Technical education during colonial period refers to the science and technology developed during colonial period. Many include the nationalist science activities and science achievements considered as product of colonial rule. According to George Basalla colonial science is the arrival and acceptance of European science in the colonies where there was not a semblance of science before European colonisation of India. Both are unhappy explanation of colonial science and Basalla’s Eurocentric view cannot go unchallenged. What happened in India was not transfer of science and technology but transplanting of European science and technology. Colonial science was not therefore a matter of frame or periodisation of history. It meant much more than that. Colonial science is the accumulation of knowledge of science and technology about the resource of the colony and utilization of this knowledge for extraction of these resources for colonial purpose. In the sense the Baconian dictum that “Knowledge is power” can be recorded. Focault more incisively makes this equation of knowledge with power and its control and manipulation for the benefit of ruling class.
Right from the beginning, the British authorities had no intention of imparting scientific education to the Indians. If one examines development of technical education in historical perspective it was clear that the foundation of technical education was laid down at the same time as in Europe but its growth was stunted till the India became independent. The British came to India for exchanging goods between England and India. The battle of Plassey in 1757 gave unique opportunity to Britishers to change their status from commercial traders to colonizers. Britain gradually captured the political power and became the ruler of this country. To rule any country the rulers should have intimate knowledge about topography and resources of that country. In order to fulfil this objective survey schools were came up to train Indian personnel in modern land surveying and to assist British surveyors. Since then, so long as the colonial government was here, the major initiative of for starting technical education came only out of the necessity of the British rulers for train middle level technical personnel required in construction and maintenance of public building, roads, canals, ports, harbours and other services.
The first engineering college was established at Roorkee for training civil engineering licentiates by making use of the facilities created for upper Ganga canal for communication from Bengal to upper India. However on the recommendation contained in Woods despatch on the need for creating training facilities, three engineering colleges were established, one in Bengal, one in Bombay and in Madras which developed into Bengal Engineering College, Poona Engineering College and Guindy engineering College respectively. These colleges were established in 1856 in pursuance of a government policy. The patterns of training of these colleges were more or less same and later on these colleges upgraded to degree level in civil engineering.
In early stage superior cadre technical personnel was mainly recruited from United Kingdom and only limited steps were taken to train middle level personnel and trained craftsman. Apart from the institutions established for the purpose, the training was mainly given at such technical establishments like gun factories, workshops, etc and through organised apprenticeship classes in mechanical and electrical engineering. This method continued for long time. Since the industrial progress during the nineteenth century was painfully slow, development of technical education and training was practically marginal. This was due to the economic policies followed by British government in India in order to keep Indian economy subservient to British economy and sustain the power structure of a colonial government.
2. Swadeshi Technical Education
Rajendralal Sarkar was the pioneer of national technical education in nineteenth century Bengal. His aim was to impart technical education to novices in the institute founded by him in sixties of the century. This is clear from his speech in support of the founding of the Indian association for cultivation science in 1876.Rajendralal Mitra pointed out that without cultivation of science; technical education did not become technology. It remained at the level of artisans. The Rajendralal Mitra and Father Lafont supported Mahendralal’s association in founding of the association. The house family voted in favour of the I.A.C.S. and was born in 1876.It was felt in India circle that a national science association was needed under Indian supervision for national cultivation. The technical institute would have been dependent on foreign instructors. The British government had no interest in promoting the I.A.C.S. The I.A.C.S. is the first nationalist body of its kind which was dedicated to create a pool of scientists who would also supervise technical education if necessary.
3. The Hindu Mela
The idea of swadeshi technical education came up into the mind of the educated Bengalis was the result of Hindu Mela. A technical fair was regularly held as a part of the Hindu Mela since 1867.The art and craft of budding scientists were regularly displayed there. It gave the motivation to young generation to take technical education as a profession during these days. Among the intellectuals Rajnarain Bose, Bholanath Chandra and Manmohan Bose were the chief patrons of the Hindu Mela and thy laid all kind of great emphasis on all kind of swadesi enterprise. The inventor who caught every eye for his inventions was Sitanath Ghosh. These included Sewing machine, an air pump, a mechanical plough, telegraph communication and a magnetic healer.
