Mumbai: Two years on, MU's Global Ambedkar research center awaits...

Two years ago, the University of Mumbai extrapolated its diploma on Ambedkar thoughts into the full-fledged ‘Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Research Centre’, allotting six acres of land for the centre’s building in its Kalina Campus. In December 2022, the first batch of students are to graduate from this facility, but the land that was promised to the centre is still untouched.

Soon after conceptualisation of the programmes, the centre started functioning from the JP Naik Bhavan, another building within MU’s Kalina campus because there was no centre ready then.

“We were told that the purpose of this research centre was to study the multifaceted personality of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, who contributed to subjects like sociology, psychology, and economics. Starting just two Masters’ courses does not fulfil that purpose,” added Rohit Dhale, from ChatraBharati students’ organisation.

Apart from the original diploma, the centre offers two Masters’ courses on Developmental Studies and Ambedkar Studies.

The centre currently remains confined to two rooms, a lecture hall and an office. For the purpose of examinations or conducting lectures simultaneously, the professors resort to borrowing classrooms from other departments at the university. “It gets difficult to run three programmes in one classroom, so we call only one batch in the morning and others attend lectures in the noon. Since we shift classrooms very often, we don’t always have access to a projector either, limiting our methods of teaching,” explained Mr Mahesh Narewadkar, a professor at the centre.

As of date, the centre has two other postgraduation courses in the waiting, which have not been introduced owing to the acute lack of infrastructure. “The department only has two full-time faculty members who work adhoc, the rest are visiting faculty. We are ensuring that current courses are run in a stable manner and don’t have the space or manpower to introduce more,” said Dr Manisha Karne, the centre’s director.

The international research centre aims to collaborate with institutions such as the Centre for South Asian Studies and the London School of Economics. ”Ambedkar studies are a topic of interest to students in and outside India. We are looking to create an institution that is at par with the quality of international research, for which the centre needs its own space and people,” added Dr Karne.

The centre’s proposal then included construction facilities like lecture halls, reading halls, a computer lab, a library, and an administrative building, which still remain pending. “Our centre has nearly fifteen thousand books which remain piled in our office cupboard as we have no library to keep them in. We look forward to a reading room where our students can access this literature,” said Dr Karne.

Mumbai University, last May, appointed an architect for the construction of this building. “We are now waiting for the appointed architect to generate monetary estimates. It remains uncertain whether the decision can be finalised in the absence of a permanent Vice Chancellor,” said an official spokesperson from Mumbai University.