The missing case of humanities courses at IITs!?

Santa Santosh Avvannavar presents a short interview with 2022 Life Time Achievement awardee by Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur , Dr. Brij K. Dhidaw

Professor Brij Kumar Dhindaw's being bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the largest and oldest IIT in the IIT system, IIT Kharagpur, at the last convocation held in December 2022 speaks volumes about his brilliant academic records and dedicated professional contribution to the IIT system he made over several decades. No further introduction is required to support the idea that his voice should be heard on academic issues in general and in India in particular. We present a short interview with him on the topic the missing case of humanities courses at IITs!?

When Prof. Dhindaw entered IIT Kharagpur through the second JEE his first class at IIT Kharagpur in 1961 was history taught by Professor K. K. Banerjee. It was a pleasant surprise and joy to get to learn history after a gap of three years in the IXth, Xth and XIth science streams. It was not just history; courses such as Economics Part A and Part B, English, Psychology, and Philosophy were courses those followed in the subsequent years. This framework was derived from the US Universities involved in the setting up of I.I.T. Kharagpur. These courses were brought to the point of least importance by 1980’s broadly because of entry of new subjects mostly at the cost of humanities subjects. However later they were somewhat reinstated by putting a 10% limit but diluted at the same time.

• Bright and competent humanities faculty were not motivated to join IIT for reasons that they found do not make it conducive for them to nurture their ecosystem and freedom to grow. One small example was to club them with the qualification requirements in terms of research with faculties of science and engineering disciplines while being considered for promotion. They felt that they were being transplanted into terrains fertile for the stereo core disciplines rather than the type of soil and fertilizers they needed. Therefore, although unlike science and engineering disciplines huge funds were not needed to expand humanities departments.
• The departments were undernourished because of lack of brilliant and assertive faculty they could not attract. The integration of humanities into engineering streams failed because IIT was not the right ecosystem for their teaching and research.
• Now it has been accepted that IIT students need to be more humane rather than robots to withstand the pressure of the environment they face while setting up of start-ups and getting to the top of the companies’ decision-making bodies. In this role of properly designed humanities courses and enabling ecosystem is required in IIT’s. It goes without saying that a fertile ecosystem nurturing both the science/engineering disciplines integrated with very modern humanities department/departments would also push the ranking of IIT’ to the top of the echelon.

The problem is deep-rooted, and we often want to compete with the top institutions in the world. But the data tells a different story altogether than the perception we have at IIT Systems. Let us pick some of the top institutions with engineering courses as strength in the world to understand this better.

1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology President is Sally Kornbluth, who holds a degree in political science and later pivoted to the sciences to be a cell biologist.
2. Stanford University President Richard Saller is a scholar of Roman history who has published widely on Roman social, economic, and cultural history.
3. The Cambridge University Vice-Chancellor is Deborah Prentice, who has a psychology degree and is an expert in the study of social norms.?

These best examples from top institutions and universities are interesting indicators to try at IITs, I am referring to limited experimentation in selecting Directors at IIT. Director position at IIT is unique and carries immense powers touching and directing most of the domains from administrative to academic. If the issues mentioned above are to be addressed the position should not as conventionally followed need to be filled by persons mostly from engineering disciplines or occasional from science as done now. Any one from any disciplines who has a vision, academic and teacher par excellence could be selected. It is vital to look at someone who is visionary with an international outlook. Directors with humanities background may seriously be considered. This does not mean someone with an engineering background will not be visionary and successful. However, IITs need to open for other educational candidates for the director position. IITs are on the verge of setting up other streams like medicine in the system. The director's role is vital for the decision-making and functionality of the campus. Hence experiments are the need of the hour to try and test to take IITs into different dimensions.

I was so delighted to get my appointment letter as visiting professor at Osaka University engineering discipline signed by President of the university who was a doctor (faculty of medicine). Deaneries may be strengthened again with appointment of deans like in universities delegated effective powers to take care of the routine administrative and academic programmes while also assisting in the visionary goals of IIT. But to have a well-balanced curriculum that would produce world class technologists with great human values an integration of technology/science and humanities need to be done. Teaching and learning could change from creating mechanical or robotic life to being more humane.

The objective of IITs was to create a manufacturing sector in India, followed by banking and software jobs. The latter continued to glorify campus salary packages.

Irrespective of IITs’ or other engineering institutions humanities courses and faculty, humanities courses and faculty can create rounded citizens and responsible engineers who will follow the code of ethics to create a sustainable ecosystem for all generations. And this is possible; otherwise, we will continue to witness buildings and bridges collapsing; roads will not last long; and industries will continue to affect the environment and humans and last but not the least check the student’s frustration becoming chronic at times.

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