Indian Institute of Advanced Studies

About Indian Institute of Advanced Studies

The vision, which underlay the setting up of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, can be reconstructed from the speeches delivered by the founding fathers during the inauguration of the Institute on 20 October 1965. Before the commencement of the inaugural ceremonies, the guests had been given a booklet which contained a 'brief outline' by the Director of the Institute, Professor Niharranjan Ray, of 'whatthis Institute is and what it aspires to be'. In his own words the Institute would aim at 'providing opportunities for such meeting of minds and commerce of ideas as are likely to extend our horizons of knowledge and wisdom and add new dimensions to our life and thought'

The sixties were proving to be turbulent for India. The country which had hardly recovered from a devastating war was experiencing food insecurity because of the uncertainties in the domain of agriculture, and had all its energies focused on the task of national integration. In the midst of these uncertain times, the shadow of which was felt at the time of the inaugural ceremony, the Institute was set up. Dr. Zakir Husain, Vice-President of the Republic and the President of the Society highlighted the fact that: … 'this Institute brought into being at a time of such stress and strain in the life of our people, is a token of our earnestness of how we prize and try to cherish human values. It is also an earnest of our faith in man's quest for peace even in the midst of destructions of war and his pursuit of truth in the midst of the frightful distractions of actual livi