The first convocation ceremony of Nalanda University will be breaking away from tradition on Saturday when not only students but also President Pranab Mukherjee, who is the chief guest, and other dignitaries attending the function, will have khadi gowns to wear instead of the traditional, heavy, velvet convocation gowns, which were originally designed to keep the cold away in Western countries. Moreover, the academic procession will also walk to the orchestral composition ‘Swagatam’ by legendary veena maestro and composer Emani Sankara Sastry.
President Pranab Mukherjee will confer degrees to the 12 students of the first batch and also lay the foundation stone of a part of the upcoming new campus at Rajgir on Saturday.
The president reached Patna late on Friday evening, from where he would leave for Rajgir for the convocation ceremony on Saturday morning. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj too will be present on the occasion.
Students will wear a royal blue khadi gown with a white stole and the Nalanda University logo embossed on it, whereas the president will wear a deep purple khadi gown with three blue trimmings, gold edging on the front panel, and four chevrons with gold edging on the sleeves. Similarly, the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Governor Ram Nath Kovind, who will be guests of honour, will be wearing royal blue khadi gowns, while Chancellor George Yeo and Vice-Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal will be in brown khadi gowns.
Earlier, the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai had also announced the use of khadi in its convocation ceremonies.
Appropriate fabric“Khadi is climatically a more appropriate fabric for Indian weather conditions,” Lord Meghnad Desai, governing board member of Nalanda University, told local journalists in Rajgir. He further said that the university experimented with fabrics woven in and around Nalanda, and in Bihar, and made the choice of trying to innovate with regalia made of khadi, the fabric at the heart of Indian identity with multiple symbolisms.
Published - August 27, 2016 02:46 am IST
