An increase in caste and domicile reservation means a shrinking of the merit list and shifting of good candidates to the next best NLUs. Thus, the chance of the next best NLUs at getting the Rhodes increases.

A simple example: I know a Rhodes scholar from NLSIU who told me that he squeezed into NLSIU through the back-end of the merit list. Now, such a person would now have to head to NALSAR or NUJS or GNLU.

Truly concerning. How dare they not have an opening reserved for The harward of the east, a place which has increased its batch size to 240 and intends to take it all the way to 500.

The only reason for this gross negligence might just be that the NLS alumnis are unable to lobby as hard as they used. Other NLUs like NALSAR, NUJS and NLUD which are on par with the great harward of the east have also learned the art of lobbying and that has made it difficult for NLS to maintain its monopoly over rhodes.

No. NUJS only had some 10 domicile seats till recently. And most people didn’t even know about them since they were so few in number. The problem for NLS is that they and their alumni marketed themselves as THE National Law School which is exclusive of any regional considerations and has only a small batch size to focus on quality. Those days are over now after Messiah introduced domicile quota and expanded the intake exponentially. Not to mention, now the 5 year LLB students will also have competition from 3 year LLBs for jobs and scholarships. So yeah, NLS might keep struggling.

FFS, this is the most stupid thing I have read in a while. A conspiracy theory suggesting backlash against “meritocracy.” Maybe stop slathering yourself in this obsession that you deserve the best and actually get better. I bet you get turned on when you see the three letters - N L S! Talk about privilege!

Rhodes Trust, from the following year, please reserve a place in your India scholarship list to NLSIU - National Law School, India University, Bengaluru. Also, if possible, please select two candidates from NLSIU, the 'Harvard of the East', every alternate year. If NLSIU student(s) don't figure in your list every year, the Rhodes Trust and the scholarship will lose their value.

I can answer this question correctly. I remember Charles Conn (then head of the Rhodes Trust) visiting Jindal to give a talk on the Rhodes Scholarships. He mentioned that one of his priorities was to widen the pool of colleges whose students were being awarded the Rhodes scholarship in India, especially in law. So Charles Conn's tenure was the turning point. He obviously raised alarm bells after seeing that one institution in Bangalore was repeatedly getting the Rhodes scholarship in law, whereas the spread was more even when it came to other fields.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Conn

Of course, this still raises the question of why NLSIU dominated the Rhodes for so many years, prior to Charles Conn's intervention. I think the real reason is that NLSIU was the only NLU prior to the 2000s. So it was a lack of competition. Also, it took a bit of time for people to recognise that NALSAR, NUJS, NLUD and GNLU were just as good as NLSIU. Also, I don't think the alumni of these younger NLUs lobby as hard as NLSIU alumni do. I'm not even sure they have well-organised alumni associations.

That's not at all a valid argument. NUJS got 3 Rhodes in 6 years after having got the domicile quota. Unless you're claiming that Bengal domiciled students are in general better than Karnataka domiciled students, which I don't believe to be true. Further, the batches who joined after Sudhir haven't even graduated yet.

I think after Messiah introduced domicile quota, the standing of NLS has irreparably fallen. There are only 2 NLUs left without domicile quota now (NLUD and NLUJ) and everyone knows domicile quota tends to lower the quality and diversity of students. That might be why NLS is struggling now.

Maybe the students have changed ? I’ve known 4-5 Rhodes scholars and while they weren’t all nice people, there was little doubt that they all worked incredibly hard. That they were consistent with the effort they put in - in law school at internships whatever. They did their work with integrity- not one instance of cheating or copying or plagiarism in the bunch. Today’s students have gamified that whole education thing to the point that it’s meaningless. How valuable is a top gpa if you only take scam courses ? Why will your supervisor at internships be impressed if you half ass it only for the letter/ cv points ? How strong will your Rec letters be when profs can sense that you’re likely being strategic in interactions with them and more than likely dishonest ? That you’re chasing status rather than education? What is the value of a publication that says absolutely nothing of real value? It’s only there to check boxes on CVs?

Some nls students do behave as if they have a golden ticket and cannot fail. Like they’re entitled to the good things. Well- scholarships have to be earned no.

There are still good students who don’t do all this - but it’s an increasingly rare breed.

I'm asking because NLSIU has not been awarded a Rhodes scholarship since 2017. That's really fishy to me, considering that NLSIU dominated the scene in the 20 years before that. I'm just wondering whether there is a populist backlash happening against elitism and meritocracy, under which NLSIU is being targeted. What else can explain it? Change of jury? Pressure from Oxford to choose other colleges?