Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU; ISO: Javāharalāla Neharū Viśvavidyālaya) is a public research university located in Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and research emphasis on social sciences and applied sciences.
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History
Jawaharlal Nehru University was established in 1969 by an act of parliament. It was named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. G. Parthasarathy was the first vice-chancellorand Prof. Moonis Raza was the Founder Chairman and Rector. The bill for the establishment of the University was placed in the Rajya Sabha on 1 September 1965 by the then-Minister of Education, M. C. Chagla. During the discussion that followed, Bhushan Gupta, a member of parliament, voiced the opinion that this should not be yet another university. New faculties should be created, including scientific socialism, and one thing that this university should ensure was to keep noble ideas in mind and provide accessibility to students from weaker sections of society. The JNU Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on 16 November 1966 and the JNU Act came into force on 22 April 1969.
The Indian School of International Studies was merged with the Jawaharlal Nehru University in June 1970. Following the merger, the prefix "Indian" was dropped from the name of the School and it became the School of International Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Organisation and administration
Governance
The President of India is the visitor of the university. The chancellor is the nominal head of the university and the vice-chancellor is the executive head of the university. They are both appointed by the visitor on the recommendations of the Executive Council. The Court, the Executive Council, the Academic Council and the Finance Committee are the administrative authorities of the university.
The University Court is the supreme authority of the university and has the power to review the acts of the Executive Council and the Academic Council. The Executive Council is the highest executive body of the university. The Academic Council is the highest academic body of the university and is responsible for the maintenance of standards of instruction, education and examination within the university. It has the right to advise the Executive Council on all academic matters. The Finance Committee is responsible for recommending financial policies, goals, and budgets.
Schools and Centres
The Jawaharlal Nehru University's academic departments are divided into 20 Schools and Centres.
Recognised institutes
JNU has granted recognition and accreditation to the following institutions across the country.
List of Defence Institutions Granted Recognition under JNU
Army Cadet College, Dehradun
College of Military Engineering, Pune
Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering, Secunderabad
Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow
National Defence Academy, Pune
Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala
Research and Development Institutions
Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management, Haryana
Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad
Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow
Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru
National Institute of Immunology, India, New Delhi
National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi
National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi
Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Mumbai
Academic rankings
Awards
Jawaharlal Nehru University was awarded the Visitor's Award for Best University in 2017 by the President of India.
Rankings
Jawaharlal Nehru University is ranked 555th in the world and 130th in Asia by the latest QS World University Rankings.
Moreover, JNU was ranked 26th in the world for developmental studies, 86th for sociology and 95th for politics by QS.
JNU was ranked second, after the Indian Institute of Science, among all universities in India and the ninth best institute overall by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2025.
Student life
Students' Union
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union or JNUSU is the university-wide representative body for students at the university. It is an elected body.
On 24 October 2008 the Supreme Court of India stayed the JNU elections and banned the JNUSU for not complying with the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee. After a prolonged struggle and multi-party negotiations, the ban was lifted on 8 December 2011. After a gap of more than four years, interim elections were scheduled again on 1 March 2012. Following the election results declared on 3 March 2012, All India Students Association (AISA) candidates won all four central panel seats and Sucheta De, the president of AISA became the president of JNUSU.
International Student's Association
The International Student's Association (ISA) is an official Jawaharlal Nehru University body. It was instituted in 1985 with a view to promoting friendly relations and cultural exchange. The ISA has a constitution and elected executive, cultural, advisory and financial committees. All foreign students of JNU are also members of the FSA. The university had 133 international students in 2012.
Activism and controversy
The JNU is infused with an intense political life on campus. Students that leave campus are said to acquire a "permanently changed outlook on life" as a result of student politics. The politicisation of campus life has led to a refusal to brush under the carpet social issues such as feminism, minority rights, and social and economic justice. All such issues are debated fiercely in formal and informal gatherings.
