Contextualising the Genesis of Geography Department in an Indian University

By : Sarfaraz Alam

Page No: 371-387

Abstract
At present, there are postgraduate departments of geography in over a hundred universities and a large number of colleges in India. It is by no measure a small achievement given the fact that there were only four postgraduate university departments of geography before the independence of the country (Aligarh Muslim University, University of Calcutta, Banaras Hindu University and Allahabad University). How did geography find space in Indian universities? Under what academic milieu of the country did geography enter in Indian universities and colleges? What kind of intellectual exposure that pioneers of geography experienced in their educational trails which led to the development of their love for geography? What motivated them to work fervently for establishing Geography Departments in universities and colleges? Was the development of geography in Indian universities and colleges in any way related to the development of geography in European countries?1 Though several geographers have academically investigated some of these questions (Chatterjee, S. P. 1968, Kapur, Anu 1998, 2002, 2004; Thakur, B. 1994; Singh L. R., 1996), they have provided a rather broad and generalised national-level perspective on the development of geography in India. They have not looked into the circumstances leading to the establishment of specific geography departments. Basing mainly on documentary and literary sources, this article chronicles and analyses the sequence of events leading to the establishment of the Geography Department at Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U.)

Author :
Sarfaraz Alam : Professor, Department of Geography, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, PIN – 221005, India.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/ATNAGI.2020.40.02.11