Manhar Bansal, a final-year BA LLB (Hons) student at the Bengaluru-based National Law School of India University, or NLSIU, is among six Rhodes Scholar-elect from India for 2026. By this, Bansal has joined the hallowed ranks in NLSIU along with 25 others who received the prestigious academic honours in years past.
Commencing in October 2026, Bansal will join over 100 scholars from around the world to take up fully funded post-graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He will study MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation at Oxford.
"I believe the Rhodes Scholarship is a great opportunity that allows me to develop my academic and intellectual interests further. NLS has increasingly been an interdisciplinary university and my degree is not just in law but also the social sciences and humanities," Bansal said.
"From the very first year, as I sat in classrooms, I understood the extent of possibilities which humanities offer; it gives one access to consider the human condition in all its terror and beauty; that's what draws me to it."
His academic writing has appeared in various venues and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology and the South Asian Studies Association of Australia.
He was the chief editor of a student journal at NLSIU, led a student-run academic support programme, and co-convened a theory reading group. He aims for a public-facing academic career with the express intention of bringing humanistic education to young people.
NLSIU's Vibha Swaminathan had bagged the scholarship last year.
NLSIU's Manhar Bansal bags Rhodes Scholarship
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