Kapil Kapoor

Kapil Kapoor is a former professor of English and concurrent professor of Sanskrit studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he was also dean of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies and rector. He has worked to place Indian knowledge systems at the centre of higher education. He was named for the Padma Bhushan in 2023 in the field of literature and education, from Delhi ^[1].

Classic texts in the classroom

Kapoor was born on 17 November 1940 ^[2]. He earned an MA from the University of Delhi and an MPhil and PhD from JNU ^[2]. In 1975 he brought four classic Indian works, Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, the Natyashastra, Bhartrihari’s Vakyapadiya and the Yoga Sutras, into JNU’s postgraduate English syllabus ^[2]. He also turned the usual approach in research around, testing Indian theories against Western material rather than the reverse ^[2].

Books and encyclopaedias

His books include Indian Knowledge Systems in two volumes, Dimensions of Panini Grammar and Text and Interpretation in the Indian Tradition ^[2]. He edited an Encyclopaedia of Indian Poetics and the eleven-volume Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, published in 2012 ^[2].

Public roles

As chairman of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla from 2018, he opened its research programme to all the languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution ^[2]. He chaired an expert committee of the education ministry that in 2016 recommended a language policy with state languages as the medium of instruction at every level, and he has been chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha ^[2]. As a visiting professor linked to the University of Ulster he produced Mutual Regards: Irish-Indian Writings in 2017 ^[2]. He has also written and lectured on the Sikh Gurus, and gave the keynote address at a Punjab government conference on Guru Nanak at Sultanpur Lodhi in November 2019 ^[2].