was optimistic about this program. But then it's impossible for a non NLU person to compete with the NLSIU or nalsar tag.
Did Sudhir consider issues of access or financial background of candidates before doling out this scholarship to people who would anyways still survive without this scholarship. Just look at the profile of the recipients. They are already well off.
Sudhir please finish your tenure quickly and join JGLS.
https://thewire.in/education/indias-best-universities-must-discard-practice-academic-inbreeding
The problem is that it’s hard to gauge the merit of their experience when they haven’t moved out of one university/ department at all. It’s about institutional immobility.
Varsha isn’t even an nls grad. Raag and Arvind have proven themselves outside of nls. And nls did hire people even in the last round who weren’t nls grads. And they did not hire any fresh graduates- everyone they hired had experience working at other institutions. These are not immobile academics. One could not argue that they are only accepted into these positions because of their prior university affiliation.
Here is literally the first link on google when you look up academic inbreeding: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile.php?story=20131009120224656
And if Sudhir wanted to join JGLS, he wouldn’t have spent years not doing so. I’m not a fan of everything he does- but he has worked toward public service more than most people with similar options.
It's time other NLUs follow and seek an alum VC.
Am already eager to read the dissertation. To sound a bit pompous -- the intersection of Dharma and rule of law -- will be scholarship money very well-used indeed.
It’s also presumptuous to argue that it was only their NLU tag that got these folks the spot- they have proven themselves even outside the NLU system, and prima facie there is no evidence that more meritorious candidates were overlooked.
Dont worry. Remember your words. We all have to come down one day. Be nice to people because you will meet struggling fellows when you are coming down.
Struggling folks will eventually finish their Ph.D and move on because they have been less privileged and they know how to get things down with limited resources.
But I do take exception to this distributive justice - everyone should get a piece of the pie idea of doing education- especially at the PhD level. No one needs phd to survive. If someone wants funding for the work they want to do- they do need to earn it instead of being entitled. And there is no reason to believe that anyone was discriminated against or that any injustice was carried out here.
Just because these folks went to good colleges does not automatically mean they are undeserving.
I agree with what you say. Just next time ask Sudhir not to sell fancy dreams over zoom meetings to young PhD scholars from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
There is a result of international workshop also coming up. I guess Aparna and sudhir are going to select candidates from good colleges.
This is what 6.1.1 sounded like.
From commenters from non-NLUs: Buzz off. This does not concern you.
Conflict of interest, anybody listening?
What is relevant is whether the Ph.D. positions and the scholarships were publicly advertised and that a reasonable opportunity was given to applicants to submit their research proposals and supporting information. Of course, the Research Committee of the University must carefully examine the quality and viability of the research proposals as well as the ability of the candidates to produce a scholarly manuscript within the prescribed time. The University always has the discretion to chose who all will be part of its Research Committee that admits candidates to its PhD programmes, be it on a full-time or part-time basis. In this case, NLSIU had put in place an additional level of screening to decide which of the candidates would be given the funding (provided by General Electric as an external sponsor) for pursuing their research for a period of 3 years.
The IITs and IIMs routinely give such fellowships or scholarships (supported by Government or Corporate sources) to candidates who are admitted into their doctoral programmes. NALSAR has also admitted some candidates to an integrated LLM-Ph.D. programme in 2017 and 2019 respectively, which gives monthly stipends. AFAIK, 2 out of 7 admitted candidates happen to be LL.B. alumni from the same institution. Both NALSAR and NLSIU have done the right thing in starting these funded Ph.D. programmes. It is the only practical way to create credible legal scholarship in the long-run. If you are asking people to give up better-paid positions in the private sector, you have to give them some monetary support so that they can concentrate on their research and writing.
I am sure that as these funded Ph.D. programmes grow in the coming years, there will be candidates from more institutions who will be admitted and given the monetary support to pursue their research interests. To simply reduce this into a 'NLU v. Non-NLU' tirade or to take pot-shots at the Selection Committee members is quite uncharitable.
Understand that North Indians as a group cannot be said to face the same disadvantages in higher education/ law as Women and minorities do. Sure when you look at nls or nalsar you will see fewer North Indian faculty cause these universities are - you know- in the south. But if you look at DU or GLC or heck even NLUD you will see more North Indian faculty. So that’s a ridiculous claim to make.
Scholars come from all sorts of places. And they go and teach in all sorts of places. A PhD admissions committee is not a court and it’s not a Lok sabha. As long as they are reputable scholars - it is completely fine for a committee to not be completely diverse.
I will go further- The committee also does not have a disabled person or a trans person or a Muslim or a Dalit or any number of other identities. Does not make their decision automatically suspect. If they didn’t have a woman- that would be fine too. It’s an admissions committee not a conference panel.
If you want to prove there was bias- you need to show that a specific candidates were not given proper consideration of their identity. Or that there is evidence of a particular community being systematically excluded. Short of that this is all really lame and I kinda hate myself for taking the time to explain it to you.
No one has a right to get into a specific PhD programme because they are North Indian or because they are a “non-nluite” - those are not protected categories and they do not need to be. “Non NLUites” have dominated Indian law higher education for a while now.
These arguments don’t hold any water and you likely know it.
[/quote]
The same ALF which hushed up the complaints against Lawrence Liang? Wonder what Ambedkar would have thought of this.
Does everyone who ever worked at Alf now go on a blacklist?
Everyone who knew Lawrence? While Lawrence himself is doing - fine.
Aravind is a PhD candidate here - hardly in a position of great power. And even if he were there are enough checks and balances within the NLU system to make sure no one repeats their mistakes.
