Campus Diaries – Rendezvous

When IIT Madras was Bonn

Srivatsan — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 06:46:51 +0000

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

17 again!

Srivatsan — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 08:28:30 +0000

At Heritage Centre, step back in time to relive your favourite IIT-M memories, while also grabbing a quick selfie by the booth where a digitised photo of your younger self appears. As we embark on this journey of nostalgia, Prof. R Nagarajan, faculty in charge of Heritage Centre, walks us through its evolution, and the importance of preserving history

Srivatsan S

“I don’t think any other academic institution in India has anything comparable to the Heritage Centre,” says Prof. R Nagarajan. Quite a tall claim, you wonder. Unless, of course, he is right. Inaugurated in 2006, the Heritage Centre was a pet project that was conceived by Prof. R Natarajan, former Director of the Institute, and was supported by the succeeding Director, Prof. M.S.Ananth. After several iterations, Prof. Ajit Kumar Kolar took a personal interest in setting up the Centre and “championed it”, as Nagarajan puts it.

Initially, a much larger space was chalked out. However, the Centre was eventually inducted into the administration building, on the ground floor. And it oddly paid off. For, as and when visitors — both from within and outside the country — dropped by, the Heritage Centre became the starting point and a necessary pitstop.

“The smaller dimension of space gave people the feeling of intimacy. For a space like this, you need a good group of people doing actual work. We have Kumaran Sathasivam and Mamata Dash, and a couple of youngsters to drive the work,” adds Nagarajan.

Step into the Heritage Centre — or take a virtual tour, if you may — and the imposing six-feet portrait of Prof. B Sengupto is hard to miss. To celebrate the three creators — R Natarajan, MS Ananth and Ajit Kumar Kola — their portraits were unveiled by the former Director Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi during the inauguration of the Official Historical Archive on the occasion of diamond jubilee year in 2019.

The catch? The Centre was running the danger of hitting a stagnation point. They had to keep renewing it to make sure that the place is attractive enough for a revisit. After collecting feedback from visitors, faculty members, retired staff and alumni, what the advisory committee felt was that, while the Centre was providing a great facility, it lacked the wow factor that makes you want to come back. Thus began a long journey of digitisation that started just before the pandemic in 2019. “The funding was provided through a grant from our Institute of Eminence. It was a very generous allocation of funds by Director (then) Bhaskar Ramamurthi,” he says. The revamped Heritage Centre, with a new facade and a character, was formally inaugurated by Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister in 2022.

Immersive experience

In order to grab the attention of visitors, making sure the exhibits were interactive, they came up with the concept of a dome right at the centre, which almost functions like a nucleus telling an immersive story of IIT-M’s achievements, campus life and biodiversity. The audience walks around the dome, going through IIT-M’s history and its historical relevance — right from the German phase, when technical and financial aid from Germany helped in establishing IIT-M, to a rich tapestry of photographs and artefacts; academic and research side, as well as student and campus life. The circle completes with the achievements of alumni and the “birds and bees” of the campus.

The Heritage Centre does an exhibit every couple of months, apart from organising walks. A tastefully-curated exhibit on the days of yore was recently displayed as part of the 17th Heritage Centre Day in March, and the 64th Institute Day in April. The next exhibit, informs Nagarajan, will have a combined theme of ‘convocation over the years’ as well as ‘hostel days and hostel nights’. The most popular exhibit, however, has been the digitised ID card library where students can pull up their old photos.

Visitors are screened a series of heritage-related movies at the newly-installed mini-theatre that can house over 25 people. Funded by an alumnus of the 1981 batch, the theatre aims to capture the look and feel of the institute’s own Open Air Theatre (OAT), and has a Dolby Atmos sound system.

Given the attention and interest Heritage Centre has been getting from international delegations who take on the heritage tour when they visit the campus, the continued evolution of the Centre is but natural. “Adding an AR (augmented reality) to the exhibits, for example, would be great. So people can walk around and point at things and get animated stories or audio video recordings pop up. This is probably one of the next steps we will take. We want to have at least 20 to 25 such AR elements,” he adds.

Ever since its renovation and reopening in 2022, the Heritage Centre has formed a club that not only includes IIT-M alumni as members but also people who are interested in heritage and history. Recently, a gift shop was integrated into the Centre offering a variety of collectables — from institute memorabilia to merchandise.

As for the future, plans are already on to have an exclusive VR Centre where people can walk in and experience for themselves certain parts of IIT Madras that may not be accessible for them otherwise — the scenic lake, for instance. Employing a drone to chart out the lake and its course from end to end may come handy in serving an experiential VR experiment.

The Heritage Centre is a self-sufficient model whose laid-back approach has so far worked out in its favour. Given the highly competitive environment that IIT-M has landed itself not just nationally but globally, the time has come for the Centre to take the gloves off. “We have come to realise that it is not really enough to be good, but you have to let it be known that you are good,” says Nagarajan.

“All said and done, we are celebrating our own history because we are proud of the way this institution has grown. We want to share the joy with people; how far we have come and where we are headed.”

