# When IIT Madras was Bonn

**Source**: https://ge.iitm.ac.in/rendezvous/when-iit-madras-was-bonn/
**Parent**: https://ge.iitm.ac.in/rendezvous/

As a new
chapter
unfolds
in
Zanzibar,
Tanzania,
in the
event of
the
historic
memorandum
that was
signed
between
the
Government
of
India,
IIT-M,
and the
Government
of
Tanzania
for
setting
up the
first
IIT
overseas
campus,
we roll
back a
few
decades
to
unearth
the
story
behind
IIT
Madras
and its
connection
with the
German
Cold War
that
resulted
in the
formation
of the
now-revered
institution

**Srivatsan
S**

At the
end of
the
Second
World
War in
1945,
Germany
was on
the cusp
of
facing
another
bout of
unrest.
Over the
next
decade-and-a-half,
political,
social
and
economic
factors
resulted
in the
formation
of the
Berlin
Wall,
which
divided
the
country
into the
German
Democratic
Republic
(GDR,
also
known as
East
Germany)
and the
Federal
Republic
of
Germany
(FDR,
also
known as
West
Germany).
During
the Cold
War
(between
1947-1991),
it was
common
for the
two
rival
countries
to offer
development
support
to then
developing
and
under-developed
countries,
in their
larger
goal to
muscle
their
influences
and to
benefit
from the
bilateral
relations
they
shared.

One of
the
“largest
and most
successful
educational
projects”
that
emerged
out of
Indo-German
relations
during
the Cold
War, was
the
establishment
of the
Indian
Institute
of
Technology
Madras
(IIT-M)
in 1959,
which,
when
seen
from the
perspective
of FDR,
was
largely
driven
by the
Cold War
foreign
policy
it
shared
with
India.

While
the
Sarkar
Committee
in 1946
recommended
that
India
set-up
“at
least
four
technical
institutions
on the
lines of
the
famous
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology,
USA, in
the
eastern,
western,
northern
and
southern
regions
of the
country”,
the IITs
came
into
existence
only
post-Independence.

The
rationale
behind
setting
up an
institution
as
influential
as
IIT-M,
which
has been
ranked
as ‘The
No: 1
Engineering
Institute’
in the
country
for over
five [as
of 2023,
six]
consecutive
years by
the
National
Institutional
Ranking
Framework
(NIRF),
caught
the
attention
of
German
Roland
Wittje,
Associate
Professor,
History
of
Science
and
Technology,
Department
of
Humanities
and
Social
Sciences,
IIT
Madras.

**Anecdotal
history**

In his
research
paper
titled
Engineering
Education
in Cold
War
Diplomacy:
India,
Germany
and the
Establishment
of IIT
Madras,
a part
of a
series
of
papers
published
in
Wiley’s
journal
under
the
title
History
of
Science
and
Humanities,
Wittje
unearths
this
rather
fascinating
nugget
of
history,
examining
the
social-political
events
and the
motivation
behind
the
formation
of
IIT-M.
Wittje
stumbled
upon
IIT-M’s
connection
with the
Cold War
when he
was
doing
the
preliminary
work for
setting
up the
institution’s
archive
and was
working
with
Kumaran
Sathasivam
of the
Heritage
Centre,
IIT-M. A
historian
of
science,
Wittje
says he
was not
too
familiar
with
political
history
and
wanted
to
understand
the
dogma
behind
science
diplomacy
between
India
and
Germany.

Just
before
West
Germany
made an
offer
for
IIT-M,
IIT
Bombay
was
established
in 1958
with
support
from the
Soviet
Union.
“With
[Jawaharlal]
Nehru
spearheading
the
Non-Alignment
Movement
during
the Cold
War,
what
West
Germany
wanted
was that
India
shouldn’t
acknowledge
East
Germany
as a
sovereign
nation,”
says
Wittje,
“During
the
early
phase,
Germany
got what
it
wanted
from
India,
in terms
of the
larger
picture
of
development.
In fact,
IIT-M is
its
largest
project
as far
as
higher
education
was
concerned
worldwide,
even
though
Germany
did
assist
countries
like
Egypt
and
South
America.”

During
the
course
of his
research,
which
involved
talking
to
German
experts
and
their
practices
at
IIT-M,
Wittje
found
out that
German
faculties
were
quite
specific
on the
type of
character
that IIT
Madras
should
embody,
as a
technical
institute.
The
paper
also
argues
how
Mechanical
Engineering
was and
continues
to
remain
the
largest
faculty
at
IIT-M.

“The
German
connection
continues
to
thrive
at IIT
Madras,
and it
is
always
interesting
to learn
various
nuggets
about
how the
relationship
evolved
in the
initial
years.
IIT
Madras
has
benefitted
from the
attention
paid by
the
Germans
in the
formative
years to
foundational
technical
education
and
research,
as well
as to
skill
development,”
said
Professor
Bhaskar
Ramamurthi,
[former]
Director,
IIT
Madras.

About
the
German
style of
technical
education
that
subscribed
to the
model
focussing
on
practical
exposure
than
theory,
Wittje
says,
“They
[Germany]
insisted
on
practical
and a
strong
workshop-based
education.
When I
spoke to
older
faculties
for the
research,
they
felt
that the
education
students
got was
actually
good.
Although
the
practice-oriented
education
did not
prevail
over the
years.”

**What
has
changed**

Wittje’s
paper
also
brings
to the
fore the
social-cultural
relevance
of
Madras
and what
the
institution
meant
for its
people,
though
he
admits
that he
is not
an
expert
in South
Indian
history.

He
argues
that the
location
for
IIT-M
itself
had
political
reasons,
“Madras
was not
the
first
choice
for
Germany
and they
preferred
somewhere
close to
Delhi,
also for
political
reasons,”
he says,
adding,
“They
were not
opposed
to
Madras
but they
definitely
didn’t
want
Kanpur,
as they
felt it
was far
more
isolated.”

Wittje
observes
that the
collaboration
created
friction
between
Indian
and
German
faculties
initially,
with
regard
to the
mode of
teaching.
But
there
was
nearly
no
political
influence
over the
institution
soon
after
the Cold
War, he
says.
“In the
beginning,
West
Germany
did not
think
from a
long
time
perspective.
They saw
this
[IIT-M]
as a
goodwill
gesture.
But it
was only
in the
‘70s did
they
want to
have a
techno-scientific
international
collaboration.
And they
developed
a
strategy
which
was
different
from
other
IITs.”

Acknowledging
that the
paper is
still a
German
perspective,
Wittje
says he
wanted
to shift
the
general
narrative:
of IIT
graduates
settling
in the
US and
engaging
with
software.
“That
sort of
mass
exodus
didn’t
happen
with
Germany
because
of the
immigration
laws
that
made it
a lot
easier
for
Asians
to move
to the
US,” he
says,
adding
that a
lot of
students
continue
to reap
the
benefits
of the
Indo-German
relations.

Which is
why even
as
recently
as when
Frank-Walter
Steinmeier,
President
of
Germany,
paid a
visit to
the
IIT-M
Research
Park in
2018 to
further
that
collaboration.
“Part of
the
reason
behind
this
research
was to
make the
institution
understand
its own
history,”
he adds.

*This
article
was
first
published
in
The
Hindu,
Metroplus,
and
has
been
reproduced
with
permission.
You
can
read
the
article
here:*[*https://bit.ly/3R6Mdc9*](https://bit.ly/3R6Mdc9)

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