In Memory of Sanjay Kumar Rajhans
Sanjay was HSE University alumnus. He graduated from 2-year MA programme Political Analysis and Public Policy at HSE where he defended his thesis on soft power in the international politics of India. After his graduation, Sanjay was invited to teach at the department.
Sanjay knew how to create an extraordinary atmosphere of collaboration, mutual support, and intercultural communication in a multinational team of students and teachers. Together with our students, Sanjay established annual Human Rights Week connecting our programme with other faculties and invited experts.
Sanjay created and taught several unique courses – Human Rights in Non-Western Societies, Methodology and Methods of Political Science, Religion, Governance and Human Rights and Humanitarian Actions. In 2018 and 2020, he was recognized by our students as the best teacher.
He was engaged in research in very diverse spheres, providing two chapters for our Department book devoted to Protest Publics, published by Springer. He also coauthored a book review published by Cambridge University Press. The prestigious international journal European Policy Analysis accepted for publication his article 'Problem Complexity and Narratives in Moscow's Waste Controversy that was written in collaboration with professors and students from one of HSE’s research and study groups. He recently entered a PhD programme in Italy in St. Anna’s College, in Pisa, exploring post-Soviet political space and lectured in University of Turin on Indian Law.
This summer Sanjay suffered from malaria and COVID-19 in India, where he was waiting for his visa to return to Moscow. Between bouts of illness, he continued to participate remotely in teaching and was involved in preparing the new academic year. But, apparently, the long COVID left complications on his heart and on July 21 Sanjay left us.
Sanjay was a resilient and open-minded person, an excellent teacher and researcher, a wonderful friend and a father of two twin daughters. It is hard to accept his loss and we will continue to consider him part of our common cause, to which he brought a lot of spiritual strength, optimism, and his bright energy.