The Department of English at Jai Hind College has the proud distinction of having as its premier head, the founder Principal of Jai Hind, Principal T. M. Advani. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest departments of English in the city and has had a series of distinguished professors such as Prof. M. U Malkani, Prof. K.B. Advani (both of whom have won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sindhi Literature), Prof Vispi Balaporia, Dr Roshan Shahani and Dr Govind Shahani (who retired as the Principal of the college). Since 1992, the Department has been recognized by the University of Mumbai as a research department and several students have obtained their M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from the department since then. At graduation level the department offers English Major. Under the headship of Dr Kamal Jadhav, it has organized two National Seminars: one on Partition and another on Afro-American and Dalit Literature recently and has launched its Honours Programme. Through the activities of its two main arms, the Literary and Debating Society and the English Association, the faculty members ensure that there is an intellectually stimulating environment that helps students fulfil their academic and creative potential.

The department has launched an Honours Programme, this year, to enable students to achieve a level of excellence in curricular, co-curricular, extra-curricular and social service activities alike. It demands a consistently good academic record even as the students are required to hone their talents and interests beyond classroom walls. It was received with much enthusiasm from the student community and over thirty students voluntarily enrolled themselves for the programme.
Ms. June Furtado is the faculty member in charge of the three-year course.

A UGC sponsored National Conference on Fresh Perspectives on Partition Narratives was hosted by the department on 25th November, 2005.The keynote address was delivered by Prof Mushirul Hassan,Vice Chancellor Jamia Millia Islamia University. Ms Urvashi Butalia, Prof. Jasodhara Bagchi, Prof. Alok Bhalla, Tarun Saint and Sabiha Sumar were the distinguished speakers at this conference.

The department hosted a national conference on Afro- American Literature on 9th September 2006. The conference was part of the sesquicentennial celebrations of Mumbai University. Prof Jahargirdar, Prof. Sunanda Pal, Prof. Meera Manavi, Prof. Tapan Basu, Prof. Maya Pandit were invited as resource persons. The conference ended with a jazz performance by Gino Banks and his team.

We regularly invite guest-lecturers from other colleges or relevant industries to conduct lectures and workshops for the students, and organize screenings of syllabus-related films.

Dr. Kamal Jadhav's thesis, 'Partition Narratives: Diaspora of Forced Exile,' was motivated by the spate of recent sectarian violence. It attempts to explore and analyse the reasons for the genocide of Partition and tries to grapple with the partitions of the mind that are a part of contemporary experience. In a small way the study hopes to serve as a warning of what could happen if we allow communal forces to gain control of our national psyche.

Dr. Khandeparkar's thesis, titled Western and Marathi Literary and Critical theory between 1860 and 1960 charts out the way in which the colonial encounter indirectly shaped the critical discourse of Marathi.

Ms. Seema Sharma

Conferences and Seminars

1. 'Slavery & Enlightenment - A reading of the Slave Narrative by Olaudah Equiano' Paper read at Annual Conference of British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, Oxford (UK), January, 2007.

2. "The sexual discourse in Dalit women autobiographies" Paper read at National Seminar 'Shakti : From infringement to empowerment' at University of Gujarat, 2002.