Keshav Malhar Bhat
Keshav Malhar Bhat—the first South Asian to attend MIT—broke new ground by enrolling as a Special Student in Chemistry in 1880, only 20 years after the Institute’s founding. Bhat was born in 1855 in Poona (modern-day Pune) where Bal Gangadhar Tilak played a pioneering role in India's anticolonial nationalist movement
In 1899, in an alumni newsletter, Bhat reflected on the importance of MIT in imparting the knowledge and experience he needed to begin his career in India, attributing his success to his “beloved institution.”
Making use of the practical education he received at MIT—and his experience working at John Cochrane’s Turkey Red dye works in Malden, MA while enrolled at the Institute— Bhat started the Indo-American Dye House in India in 1887 before returning to MIT in 1890 to study Electricity. Bhat returned permanently to India in 1891 and continued work in dyeing under the patronage of the princely state of Miraj in present-day Maharashtra that was independent of British Rule.
Keshav Bhat’s time at MIT marked the beginning of what became a broader exchange of knowledge between South Asia and MIT that facilitated industrial and technological development in India. He established a connection between South Asia and MIT that was kept alive by the pioneering efforts of South Asian students in the 20th century.