4. The Dawn Society
The next important centre for technology after the era of the Hindu Mela was the Dawn Society (1902 -1906) founded by Satish Chandra Mukherjee. Even before it, Satish Chandra had started the Dawn Magazine (1897) in which articles of science and technologies were regularly published. Swadeshi technology was specially discussed in all columns of Dawn Magazine. The magazine carried more than forty articles on science and technology. The Dawn society had regular courses in industrial and technical education at both primary and higher levels. Thus Dawn Society provided the immediate background to the national council of education and its technical school, the Bengal Technical Institute or the B.T.I.
5. National Council of Education
The political whirlpool caused by the University Act of 1902 and the Partition of Bengal (1905) transformed the society like Dawn Society into the giant body of National Council of Education. The national council of Education was born on 1st June, 1906 with Rashbehari Ghosh as the president. To start with NCE launched two institutions, the Bengal National College for general science, arts and Bengal Technical Institute (BTI) for technical education. In a report the purpose of BTI mentioned clearly as
“Our attention is first directed to the great industrial awakening that has of late taken place in the country. Everywhere signs of this new industrial spirit have manifested themselves. Our eyes have been opened to the vast natural resources of the country lying practically undeveloped. The success of Europe in the field of industrial enterprise has also been an eye opener to us and has stimulated our energy.”
6. The Birth of Bengal Technical Institute
The Bengal Technical Institute was opened on 25th July 1906 at 82,Upper circular Road with Pramathanath Bose as its first principal. Rashbehari Ghosh was the president of the executive committee of BTI .At the initial stage; the BTI introduced two kinds of courses. One was three year intermediate course and the other was a four year secondary course. The non metric students also get admitted to the secondary course. They mainly learn fitting dying, carpentry, electroplating and lithography, soap making and tanning. The main subjects here were 1.Mechanical and electrical engineering 2.Applied Chemistry 3.Geology.In 1908 it had 144 students in two courses .In this way Bengal technical institute contributed for creating of nations technical man power.
7. From BTI to the College of Engineering
During the First World War many nationalist leaders decided in favour of supporting the British authorities for gaining political concessions after the war. This change of attitude distraught the activities of BTI.Some eminent teachers,like Bhim Chandra Chattarjee left the BTI in 1916 still maintained its programme of technical education. The executive committee decided to expand their activities in spite of all the difficulties. In 1918 it was decided to buy land in suburb for its new campus, encourage students to find self employment, grant, and scholarship for research, build hostel for residential students.
One of the important steps taken in this direction was to employ foreign returned Indian students as teachers of the BTI. One such new recruit was Professor Hemachandra Dasgupta, who returned after his higher studies in Michigan,USA in 1918.As Binoy Sarkar observes the period 1910-18 was ‘a period of struggle and experimentation in the history of BTI’. But its survival was ‘a specimen of self sacrifice, creative patriotism and strenuous exertions”.
The next decade was a period of resurgence of the BTI. The anti Rowaltt agitation (1919) and the start of non co-operation movement under Mahatma Gandhi 1920 brought back the nationalist agenda. The student’s enrolment of the BTI was rapidly increased. In 1919 the number was 150,in 1920 it was 247 and in 1921 it swelled to 520.It became necessary to find out a new campus and after hectic search a plot of 100 bighas was taken on a lease at rent of Rs210 per year for 99 years from the Calcutta corporation at Jadavpur.The foundation stone of the Aurobindo Building was laid on 11th March 1922 and the building was completed in 1924.In 1921 a committee was sat toexpand the scope of studies in engineering and chemical engineering added to the new curriculum .It was also decided to improve faculty by sending some of the teachers abroad for training. The first three trainees were Sri Hiralal Roy, Sri Satish Chandra Bhttacharjee and Jotindranath Bose. They came back and rejoined the BTI in 1928 after higher studies. It was felt that BTI should be renamed as College of Engineering and Technology as parallel institution to Shibpur B.E.college.