If there aren’t - we should be thinking about what we can do institutionally rather than flinging mud on individuals which is ultimately non productive.
But I agree that the Aurobindo one is pretty out there - who asked for that?
Sudhir literally wrote an article in the New York Times calling the pm by name and implying that he’s an ignoramus who would patent cow urine. And he’s written other articles that are fairly openly critical of the government. Sanghis even tried to get him bumped from the fb thing.
Just because he’s not a talking head on tv, and couches his criticism in actual research and analysis does not mean he’s towing some sarkari line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIUmcAGc72s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0gOdWNdyMQ
Kudos for the initiative, and the potential research outcomes we'll see as a consequence. But Mr. Krishnaswamy has now at least twice forgotten that he has been entrusted with the responsibility of a [b]public[/b] (and arguably [b]the public[/b]) law university, which requires a much greater degree of propriety to be exhibited by him than by someone running a private law college. There is a chance that justice was indeed done in this case, but that's not how most people will see it.
We cannot mechanically shout 'conflict of interest' just because we are used to invoking that term in adversarial legal proceedings. If we go by the standard which you are invoking, an incumbent VC cannot sit on committees that decide internal promotions because she/he knows all faculty members from earlier. Going by the same logic, she/he cannot sit on committees that award scholarships or prizes to students who are known to her/him. Please examine how Universities are run all over the world (including all Central and State Universities in India) before making such misplaced arguments.
With regard to your general point, I do not entirely disagree. However, it is also important to give an impression of fairness even in such administrative proceedings. If the VC has got obvious connections with some of the applicants, at the very least he should recuse himself while their proposals are up for consideration, or formally record his connection and seek approval of the rest of the committee to continue still. If he doesn't do so, he isn't really breaking any rules though. Just certain ethical principles.
Most academics in India know each other- if not personally at least by reputation. And SK hasn’t interviewed a family member or a relative here.
This happens everywhere including all the other nlus. If this was a conflict of interest no person could do a second degree at the same institution because they would already know the faculty from that place. Nalsar also has PhD candidates who were teaching. And they have hired so many of its llm alumni!
Most nlus encourage APs to get their PhD from the same institution.
The fact is if any other VC had managed to get folks like this to apply and accept PhD positions at their university there wouldn’t be all of this outrage.
https://twitter.com/talhaarahman/status/1346523903674355715
On the same note, can you keep an eye out for a single instance of any of these students having been allowed to sit for UGC NET or entry into the PhD programme of any Indian university (other than JGLS) in 2021 once they have finished their LLM? That would be the real test of its validity.
Two out of three selected candidates are Sudhir's students at Azim P. Uni.
What rubbish is this? Everyone associated with APU or NLS is now disqualified from applying to a random workshop(!!!) at NLS because Sudhir is the VC? When he wasn't even involved in the selection? Actually, scratch that - even if he was involved in the selection? That's your understanding of bias?
I am no fan of SK, but this pilling on is getting ridiculous!
The fact that sk is not a part of the committee is know to a select few.
you are a faculty. kindly put your nls llb to other better use than justifying sk's work.
Maybe this was what the tlc gang failed to do. Hire folks for replying to comments on legally india.
Sk clearly recruited the right people.
1) no one affiliated with nls or Apu or with Sudhir or anyone in Sudhirs orbit is allowed to apply for anything at all that’s related to nls anymore.
1.A. No nls alumni can be offered a teaching position at nls anymore- it’s biased.
2) PhD applications will now be decided on who is neediest. Not on what scholarship will better succeed.
2.A if someone does get a scholarship and we later find out that they aren’t the neediest person in the country- they are morally obligated to give it up.
3) every admissions committee from PhD committees to random workshops should all have a representative of every identity in the world. If they don’t it’s biased.
4) Sudhir cannot be on any admissions committee or hiring committee ever.
5) if you have even remote ties to someone found guilty of with sexual assault- you just can’t continue studying in a university.
6) we must assume that every person from nls/Nlus only got opportunities in life because of the tag of their school. No other reason they could have been successful.
7) we must assume that everyone from outside the NLU system is extremely meritorious especially more so than anyone from an NLU. They are always victims of discrimination.
8) If you defend Sudhir/NLS it’s because they paid you to.
9) If I attack the same folks it’s because I’m a whistle blower.
10) all of these above rules apply only to nls and to no other university that has ever existed or will exist. If Sudhir goes to another university- these rules will apply there also.
Dyou know who students at APU are ? They aren’t very privileged students with a family full of lawyers. They’re students who worked hard through extremely difficult circumstances- so many are on full fee waivers. And they were hand picked by SK and AKT and others because they wanted to encourage folks from humbler backgrounds- now those folks are too privileged to be considered for a job? Really? You
Don’t even know what you’re talking about.
The only one advocating for that kind of prejudice here is you.
You know what separates Sudhir and co from the others? They actually have good research cred to back them up. That’s it.
And please doing well on random judicial exams which most law students don’t even attempt is no measure of merit in academia/ research.
Kindly ask sudhir to remove the names of people who have cleared random judicial exams from nls.ac.in if they are so random.
[quote]actually have good research cred to back them up[/quote] Sudhir will certainly laugh at this.
[quote]They’re students who worked hard through extremely difficult circumstances- so many are on full fee waivers[/quote] Why cant we have such fee waivers in NLSIU?
[quote]I’m not the one advocating for bias. If folks from “unknown” law colleges can produce competitive proposals and get these things - more power to them. If folks from those colleges can publish more and interview well and teach better and snatch up teaching positions - all the better[/quote] You are a good person who simply does not understand the politics of it.
Nothing Else Matters and I (should) Disappear