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 Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India. He was educated at The Aligarh Muslim University.

During his long & illustrious career, prominent positions Raza served are follows:

• Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research
• Founder Chairman Institute for Studies in Industrial Development.
• President of the National Association of Geographers of India.
• Honorary Director, Center of South Asian Studies.
• Vice Chancellor of Delhi University,
• Co. Founder & Rector Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Director National Institute of Educational Planning & Administration (NIEPA).
• President of the Indian Council of Educational Planners and Administrators.
• Member of the Executive Board of the Commonwealth Council of Educational Administration.
• Professor and founding Chairman of the Center for the Study of Regional Development (SSS), JNU.

Raza's tenure as Vice Chancellor of Delhi University is known to be one of the least controversial and productive in terms of overall growth and educational activities. 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 1991.

Work

Raza was creator and original signatory to the Talloires Declaration, the 10 point action plan from Association of University Leaders for a sustainable future in response to the deep concern about the environmental pollution, degradation and 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".