Dr. (Prof.) Ranganath Bharadwaj
The Founder & Former Dean
Prof. Ranganath Bharadwaj was an Economist, Theatre Personality, Philosopher, Spiritual Guru and a mentor. He propagated the celebration of diversity and uniqueness in each individual and with the motto of ‘flowering of every individual’ with the aid of theatre and arts, he founded the The Structural School of Fine Arts, as a centre for Personality Development.
Academia
Dr. Ranganath Bharadwaj is one of the top ranking Economists, econometricians and methodologists in the country and was the former director of the Economics Department at Bombay University. He was an expert Consultant at ECAPE, UNDP, UNAPDC, UNEP, The World Bank, The Reserve Bank of India, IDRC of Canada and many United Nations bodies. He has been the All India Co-ordinator for Curriculum Development in Economics at the invitation of the University Grants Commission. Under his supervision and direction, several surveys, projects, workshops and seminars have been conducted both, at the University and outside. He was a member of the Executive Council of the University of Mumbai.
He was closely associated with the Academic Councils and Boards of Studies in Economics, of various Universities and Institutions as well as with other bodies like the U.G.C., the Planning Commission, the ICSSR, the Indian Economic Association, the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, Indian Merchant’s Chamber, ISEC and NICMAR. He was unanimously elected as the President of the ‘Indian Econometric Society’, the All India Professional body of econometricians and was the elected President of the All India Input-Output Research Association of India.
He has authored many books, including ‘Managing Limits to Growth’ and several papers which have won acclaim in India and abroad. An ardent critic of the Newtonian Calculus, he is the initiator of the “Structural Method” – an alternative methodology devised in response to the deepening methodological crises in education and has trained students and researchers towards application of this method in varied fields of study through his Institute for Educational Research and Development (IERD).
Theater and Allied Arts
Prof. Bharadwaj was an actor, a director, writer, singer and above all a dramaturge; whose involvement with the stage spans over four decades. The Structural School of Aesthetics (founded by him in 1968) uses theatre as a medium to propagate the philosophy of the “Flowering of the Individual”. As the initiator of the Structural Method of Drama, Prof. Bharadwaj has contributed innovatively to the dramatic idiom. As a playwright, he has authored around 15 plays in Kannada and English languages and performed them across India and countries abroad, garnering rave reviews, as pace-setters and trail blazers.
He has conducted master workshops in theatre methodology in prestigious platforms, such as University of Saskatoon, Canada and Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre. His unique stagecraft exhibition held at J.J School of Art, Mumbai, was lauded by critiques and spectators. Spanning many decades of friendships with Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Kumar Gandharva, Sri. Vijay Tendulkar and such stalwarts, he practiced Hindustani music under the tutelage of Pt. Vamanrao Deshpande.
Philosophy
The priced pupil of Sri. Pradhyumnateertha Sripadangalavaru of Sagarakatte, Prof. Bharadwaj is highly revered in the philosophical circles for his insight in fusing Science and Spirituality. On these lines, he founded the Karnataka Haridasa Scientific Research Centre, a charitable trust that works towards the cause of flowering of an individual through self, science and society. The Centre has initiated many innovative programmes in such varied fields as Economics, Mathematics, Philosophy, Education, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Social Sciences and Arts & Culture. Prof. Bharadwaj has been conferred the coveted ‘Dhruva Award’ and the title of “Pravachana Chakravarthy” by the Akhila Karnataka Haridasa Sammelana in 1988 for his contributions in the field. In recognition of his insightful researches in to the works of a school of folk philosophers of Karnataka – The Haridasarus – The Government of Karnataka had commissioned Prof. Bharadwaj to write a book entitled “A Study of the Methodological Contributions of the Haridasarus of Karnataka”, on the occasion of the World Kannada Conference organised by the government of Karnataka in 1983.
He has given hundreds of discourses on multiple topics from Jagannatha Dasaru’s ‘Harikathamrutasāra’ in India and abroad and has authored its English transformation for the benefit of non- Kannada readers.
