Shourjyani Chatterjee
Jadavpur University is mulling the idea of conferring an honorary D.Litt. on Harmanpreet Kaur, the India Women’s captain, following her team’s World Cup triumph. A D.Litt. is a distinguished academic honour awarded for outstanding work in literature, humanities or social sciences. It is conferred as an honorary degree on an individual for significant and remarkable contributions to a particular field. Vice-Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee and the acting registrar attended a meeting of the four-dean committee on Thursday to discuss the proposal, which was initiated by the Dean of Arts.
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, the ex officio chancellor of state universities, must now approve the proposal. Harmanpreet’s achievement marked a turning point for Indian sport and played a key role in the empowerment of women. “JU will be honoured to acknowledge her contribution,” a university official said.
The proposal will first be placed before the university’s Executive Council for official clearance before being sent to the chancellor for approval. The university is also considering a special felicitation for Harmanpreet as an alternative plan. Subject to the chancellor’s consent, the meeting also recommended inviting Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, DRDO chairman Samir V. Kamat or Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CEO of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, as the chief guest for the convocation scheduled on 24 December 2025.
Several athletes, including P.T. Usha, Mary Kom, Rahul Dravid, Pullela Gopichand, Sourav Ganguly and Dutee Chand, have received honorary D.Litt. degrees across India. Last year’s JU convocation was marred by procedural issues, but officials said this year’s process is being handled carefully to avoid a repeat.
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