Moonis Raza

Moonis Raza was an Indian educationist of international repute, regional planner, inspiring & exceptional mentor, academic administrator, prolific speaker and freedom fighter.

Education and career

Raza was born into a distinguished family from Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. He was educated at The Aligarh University.

Raza served as Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), President/Vice Chancellor of Delhi University, Rector Jawaharlal Nehru University and Director National Institute of Educational Planning & Administration (NIEPA). He was also a Professor and founding Chairman of the Center for the Study of Regional Development, SSS, JNU.

Raza's tenure as President of Delhi University is known to be one of the least controversial and productive in terms of overall growth and educational activities. He was a co-founder of the internationally renowned Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, and is especially remembered for the landscaping of the university and naming all hostels and campuses. JNU greatly owes its liberal ethos, and its transparent, open culture to Prof. Moonis Raza. He is well remembered by his students/colleagues on Raza's Law of Ignorance, which stated that "the ratio of the known and known to be unknown always remains constant".

He was a Visiting Professor at Cornell University in New York, USA, and held various senior positions in different departments and commissions of Government of India.

Raza was conferred an honorary degree [Doctor of Humane Letters] by Tufts University, Boston, USA in the early 1990s.

Work

Raza was a creator and original signatory to the "Talloires Declaration" to the 10 point action plan from Association of University Leaders for a sustainable future in response to the deep concern about the unprecedented scale and speed of environmental pollution and degradation, and the depletion of natural resources. The Action Plan included among others to increase awareness of environmentally sustainable development: Use every opportunity to raise public, government, industry, foundation, and university awareness by openly addressing the urgent need to move toward an environmentally sustainable future.

Publications

Raza authored, co-authored, and edited several books and original articles, such as "An Atlas of Tribal India", "Atlas of the Child in India", "Valley of Kashmir" and "Education and the Future: A Vision". He firmly believed that "Regional development is eco-development".