Bengaluru law student wins Rhodes scholarship

BENGALURU: All of 22, Vanshaj Ravi Jain hopes to become the first Indian to make a mark at the International Criminal Court.
The final-year National Law School of India University (NLSIU) student will head to the University of Oxford to study international criminal law.He is one among five Indian students to have secured the coveted Rhodes scholarship for the class of 2017. With this, the premier city-based law school has earned the distinction of producing 25 Rhodes scholars since 1996, the first year an NLS student won the scholarship.

"The scholarship is tremendously important in that I'd get to spend 2-3 years studying international criminal law, a field no Indian has broken into," Jain said.

Named after South African politician Cecil John Rhodes, the Rhodes Scholarship, established in 1903, is the world's oldest. A class of 95 scholars are chosen each year, including five from India. Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad and economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia have been Rhodes scholars.

Vanshaj Ravi Jain was selected by a panel chaired by industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, with Rohan Murty as one of its members.

A keen theatre person and long-distance runner, Jain grew an interest for international criminal law from a young age. "What struck me is the impact international law could have.Creation of states, rules by which a country can declare war, exploiting high seas and outer space -these are laws that make an impact on the world," he said.

In May , Jain argued in the finals of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Moot competition before sitt i n g j u d g e s at T h e H a g u e, Netherlands. Jain takes inspiration from Fatou B Bensouda, the current ICC prosecutor. "Many countries are backing out of the ICC because it's largely perceived as an unfair institution. The first eight investigations it opened were against weak African states. That's a flaw and I see a viable path to bring change. The present prosecutor is trying to bring this change by opening war crimes investigation against Russia and the UK.She's planning to do the same against the US for its role in Afghanistan," he said. No other Indian institution has produced so many Rhodes scholars, NLSIU Vice-Chancellor R Venkata Rao said. "That's why I always say `all Rhodes lead to NLS'."



Three of the five Rhodes scholars from India this year are law students. The mix of curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities that law schools provide go well with the selection process for the scholarship, according to Rhodes India national secretary Nandan Kamath.