8. College of Engineering and Technology
There was no turning back since its inception. The significant achievement was by end of 1925 CET turned out 100 qualified engineers for the cause of the country. It was recognised as a major engineering college both at home and abroad. The apathy of British authorities could not deter its success .In 1956 when the Jadavpur University was founded; the CET became its integral part. Founding members of National Council of Bengal, the parent body of the Jadavpur University, in 1906 set the goal "To achieve self reliance through empowerment of Youth by imparting Best of Global Knowledge".
The University also aims:
· To promote and pursue higher education by linking up traditionally separated subjects in the light of the ever-changing global scenario.
· To explore new dimensions of academic administration free of bureaucratic impediments.
· To set up a role model for academic leadership.
The BTI which was small industrial school in 1906 braved all crises to become an engineering university. Binoy Sarkar describes how three stages of technical education were visible in the growth and development of the BTI into CET. The stages were Mistrification, Modernisation and Industrialisation. This illustrates the transition from techniques to technology. At the level of BTI; it was only a mechanic institute which Sarkar called Mistrification. When science supported it, it got elevated into technology for industrialisation. Its contribution to national contribution was immense. The Shibpur Engineerig College had only civil and electrical departments whereas the CET taught many other branches, like mechanical and chemical engineering and produced not less than 500 entrepreneurs like Alamohan Das before independence made their names all over the world.
As a reincarnation of the CET, Jadavpur University continued to abide by the noble ideals and aspirations of the National Council of Education, Bengal and created 3 separate faculties of broad disciplines in international line – Arts, Science and Engineering. Throughout its first decade the University continued to add new departments and new subjects in the curriculum with due regard to the industrial requirements of a growing nation.
Novel curriculum design and introduction of innovative courses go a long-way in moulding the career of younger students into various walks of life in the society. In this respect, Jadavpur University has made great strides in designing their curricula. Considerable freedom and flexibility for the faculty to design relevant and innovative courses have earned a good reputation for the University. The institution has travelled a long way from a College of Engineering & Technology to Jadavpur University and successfully established itself as one of the better Indian research and teaching institution with a vast repertoire of courses offered.
9. Conclusion
From the study it is clear that the development of technical education in India was gone through different stages, beginning from establishment of engineering colleges by British to establishment of engineering colleges by the nationalists. One of such Engineering institution established by the effort of national leaders was College of Engineering of Technology (CET),Jadavpur. This particular institute taken for case study developed on a nationalist line. In short the development may be seen in two aspects: colonial and nationalist. The second one was the result of first one. Although number of technical institutes established by British during the colonial rule but failed to fulfil the requirement of people. The main shortcomings of colonial technical education were listed below.
1. The superior cadre technical personnel in the technical domain were mainly recruited from United Kingdom.
2. Starting technical education in India came only out of the necessity of the British rulers for train middle level technical personnel required in construction and maintenance of public building, roads, canals, ports, harbours and other services.
3. Only limited steps were taken to train middle level personnel and trained craftsman
The CET rectified the above by following initiatives
1. CET trained the teachers of the institution outside the country to improve the quality of teaching.
2. The Shibpur Engineering College had only civil and electrical departments whereas the CET taught many other branches.
10. Reference
1. Dr.Chittabrata Palit, Scientific Bengal,
Kalpaz Publications (2006), pp 71-101
2. Biman Sen, Development of Technical Education in India and state policy –
A Historical Perspective, pp 226-229
3. Samir Kumar Saha, Curriculam Design of Mechanical Engineering in a Developing Country, Mechanical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
4. http://www.jaduniv.edu.in/about_us.php
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