India has an old tradition of knowledge and learning. In fact, a well-established system of higher education functioned as early as 1000 B.C. In that system, the construction of knowledge, the beliefs on which knowledge is based, basic concepts and the organization of learning are very different from the European tradition. The Indian system is validated by the fact that it sustained Indian Civilization for centuries.

The European system of higher education was introduced to India by the British in 1857 with the establishment of universities for European education in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Although modeled after the University of London, these universities were not meant to be institutions for the advancement of knowledge, or full-fledged centers of higher leaning. The British government had established them with two limited objectives:

* To introduce the Indian elite to European culture, and thus, to colonize the country culturally; * To produce a cadre of Indians equipped to serve the British administration in India and to practice the professions of law, medicine and teaching, as required by the British.

The emphasis on imbibing European culture and knowledge was so pronounced that universities never really encouraged a spirit of critical inquiry or independent thinking so vital to the advancement of knowledge.

However, when India acquired independence in 1947, education was chosen to be the principal instrument for the country's transformation from a poor, dependent, economically and technologically backward imperial colony into an advanced nation. In the larger design for this transformation -- which calls for economic development as well as extensive social and political change -- higher education was charged with two major responsibilities.

First, higher education was to provide the manpower required for economic growth and for an efficient delivery of services such as healthcare, transportation, communication and community welfare -- considered basic to a developed society. And, it was to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the manner required to place India on par with the developed world.

Second, higher education was to function as an instrument of equality. It was recognized that these objectives were the very opposite of those that universities had served in British India.

To enable them to advance knowledge and to produce the manpower required, universities in independent India have been equipped with facilities for undergraduate as well as graduate education, in the full range of disciplines available at universities in developed countries. At least one agricultural university has been established in each state. In addition, a new category of national-level apex institutions -- such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management -- have been established to provide world-class education in fields such as engineering, technology, management and medicine, which are considered critical to development.

Today, India no longer depends on developed countries for higher education or for qualified manpower. It has the world's third-largest pool of scientifically and technically trained personnel. The products of Indian higher education are accepted for employment worldwide. Students from other countries, particularly the African countries, come to India for higher education studies. 
 

(Excerpted from "The Transformation of an Imperial Colony into an Advanced Nation: India in Comparative Perspective," by Dr. Chitnis which appears in Higher Education in the 21st Century: Global Challenge and National Response, an online publication of the International Institute of Education edited by Philip G. Altbach and Patti McGill Peterson.)