St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, celebrated its 150 years in 2019. To commemorate this occasion, the College had organized a conference on “Jesuit Initiatives in Indian Higher Education”. This book is the outcome of this effort. It gives a panoramic view of the contributions of Jesuits to higher education in India. Besides the Foreword by Arun de Souza, SJ, and the Introduction by the editors, the book contains one keynote and 16 articles in three parts. The keynote by S. Ignacimuthu SJ, deals with impact-making initiatives of Jesuits in the field of higher education.
Part 1 deals with general and historical themes with four articles. These highlight the over-arching topics related to Jesuit engagement with higher education. Part 2 covers post-restorative Jesuit initiatives with four articles. They focus on specific geographical locations such as the erstwhile Bengal, Bombay, Madura and Malabar missions. Part 3 contains eight articles. These touch upon recent developments related to higher education in the social sciences, management, education, media, engineering and autonomy. One article looks at the National Education Policy, 2020.
Besides providing an overview of the interventions in higher education, these papers also present critical assessments and various aspects of future goals in terms of creating wholesome conditions for the integral transformation of all stakeholders involved in higher education.
The editors Joan Dias, Savio Abreu SJ, and Keith D’Souza SJ, deserve our appreciation for conceiving this project, getting articles from experts, editing them neatly and bringing a volume out during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the ‘cannonball event of St Ignatius of Loyola’.
S.M. John Kennedy, SJ
Title: Jesuit Initiatives in Indian Higher Education
Editors: Dr. Joan Dias, Dr. Fr. Savio Abreu, SJ, and Dr. Fr. Keith D’Souza, SJ
Publishers: Heras Institute of Indian History and Culture, Mumbai, and Christian World Imprints, Delhi.
Pages: 346
Price: Rs 950/-
