November i i, 1922] 



NA TURE 



649 



Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. 



A LTHOUGH only 203 students have worked for 

 -**- various periods in the laboratories of the Indian 

 Institute of Science at Bangalore since its opening in 

 1911, and although only 14 of these have been re- 

 garded by the council as suitable for the diploma of 

 associateship, the history of the Institute is of special 

 interest to students of educational methods. The 

 conditions affecting the activities of the Institute 

 depart, however, so widely from the normal that it 

 is impossible at this stage in its history to be sure 

 whether any, and what, changes in the administration 

 of the Institute would have resulted in more visible 

 success. Bangalore, the site selected for the Institute 

 by the late Sir William Ramsay, is mainly a military 

 cantonment. Its position as a centre, either of 

 scientific education or of technical industries, is 

 almost negligible. The Institute itself occupies 

 isolated ground far enough from the town to cut it 

 off largely even from the limited social amenities 

 obtainable in an Indian cantonment station. 

 Distances in India are of the continental order, and 

 university graduates, being generally married in 

 early life, hesitate naturally to leave the established 

 university cities to undertake post-graduate training 

 at a distant institute which has no traditions, no con- 

 nexions, and no established market value. Moreover, 

 the number of science graduates qualified in India to 

 undertake research work has hitherto been very small. 



The machinery of government originally designed 

 for the Institute reproduced some of the ordinary 

 features of established universities, including a large 

 " court," composed of widely dispersed members 

 who have never even met as a body. Even the rela- 

 tiverj small council is handicapped by the distance 

 of some of its members, and its meetings have thus 

 been largely controlled by the resident professorial 

 members. Influenced by desire for a special review 

 of progress by an entirely independent expert body, 

 the standing Committee of the Court in 1921 requested 

 the Governor-General in Council to appoint a com- 

 mittee of inquiry, which met towards the end of the 

 year under the chairmanship of Sir William Pope, 

 professor of chemistry at Cambridge ; and the report 

 of the committee recently made available forms a 

 valuable study of this artificially created institution. 



Hitherto the work of the Institute has been limited 

 to two groups, which are distinct from one another 

 in nature and method of training. In the department 

 of pure and applied chemistry, students have been 

 engaged in research problems ; there has been, how- 

 ever, no systematic course of training, either by 

 lectures or laboratory work. In the department of 

 electrical technology, on the other hand, students 

 have undergone a more systematic training, with 

 the view of qualifying as practical electrical en- 

 gineers. There has been no department of physics 

 to link the other two, and no department of mechanical 

 engineering on which to base the training in electrical 

 technology. 



Up to 1918 the annual income of the Institute 

 amounted to something less than 17,000/., but recently, 

 owing to the sale on advantageous terms of the 

 investments left by the founder, the late Mr. J. N. 

 Tata, the income now available is nearly doubled. 



The committee, in accepting the conclusion that 

 the Institute has not fulfilled the just expectations 

 of its founder, wisely refuses to discuss the merits 

 of the specific complaints made against its adminis- 

 tration, and limits its report to the discussion of 

 proposals for reform. In the first place, the com- 

 mittee, after briefly reviewing the standard of scientific 

 training obtainable at Indian institutions of univer- 



NO. 276/, VOL. I IOJ 



sity rank, considers it desirable to establish, by 

 lectures and laboratory practice in the Institute 

 itself, definite courses of instruction which will lead 

 the ordinary science graduate from the stage at which 

 he usually leaves the average university college to that 

 winch will qualify him for systematic research. 



Having given an outline of the fundamental policy 

 to be kept in view, the committee proceeds to discuss 

 plans for the logical expansion of the departments 

 already established, assuming this to be preferable 

 to the immediate introduction of additional branches 

 of science. The scheme outlined contemplates the 

 institution of eight professorships in branches of 

 pure and applied chemistry, and these are to be 

 linked with the now isolated department of electrical 

 technology by a chair in general physics. It is 

 proposed also to establish two additional chairs, 

 namely, one in applied mechanics and another in 

 thermodynamics, for the purpose of rendering more 

 effective the training in the department of electrical 

 technology. For the time being this scheme goes as 

 far as it is safe to project future developments ; even 

 this will require a larger income than is now in sight. 

 Indeed, two new chairs will practically absorb the 

 present annual surplus, and the committee thus 

 recommends that the first two chairs established to 

 supplement existing activities should be preferably in 

 chemistry and in thermodynamics and heat engines. 



To create in other parts of India an extended 

 interest in the Institute, the committee recommends 

 a reconstitution of its government machinery. To 

 the court it is proposed to add representatives of 

 any new benefactors that may appear, as well as 

 representatives of all the " reformed " Governor 

 provinces, except Assam. 1 The committee proposes 

 also to introduce a representative of each of the new 

 legislative councils, Assam not in this respect being 

 specifically excepted. These changes, the committee 

 hopes, will create a friendly interest in the Institute 

 in other parts of India ; but the tendency (always 

 manifest, and now decidedly strengthened by the 

 recently reformed constitution) of developing pro- 

 vincial institutions may neutralise to some extent 

 the committee's expectations in this respect. The 

 only alternative plan of dispensing with such large 

 controlling bodies introduces, however, dangers of the 

 kind that, according to some witnesses, have adversely 

 affected the development of the Institute hitherto. 



The council now proposed as the body responsible 

 for the determination of matters of policy, for finance, 

 and for the appointment of a staff, includes the 

 executive head of the Institute, who is styled principal 

 in preference to director, together with eleven other 

 members, composed of five nominees of the Indian 

 universities, two of the Tata family, two of the Mysore 

 State, one of the Indian Legislative Assembly, and 

 a scientific officer to represent the Government of 

 India. An explanatory paragraph in the report 

 assumes that by this scheme the central government 

 will be represented by two nominees, but the nominee 

 of the Indian Legislative Assembly would be in no 

 sense a representative of the Government of India. 



For purely academic business it is proposed to 

 establish a board of studies, composed of the principal, 

 the professors, and certain other members of the staff. 



The committee recommends that the principal 

 should be a scientific man of eminence, with proved 

 administrative capacity. This obviously wise pre- 

 scription has been observed in the recent appointment 



I We understand that the Government of India proposes to add to the 

 government machinery of the Institute a representative of Assam and 

 another of the newly constituted University of Delhi. 



