Jamia’s department ranked as Centre of Excellence

NEW DELHI - The Department of History and Culture at Jamia Millia Islamia has been rated as a Centre of Excellence in a survey, an official said Friday.

A survey called ‘Arts and Humanities Research Mapping, India’ was conducted by India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore. The survey further listed 32 ‘centers of excellence’ from all over the country.

“These centers have been chosen for the merit and strength of their research programmes, the multi-pronged activities they have initiated in order to advance their chosen areas of research among other factors”, said the media co-ordinator of Jamia Millia Islamia.

According to the report, the Department of History and Culture at Jamia from its inception, has been led by a group of distinguished historians, who have emphasized the teaching and writing of the social and cultural history of medieval India, as a way of both understanding and bringing about progressive change in South Asia.

“One of the strengths of the Department is its emphasis on languages other than English in which historical sources are found. In keeping with its focus on the knowledge of source languages, many of the faculty are familiar with the classical languages such as Sanskrit and Persian which forms the backbone of research into early medieval and pre-colonial Indian history,” the report stated.

An initial list of over 70 institutions was made and information about their research and related activities were collated and compiled from various sources out of which 32 were selected.