Former professor and first HoD of Politics and Public Administration at Andhra University, R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao, passes away

Former professor and first HoD of Politics and Public Administration at Andhra University, R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao, passes away.

R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao, a former professor and the first HoD of Politics and Public Administration, Andhra University, passed away on Thursday night in Hyderabad.

Born in Berhampur in 1933, Chandrasekhara Rao took his Master’s Degree from Benares Hindu University and Doctorate degree from the London School of Economics. He became the first HoD of Politics and Public Administration, AU, in the early sixties, and developed it into a good department, drawing inspiration from the doyen of political science, the late Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiah.

A brilliant teacher, Prof. Chandrasekhara Rao headed the Department of Political Science in Central University, Hyderabad. A friend of the late Prof. G. Ram Reddy, he visited various prestigious universities in the UK and the USA.

The Commonwealth of Learning, established in Vancouver, Canada, by the Commonwealth Prime Ministers in 1988, invited him to join as Director, Asian Programmes and Training. He worked there for four years from 1992-96. His books include: ‘Indian Unity’, a symposium, and “From Innocence to Strength”, a book on Indian Foreign Policy. His articles appeared in journals like Survival, Asian Survey, and bulletin of the Atomic Scientist. He also contributed to the Bicentenary edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

His wife predeceased him, and he leaves behind a brother, two sons and two daughters. “I have lost a valued friend and colleague,” said a grief-stricken A. Prasanna Kumar, former Rector of Andhra University, in his condolence message on Friday.