“Another thing we want to address concerns students. It has always bothered alumni that despite the NIRF rankings for five consecutive years, if you look at the JEE (advanced) and look at the top 100 students, they don’t come to IIT-M. They either go to IIT Delhi or Bombay; only a handful come to IIT-M. And I think places such as the Heritage Centre can hopefully change the minds of some of these students, more importantly, their parents. So, we want to encourage even high school students and their parents to come visit Heritage Centre to see how IIT-M has grown over the years to become the top institution in India.”

“A lot of the visiting international delegates appreciate the fact that we started IIT-M with the assistance of German universities and professors, and we have continued to maintain strong relations with Germany. We also have joint centres like the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability. It is no longer a one-way relationship where they provide all the brains and money, and we provide students. We are more equal partners. This does indicate our visitors from abroad that IIT-M is welcoming of foreign collaborations. Because it’s in our blood; in our DNA.”

The curious case of two elephants

Srivatsan — Thu, 04 May 2023 09:46:14 +0000

They have been around for over 61 years. Yet, there is very little that is known about the two elephant statues of the Gajendra Circle, a landmark of IIT-Madras that represents what the institution stands for

Srivatsan S

A 15kmph slow drive — or 7kmph speed walk — under a canopy of overhanging trees of IIT-M can never be not energising. After the long roads that might look longer until about two kilometers from the main gate from Adyar, stand two elephants — separated by a fountain that looks like an inverted umbrella from a bird’s-eye view — facing opposite directions, refusing to confront or look into each other’s eyes like a passive-aggressive husband and wife after fighting over some silly domestic chores.

These elephants, whose once-dark coloured skin would glow during the sunkissed season of Chennai’s kathiri, are all now coin grey in color perhaps due to aging — or global warming. Imagine standing under the scorching Sun for 61 years! The IITians know it as Gajendra Circle; for others, it’s just a fascinating piece of art.

The Gajendra Circle (GC) is the heart and epicenter of IIT Madras. Quite literally. If GC is the beating heart, then the arteries and veins are four connecting roads — Bonn and Delhi Avenue that run in parallel leading to the residential area, and newer ones such as Hostel and Alumni Avenue that lead to the hostel and academic areas respectively.

The two magnificent creatures are the first ones to welcome the fresh batch of students at the turn of every year. And this imposing structure, which has been the symbol of IIT-M and a landmark location in the campus, is perhaps the last stop where graduates gather for a quick selfie, or memorable ‘photograph’ as once it was known, before it’s pack up time. The short interval that remains in-between is the life of an IITian.

Mind you. For some, GC might only trigger memories of date nights and brewing romances they might have had. We are looking at you, alumni. Tsk. Tsk.

A snatch of history

At one point, the popularity of GC outside the campus was such that it even featured in ‘know your city’ guides for tourists as among the two places to check out in Adyar; the other one being the Banyan Tree in Theosophical Society. Despite all this, very little information is available in the public domain, and very little has been written about the origin of Gajendra Circle, which is synonymous with everything IIT-M stands for.

Here’s how the story goes: Prof B Sengupto, the first Director of IIT-M, was the man behind the conception of the campus and the infrastructure the institution needed: hostels, laboratories, quarters and buildings; Sengupto saw to it that the majority of work was completed by the time his tenure ended. The Gajendra Circle, however, did not originate from him; it was the brainchild of R Natarajan, the first Registrar of IIT-M.

It was Natarajan, in fact, who coined the name Gajendra Circle. He was always fond of Bengaluru, which had so many ‘circles’ such as Narasimharaja Circle and something as recent as Anil Kumble Circle. “I told Prof Sengupto and our engineer that we should install two big elephants and call it Gajendra Circle. And it caught fire immediately among students,” said R Natarajan, in a conversation with Prof Ajit Kolar.

Not just GC, but all the avenues — Bonn, Madras and Delhi — were coined by him. “Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities. Likewise, our campus is a handiwork of three cities: Bonn, Madras and Delhi,” said Natarajan, who was with IIT-M for six-and-a-half years till 1965. But the Gajendras we see today have not always looked the same.

Let’s first address the elephant in the room: the ‘circle’ in Gajendra is a lie; the structure isn’t ‘circular’ but oval. The first version of GC, which was primarily a lamp post with four lamps, came into existence in 1962. It had a figurine of the elephant head with its trunk pointing upwards as if to signal blessing or greeting, and was attached on each lamp post. This version continued to exist till the late ‘60s.

The second version of GC, installed roughly around 1967, looked even grander with an ambitious design: instead of four elephant heads, it was brought down to two life-sized elephants separated by a fountain and accompanied by two students on either side. One of the students carries a hammer in his hand, while the other holds the degree in hand.

The idea was to signify the journey of a student at IIT-M. But it didn’t go down well with students and the jokes kept coming. For instance, R Shankar, wrote in the students-run newspaper Campustimes, “Leaning on these two elephants are two men, who, like the elephants, have taken a natural and inevitable dislike to each other and are using the elephant’s head to hide from each other. What do these statues actually represent? Some say that the men represent the student body while the elephants represent the staff.”

The third and final version of GC, which was remodelled sometime in the early 1970s, is what we see today — without the accompanying boys. An imposing structure, Gajendra Circle is sometimes decked with colorful lights and the fountain is switched on during special occasions on campus — the only time elephants get to have their cold shower.

With inputs from IIT-M Heritage Centre. For more details, check out: https://heritage.iitm.ac.in/