Department Overview

Head of Department: Prof. Rajendra Kumar Pandey

The Department was established in 1977. Post Graduate teaching commenced in July 1978. Research component followed soon with the registration of M.Phil and Ph.D candidates in 1980. Apart from hundreds of Masters and M.Phil. students, approx. 250 candidates have successfully completed their Ph.D research, around 57 candidates have done PDF from the Department till date.
The department also started Master of Public Administration (M.P.A) under self-financing scheme in 1994 and since then MPA programme is catering to the needs of aspirants of Indian administration. For almost five sessions, the department also ran the M.Phil programme in Public Administration.
Currently in accordance to the National Education policy (NEP) 2020 the department runs undergraduate from a post graduate and doctoral programmes in political science/public administration.
The department endeavours to bring in light the different relevant contemporary issues in political theory and thought, as well as to give the researchers a comprehensive knowledge of the subject in various dimensions of Indian political and philosophical domain. Of late, the department has initiated well-organized discourse on the nature and profile of ancient Indian political thinking by way of creating a fruitful dialogue among specialists and stakeholders as well as by providing platform for systematic research attempting to through light on different dimensions of polity and statecraft in ancient India.
The Department has an illustrious academic staff profile since its establishment. Initially, Ms. Arachana Sharma joined the department of Political Science as a Lecturer in September, 1977. Dr. S.N. Pandey was co-opted in the department in July, 1979 from the Institute of Correspondence Course, Meerut University, Meerut. Professor I.N. Tewary joined the department as a Professor in July, 1979. Ms. Renu Chopra joined the department when Ms. Archana Sharma was on study leave during the September of 1981. Dr. S.N. Pandey left the department in September 1981 to join Ranchi University, Ranchi (Jharkhand). Dr. Shailendra Kumar Chaturvedi joined the department in 1983 as a Reader. Ms. Renu Chopra completed her tenure as Lecturer on leave vacancy since Dr. Archana Sharma again joined the department in the November of 1984. Professor I.N. Tewary retired as the Head of the department in January 1997. Professor Shailendra Kumar Chaturvedi took over the charge of the Head of the department. Prof. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma joined the department as a Reader in December 1999. Dr. Madhurendra Kumar joined the department as a Senior Fellow under UGC Career Award scheme in March, 2004 and successfully completed his tenure in April, 2007. Professor Shailendra Kumar Chaturvedi retired from the department in February, 2008 and Prof. Archana Sharma took over the charge of Headship for next three years (as the rotation of Headship was introduced). In January, 2011, Prof. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma took charge of the Head of the department and continued till January, 2014. Again Prof. Archana Sharma became the Head of the department in January, 2014 and continued till her retirement on 29th December, 2016. After her retirement, Prof. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma took the charge of Headship in the department. In January 2018, Prof. Pawan Kumar Sharma joined the department as a Professor and Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pandey joined as an Associate Professor. Apart from permanent faculty three Teaching Assistants engaged are Dr.  Jaiveer  Singh, Dr. Sushma Rampal, Dr. Bhupendar Pratap Singh and one Guest Faculty Dr. Devendra Kumar.
In April 2019 Prof. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma joined as Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Central University Motihari and in his place Prof. Pawan Kumar Sharma assumed the charge of head of the department. After completion of the three years tenure of Prof. Pawan Kumar Sharma Prof. Sanjeev Kumar Sharma again assumed the charge of head of the department on his return from Motihari.

The department of Political Science not only caters to the needs of national students but also international students from South-East Asian sub-continent and Africa. To develop understanding of development, planning, structure and functions of various institutions, the department emphasizes on initiating and strengthening empirical research at grass root levels in rural and urban areas.
Government of Uttar Pradesh has established Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Shodhpeeth (Research Chair) in the Department in January 2018, to initiate and strengthening the research on Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayaya’s philosophy.
Under the auspices of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Shodh Peeth (Research Chair) a number of academic events have been organised and publication of books and monographs have been undertaken. The beginningwas made byorganisingthe Inaugural event of the Shodh Peeth on 2nd January 2018 in which the book entitled “Pandit Deendayal Updhyaya: Vyaktitva evam Kratitva” was also released. This was followed by organising the Ten-days Workshop during 4- 13 Feburary 2018. In this workshop, on each of the dayan eminent scholar delivered distinguished lecture on Updhyayaji’s life and works followed by comprehensive discussions. Next, a lecture series was also organised during 9-16 March 2018 in which scholars from various universities and institutes delivered lectures on life and works of Deendayal Updhyaya. On March 26, 2018 a national seminar was organised on “Samkaleen Bhartiya Rajniti mein Vampanth ka Avasaan”, in which 150 participants took part. Further, on the birth anniversary of Updhyayaji, a distinguished lecture was organised in which eminent political scientist Dr. K.C. Gupta spoke at length on the eventful life of Deendayalji. In order to disseminate the views and ideas of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya to wider mass of general peopsle, a set of eleven monagraphs in Hindi and one book in English have also been published by the Shodh Peeth.
Further on 10 Feb 2019 Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India established Babu Jagjeevan Ram chair in the department to carry out extensive research on the themes and issues of social justice  as reflected in the life and works of Babu Ji. Under this chair we have organised various events.

A large number of students of the department have qualified UGC-
NET /JRF and also obtained scholarships from different government agencies. In last two decades, several students of the department have contributed to the national and local community in the areas of higher education, administration, judiciary, politics and social service. Some of them have also succeeded in making a mark on the foreign land. The faculty members have published 46 volumes and more than 255 research papers and articles. The department was associated with a Bi-annual journal ‘The Meerut Journal of Political Science and Public Administration’ during 1997-2008. The department hosted the 52ndAll India Political Science Conference in 2003 and started publication of the ‘Indian Journal of Political Science’ since 2003 and ‘Bhartiya Rajniti Vigyan Shodh Patrika’ since 2009 through Indian Political Science Association in the Department of Political Science and still continuing to publish these reputed journals. Besides that the department is at present the headquarters of the Indian Political Science Association (IPSA) since August 2011.
The themes of the projects and dissertations have tried to touch the problem areas relating to the weaker sections of the society. Apart from the governmental and non-governmental institutions, political, and administrative processes have also been studied. At micro level, the research studies have emphasized on Dalit studies, Women- Empowerment related issues and Panchayati Raj. In addition, the role and functions of the regional and international institutions ,having linkages and interaction and the global factors and its effects at different levels, have also been researched. At present, the main emphasis and focus of the department has been to create innovative ideas in the field of research related to the comparative study of Ancient Indian Political Philosophy and its significance in present World Politics, Public Administration, Development Studies, International and National Political Systems, Political Institutions and Processes.