Engineering Education & Research in India -
Some aspects of its Organisation, Linkages and Contents.
C N Krishnan
Abstract: This paper presents some problems of the Engineering Education and Research (EER) sector in our country as it obtains today. The sector is analysed along its three dimensions: its Structure and Organisation in our country, its Linkages with other related entities, and its Contents and Processes. At the heart of the problem is the total neglect of the State sector (state universities and colleges, along with private colleges affiliated to state
universities) which together produces the bulk of our engineering graduates, but has very little funding support or freedom to operate. All the funding, freedom, prestige and patronage go to some 80 Central institutions called Institutes of National Importance (IITs, NITs and IIITs), with some 160 Private institutions having university status too enjoying full academic, financial and administrative freedom. Despite the vastly different levels and contexts , the Engineering Curricula and Syllabi followed are virtually the same across the institutions in the country, mostly
generated in the IITs who in turn draw their inspiration from the practices of N.American universities. The Curricula and the Syllabi are not derived from the needs of our industry and economy belonging to both the formal and non-formal sectors. In all respects, the core problem of EER in India is the failure to see its primary role and function as that of serving the Industry and Economy of the country. It is proposed that the solution to the problem of our EER sector has to start by giving full autonomy and freedom to the State sector to manage its EER system, along with providing the required funding support. This will create an environment and context in which the problem of Contents and Linkages, and the need to connect the EER sector to Industry and Economy, can get adequately addressed. The initiative for making this transformation happen has however got to come from the players in the State system.
Modern Engineering Education in India has its origins going back to over 150 years, and like much else in our Modern Sector, it clearly bears the birthmarks of it colonial origins. It was introduced here by the British with the primary goal of enhancing the revenue extraction from here and its export to their country, as well as for the military and political domination that was needed for this to take place. Despite the enormous growth and transformation that the field of Engineering Education and Research
has undergone in the country since then, some aspects of its colonial origins still haunt it and limits its capacities and abilities to contribute to the wellbeing or our people and strengthening of our nation. This paper attempts to understand some problems of the Engineering Education and Research field in our country as it obtains today, and points to a few remedial steps that could be taken to improve matters –while waiting for a more thorough overhaul of this sector.
I. Some History and Background
It was mentioned above that the field of Modern Engineering Education was introduced here by the British more than 150 years ago. Engineering as a field of activity however has existed in our country from much earlier times, and flourished here till around the middle of the 19th Century.
A few instances of this are cited below:
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Construction of structures and bodies for management and utilisation of water like lakes, ponds, wells, canals, dams, etc., as well as construction of forts, palaces, temples, mosques, churches, granaries, observatories, highways, ports, ships, waterways, etc. The material and knowledge base for these extensive activities were available in most parts of the country.
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Mastery of materials like iron and steel, gold, silver, zinc and other metals, clay and ceramics, wood, bamboo, cane, etc, and their extensive use in making of agricultural implements and tools, surgical instruments, tools for handicrafts and industries, chemicals and tools for textile industry, weapons and armaments, musical instruments, ornaments, etc.
- Major industries like Pottery, Leather and Ceramics, Textile Industries based on cotton, silk and wool, Handicrafts Industry, Building and Construction industry and other industrial activities. India was an industrial and manufacturing power till the middle of the 18th Century.
- Astronomy, Mathematics and Logic and their Applications to Calendar Making, Construction, Agriculture, Navigation etc.
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Extensive ecosystem and infrastructure to support the above in terms of education, trade, banking and commerce, including international trade.
Evidently, these indicate the existence of a strong engineering and technology base in the society that was entirely indigenous and had little dependence on the West. Far from being incidental and unorganised, this base was supported and sustained through formal systems and established customs and traditions of sharing of resources, revenues and rights among different classes and communities that lay at the base of industrial and manufacturing prowess of the pre-British India. In fact, one of the purposes for which European scientists, engineers and doctors who were sent to India during the 18-19th Centuries was to take up detailed documentation of such indigenous technologies and practices and report them back to England for their possible learning and absorption into their own technologies and practices. Thus, it was not a vacuum here into which the British were introducing their engineering and technologies in the 18-19th centuries; they had to first wipe out the existing forms of engineering, technologies,
craftsmanship, knowledge and practice etc in our country by destroying the industrial, manufacturing and artisanal practices and ecosystems present here. This was done systematically through enactment of legislation and policies relating to ownership of resources, rights and obligations of traditional crafts/industrial communities (like forest dwellers), revenues, taxes and levies, access to raw materials and markets, etc. It was through a historically unprecedented and officially sanctioned destruction of the material, economic and societal base of our industrial communities and classes that the indigenous base of our Engineering and Technologies was effectively wiped out. This is the context into which Modern Institutions of Engineering and Technology were introduced in our country some 150 years ago, essentially as a foreign implant. Deprived of the participation and nourishment from the indigenous industrial communities and classes of this land, it is no wonder that the transplant is yet to take any firm
roots in our soil – consequences of which is what our country is still faced with in the domain of Engineering Education and Research.