Department of Political Science

The Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, enjoys an exceptional reputation in both teaching and research in the discipline. Extremely rich in academic potential, comprising a faculty known widely for their research and teaching abilities, it ranks easily among the best departments in the country. The Department was established in 1952, with about 40 postgraduate students. Since then the strength of the students has gone beyond 1000.

The growth of the Department has coincided with the progress of the discipline of Political Science from a narrow body of legal and institutional knowledge to more comprehensive social sciences that integrates and interrogates sociological, economic, philosophical and cultural dimensions and thereby better relates to a purposive study of politics keeping especially the Indian reality in focus.

The Department offers M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. programmes and runs regular seminars and workshops. Amongst the earliest visiting faculty members was Professor Norman D. Palmer of the University of Pennsylvania, a specialist in Indian, South Asian, and International Politics. The Department was the first academic unit in the country to have introduced compulsory M.A. courses in Modern Indian Political Thought when Professor Randhir Singh was the Head.

On the collaborative research front, the Department is committed to an inter-disciplinary thematic thrust area of Democracy, Development and Peace, with generous support by UGC under its Departmental Special Assistance Programme. This has helped build on the traditional strengths in various sub-fields as well as across disciplinary boundaries. The Department of Political Science has immensely contributed towards creating domain knowledge through curriculum development. This has resulted in Department being awarded as Centre of Advanced Study by UGC under Special Assistance Program since 2010 and now it is under stage II of the process from 2016.