Established in 1922, the Department of Philosophy, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, is not only one of the oldest philosophy departments in the country, but also arguably one of the biggest departments with 18 (11 regular and 7 guest-faculty) faculty members and more than 3000 students on roll, including 50 research scholars. Over the nine decades, the department has set some very significant philosophical trends in publishing around 70 books and 600 research papers and producing numbers of teachers, bureaucrats and intellectuals, spreading all over the country. Some of the outstanding philosophers who are associated with the long history of the department include, Prof. P.S. Burrell (the founding Head), Prof. H. N. Randle, Prof. A. E. Gough, Prof. George Thibaut, Prof. J. G. Jennings, Prof. R.D. Ranade, Prof. A.C. Mukerjee, Prof. R. N. Kaul, Prof. S. Dutta, Prof. V. S. Narvane, Prof. S.C. Biswas, Prof. S. S. Roy, Prof. S. L. Pandey, Prof. S.K. Seth, Prof. J.S. Srivastava, Prof. D.N. Dwivedi, Prof. R.L. Singh, Prof. R.S. Bhatnagar. The department has been chosen as a Department of Special Assistance (DSA) by the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi.
The department was once the center of learning in philosophy and scholars used to come to the department for research from the different parts of the country. The department would like to revive its past glory and make it once again a center of excellence. We want to upgrade the department as a center of excellence in terms of offering specializations in all fields of philosophy. We want to revive the publication of the journals such as Review of Darshan, and strengthen the regular publication of Samdarshana.