The JNU student politics is highly left-leaning, though, in recent years, right-wing student groups have also entered the field. Political involvement is "celebratory in spirit." The student union elections are preceded by days of debates and meetings, keeping all students involved. JNU has the reputation of an "unruly bastion of Marxist revolution." However, the student activists deny the charge, stating that the politics at JNU is issue-based and intellectual.
The university is known for its alumni who now occupy important political and bureaucratic positions (see Notable alumni below). In part, this is because of the prevalence of Centre-left student politics and the existence of a written constitution for the university to which noted Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Prakash Karat contributed exhaustively during his education at JNU.
In 2010 a "JNU Forum Against War on People" was organised "to oppose Operation Green Hunt launched by the government." According to the NSUI national general secretary, Shaikh Shahnawaz, the meeting was organised by the Democratic Students' Union (DSU) and All India Students Association (AISA) to "celebrate the killing of 76 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh." Shaikh Shahnawaz also stated that "they were even shouting slogans like 'India murdābāda, Māvavāda ziṃdābāda'." NSUI and ABVP activists undertook a march against this meeting, "which was seen as an attempt to support the Naxalites and celebrate the massacre," after which the various parties clashed. The organisers of the forum said that "the event had nothing to do with the killings in Dantewada".
2014 Mahishasura Day Controversy
On 9 October, clashes erupted in JNU over the Mahishasura Martyrdom Day. The spark was the distribution of the October issue of Forward Press, a Christian evangelical Magazine, which depicted Goddess Durga in a derogatory manner. JNU administration gave notice to All India Backward Students' Forum (AIBSF) for defaming Hindu Gods and Goddesses. The Then-HRD Minister Smriti Irani in the light of sedition controversy read out the pamphlet in the parliament in 2016 which was denied by the student organiser.
Campus Violence
JNU was shut down for 46 days by Indian government in 1981 after violence by student unions linked to communist parties.
In April 2000, two army officers who disturbed an Indo-Pak mushaira at the JNU campus were beaten up by agitated students. The officers were angered by anti-war poems recited by two Pakistani poets and disrupted the muśāirā. They were enraged at the recited lines of a poem by Urdu poet Fahmida Riaz tuma bhī bilkula hama jaise nikale ("It turned out you were just like us") and interpreted the lines as a criticism of India. One of them started to shout anti-Pakistan slogans. When the audience asked for silence. They were overpowered by security and then beaten by students, though not seriously injured. The Indian Army denied the charges and it was reported that the two army officers were admitted in hospitals. A retired judge was appointed to probe the accusation.
On 13 November 2019, the JNU administration raised the fees of the university. Since 28 October 2019, some students of JNU had been protesting against the fee hike. As a part of this protest, students boycotted the final semester examinations. After protests, the university partially rolled back by reducing fees only for students from families with extreme poverty (BPL category) who do not avail any scholarship. The move did not convince the students as there was no rollback in the fee hike for non-BPL category students neither for BPL students availing a scholarship. To press the administration for a complete rollback of the increase in fees, JNUSU had continued the protests. The semester registration with the revised fee was started by 1 January.
On 5 January 2020, a group of masked vandals entered the campus, destroyed property and beat up several people. This included students and professors. This drew widespread condemnation from the public, with opposition parties, Bollywood celebrities and human rights activists expressing their concerns.
2022 Resistance to ban on non-veg food
In April 2022, a group of students from ABVP allegedly attacked the canteen staff and students on serving non-vegetarian food. A clash between students in resistance to the efforts of ABVP to restrict serving of non-veg on the occasion of Ram Navami which led several students from both the sides being injured. Delhi police registered an FIR against unidentified ABVP students. Netizens commented this as denial of freedom of choice. JNU's president, Rohit Kumar, alleged that the students from the left parties stopped them from celebrating Ram Navami and that there was a systematic effort to stop Hindu festivals celebrations since years.
Notable alumni and faculty
The university's alumni include 2019 Nobel Laureate for Economics Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, former Prime Minister of Libya Ali Zeidan and former Prime Minister of Nepal Baburam Bhattarai, as well as several politicians, diplomats, artists, academics, and scientists.