The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has been one of Bangalore’s enduring landmarks. It’s always been known as the Tata Institute, a tribute to philanthropy of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, which led to the founding of the institute.
TATA’S SELFLESSNESS
Tata didn’t want his name to be associated with the institution. A gift of a large tract of land by the Maharajah of Mysore and support from the British government were essential to the creation of IISc in May 1909. A century later, it has evolved into India’s most important centre for scientific research and postgraduate education .
A DRAMATIC STORY
The events that led to the conception and birth of the institute form a dramatic story that has its origins in the high noon of the British Empire. J N Tata led a delegation to meet Lord Curzon when he landed in Bombay, as the new Viceroy of India, in December 1898. Curzon was unconvinced of the utility of scientific research in India. The Tata proposal encountered many hurdles. Light appeared at the end of the tunnel in 1905. The first director, Morris Travers arrived in India towards the end of 1906, the land grant was realized in March 1907 and the vesting order formally announcing the birth of the institute was issued on May 27, 1909.
TATA AND VIVEKANANDA
Tata’s meeting with Swami Vivekananda on a voyage to the US in 1893 and his letter written in 1898 are now part of the institute’s folklore. Sadly, both died several years before IISc came into being. The events that preceded IISc’s birth and in the period 1909-1914 were dominated by one man, Burjoji Padshah, a close associate of Tata, who was charged with the task of practically realizing Tata’s vision.
THE FIRST DEPARTMENTS
IISc began with one science department, general chemistry, and one engineering department, electrical technology; an integration of science and engineering far ahead of the times. Departments were created to meet local needs in fields as far apart as Biochemistry (1921) and Aeronautical (now Aerospace) engineering (1942). C V Raman started the Physics department in 1933, when he joined IISc as its first Indian director in 1933. Several engineering departments came into being in the 1940s and 1950s in response to the need for rapid industrialization in independent India. Engineering education and research were firmly established at IISc, before the establishment of the IITs in the 1950s and 1960s. J C Ghosh, the director from 1939 to 1948, was to become the founder director of the first IIT at Kharagpur. Kim Sebaly, an analyst of the growth of the IITs, regards IISc as the source of the social and intellectual capital that led to their establishment.
THE FIRST DIRECTOR SAID...
As the centenary draws to a close, praise and criticism may be anticipated in equal measure. The first director, Morris Travers, left India in 1914, his task unfinished, after controversies, both academic and administrative. Years later, in 1959, he reflected on his last days in Bangalore: ‘My last visitor in June 1914 at Bangalore was Lord Willingdon. After going round the place he said to me — I had no idea that there was anything like this in India. I said — There is nothing like it in India and nothing better in Great Britain’. If that sentiment is to be true, a great deal of work needs to be done. Tata’s philanthropy remains unmatched in the century that has passed. More than anyone else, Tata understood the role of private philanthropy. The institute faces the challenge of living up to the expectations of its founder and many others who worked tirelessly for its growth over a century.
(The writer is the director of IISc)
Indi Proff
http://indiproff.blogspot.com/
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