Norman Dahl
Norman Dahl PhD '52, Professor of Engineering (1952-2004), was asked to lead a tour of India in 1961 by MIT's President Julius Strattor to consider an institutional collaboration between MIT and the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur. In January 1961, Dahl went to India where he met with government officials and scientists, visited national laboratories and spent time in Kanpur. Praising the Indian undergraduate education system, Dahl and his team were surprised to find that Kanpur was not the industrial backwater they were expecting. He and his team were especially impressed with the newly appointed head of IIT Kanpur, Professor P. K. Kelkar, whom they noted was a person of intelligence, energy, and vision, who aspired for Kanpur to develop along American, rather than British, pedagogical approaches. Dahl enthusiastically supported MIT’s partnership with IIT Kanpur refering to this collaboration as a "Revolution on the Ganges".
Norman Dahl teaching at IIT-Kanpur Courtesy SPAN Magazine
Dahl considered technical education the foundation of nation-building in the newly-independent country. As he put it, “The primary engineering need there is for ‘problem reorganizing’ and ‘problem solving’ graduates who will have the confidence, inclination and training to do something about India’s problems”. With Professor Dahl’s vote of confidence, MIT agreed to organize and lead the Kanpur Indo-American Program from 1962-1972 that was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). KIAP was a consortium of six American universities that supported the curricular and infrastructural development of IIT Kanpur. The institute was built to resemble an open, free-flowing space with no walls or boundaries to be reflected in the school’s philosophy and interdisciplinary curriculum as well. Professor Dahl spent several months teaching and collaborating with Indian students, faculty and statesmen, and over a decade leading the program’s efforts which included recruiting and training permanent Indian faculty as well.
Revolution on the Ganges
A Report on the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 1967
Norman Dahl headed the Steering Committee of the Kanpur-Indo American Program which included faculty members from Caltech, Carnegie Tech, Case Institute, Ohio State, Princeton, Purdue, University of California, University of Michigan, along with MIT. They met on a bi-monthly basis to discuss means to collaborate and assist fellow revolutionaries in India, the faculty, students, and staff at the IIT Kanpur. Dahl was particularly cognizant of the historic moment they were involved in as India’s deliberate policy of industrialization following independence depended on the development of institutes such as IIT Kanpur. He was aware that the ultimate goal of KIAP was to “develop new forms of engineering education” and produce the highest quality of “engineers and scientists needed in the industrial and government factories and laboratories.” He succeeded in this endeavor.
Along the way, Norman Dahl made close, lifelong friends at Kanpur as these revolutionaries came together to plan curricula, celebrate Indian festivals, and assemble the first computer at a South Asian educational institution.
“India’s problems were not only technological, but also sociological. We have found in America that to stress these studies [humanities] makes very good sense, and it makes even better sense in India.” - Professor Norman Dahl
Norman C. Dahl with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and G. K. Chandiramani, representative of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs c. 1961 Courtesy of the MIT Musuem
Normal C. Dahl with P. K. Kelkar c. 1964 SPAN Magazine
Courtesy of Arvind Mithal
IMB computer arriving at IIT Kanpur. Dr. Dahl's wife, Dorothy (Sweet) Dahl , believed this gift from IBM to IIT/Kanpur to be "the first computer in a teaching institution in the subcontinent." Courtesy Dorothy Dahl
Norman Dahl celebrating Holi with his family in India c.1963 Courtesy Dorothy Dahl
“Norman was a powerful servant of American international policy and practical effort and, in short, a serving citizen of not one but several countries in his time… "Perhaps the most spectacular achievement of the early days of the IIT Kanpur was its contribution to the computer revolution of India -- now a commonplace. Not often, and perhaps not ever, has an economic and technical effort so rewarded both the donor country and the major recipient.” - John Kenneth Galbraith, the US ambassador to India when Dr. Dahl was there from 1962 to 1964.