Tilak and Special Students

A Call for Technological Transformation

The British colonization of India in the mid-18th century disrupted India’s industrial growth. In 1884, Bal Gangadhar Tilak—an Indian freedom fighter and founder of a widely circulating nationalist newspaper, Mahratta —published articles calling for Indians to seek out a technical education as the path to self-governance. Only two decades after its founding in 1861, Tilak hailed MIT as a “model institute of technology” and “the best conducted institute in the world.” The earliest students from India to enroll at MIT responded to Tilak’s call.

Model Institute

Tilak refers to MIT as a model institute in The Mahratta, May 25th 1884.

Tilak insisted that the first step for Indians to escape the cycle of poverty was to pursue a robust technical education, which could be effectively harnessed to acheive economic independence. He recommended that the colonial government replicate MIT’s blueprint for technical education, a vision that came to fruition after India’s independence in the 1950s with the establishment of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Tilak’s mention of  MIT was the earliest recognition that MIT had something to offer India and could shape its technological development.

Special Students

The earliest students from India attended MIT as Special Students. Special Students did not receive a formal degree, but enrolled in several classes. The time they spent at the Institute had a significant impact on their lives. Keshav Bhat was the very first student to come to MIT as a Special Student in 1880. After initially enrolling at MIT as a Special Student, Birendra Chandra Gupta became the first South Asian to receive an undergraduate degree from the Institute in 1906. Several others did the same. 

Map

British India, 1909

  1. 1882-84: Keshav M. Bhat came to MIT from Poona to study Chemistry.
  2. 1904-5: Ishwar Das Varshnei came to MIT from Aligarh to study Chemical Engineering at MIT.
  3. 1905-6: Saran Das Jalota came to MIT from Punjab to study Electrical Engineering.
  4. 1906-7: Birendra Chandra Gupta 1907, SM 1922 came to MIT from Dhaka to study Electrical Engineering. After initially taking classes as a Special Student, he eventually received a BS and MS from the Institute.
  5. 1907-8: Raj Kishore Misra came to MIT from Lucknow.
  6. 1908-09: Brahma Behary Sircar came to MIT from Calcutta to study Civil Engineering.
  7. 1909-10: Bala Preshad Mathur 1911 came to MIT from Hyderabad to study Electrical Engineering. After initially taking classes as a Special Student, he graduated with a BS in 1911.
  8. 1913-14: Kshitish Chandra Basu 1915, SM 1916 came to MIT from Howrah. After initially enrolling as a Special Student, he graduated with a BS and SM from the Institute.
  9. 1928-1939: Suresh Chandra Bose 1929 came to MIT from Bengal. After initially enrolling as a Special Student, he graduated with a BS in 1929. 

Keshav Malhar Bhat: First South Asian at MIT

Keshav Bhat registration page

Keshav Bhat registration page

Ishwar Das Varshnei and the Modern Indian Glass Industry

Varshnei Registration

Ishwar Das Varshnei registration page

Technology Review: (1907, page 137)

Technology Review, 1907

"They (Bhat and Varshnei) embody a common theme of South Asians leveraging their technical education and experience at MIT to contribute to India’s industrialization, which eventually became a driving force behind the struggle for independence from British colonial rule." - Sarah Syed 2024, Student Researcher