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ABSTRACT
Through an analysis of Allahabad University’s functioning, this article argues that independent India’s ideas of federalism reimagined university education. New visions of the educated person – linked to ideas about the ideal citizen – changed the kinds of disciplines and universities being funded. With support from industrial elites to buttress the new nation-state’s development plans, the state prioritised technical education over arts and humanities to serve a unified economic policy. This change manifested through increased scrutiny over university functioning and crackdowns on student protests. The Indian postcolonial state’s “centralised” federalism to manage the national economy and promote national integration impacted university funding. Ultimately, decisions about university funding were tied to the state’s vision of the ideal apolitical citizen student, who would contribute to national development. This article highlights the complicated relationship between capital, the postcolonial nation-state, and university autonomy.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Dr Ramya Sreenivasan, Dr Lisa Mitchell, Dr Eve Troutt-Powell, Samuel Prithiv, Suyoung Kim, Senit Kidane, Julian Tash and Zoe Fallon for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article. The author also thanks the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. “Report of the Allahabad Enquiry Committee,” 143; “Statistical Abstract, 1912” 12.
2. “University of Allahabad Financial Crisis,” Times of India.
3. The meaning of centralised federalism will be discussed later in the paper.
4. Kumar, Political Agenda of Education; Viswanathan, Masks of Conquest; Basu, Essays in the History of Education in India; Seth, Subject Lessons; Rao, Beyond Macaulay; Kumar, Lessons from Schools.
5. Sherman, “Education in Early Postcolonial India”; Kumar, Political Agenda of Education.
6. Gautier, “A Laboratory for a Composite India?”
7. Basu, Essays in the History of Education in India; Rao, Beyond Macaulay.
8. Mamdani and Diouf, eds., Academic Freedom in Africa.
9. Rao, New Perspectives.
10. Blunt, “Census of India, 1911,” 261; “Statistical Abstract,” 120.
11. “Statistical Abstract,” 12.
12. Rawat, Reconsidering Untouchability.
13. Basu, Essays in the History of Education in India, 14.
14. Ibid., 20.
15. “No. 112,” 1; “No. 113,” 113.
16. Whitehead, “The Historiography,” 315–29.
17. Sinha, Spectres of Mother India, 22; Sarkar, Modern India, 12.
18. Roy, The Economic History of India.
19. Turner, “Census of India,” 450–75.
20. “No. 107,”10.
21. Whitcombe, Agrarian Conditions in Northern India.
22. Altbach, “The Transformation.”
23. Bayly, The Local Roots of Indian Politics.
24. Bhargava, Hundred Years of Allahabad University.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Bayly, The Local Roots of Indian Politics; Bhargava, Hundred Years of Allahabad University.
28. “University of Lucknow Act”; “The Allahabad University Act,” 51.
29. Roy, The Economic History of India.
30. Turner, “Census of India,” 30.
31. Bayly, The Local Roots of Indian Politics.
32. Ashutosh and Stuligross, “Ethnic Diversities.”
33. Tillin, “Building a National Economy.”
34. Ibid.
35. Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments.
36. Chibber, Locked in Place.
37. “University Commission,” Times of India.
38. “The Report of the University Education Commission.”
39. Rao, New Perspectives.
40. “The Report of the University Education Commission,” 404–35.
41. Ibid.
42. “Draft Constitution of India,” 189–97.
43. “The Constitution of India,” 30–40.
44. “Draft Constitution of India,” 38–43.
45. “Review of The First Five Year Plan,” 1–5.
46. Ibid., 1–5.
47. Rao, New Perspectives.
48. “Review of The First Five Year Plan,” 1–5.
49. “Lucknow University Request for Grant.”
50. Basu, Growth of Education; Bhattacharya, Contested; Sherman, Nehru’s India.
51. Kumar, Political Agenda of Education, 190–4.
52. Sherman, “Education in Early Postcolonial India.”
53. Rao, New Perspectives.
54. “The Report of the University Education Commission,” 502–98.
55. “Report of the Allahabad Enquiry Committee,” 176–86.
56. Karev, “Soviet Higher Education.”
57. Mamdani and Diouf, Academic Freedom in Africa.
58. “Report of the Allahabad Enquiry Committee,” 1.
59. Ibid., 1–20.
60. “The Allahabad University Act 1921.”
61. “Report of the Allahabad Enquiry Committee,” 2–150.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid.
64. Roosevelt, “March 26 1952.”
65. “Report of the Allahabad Enquiry Committee,” 150–200.
66. “The Report of the University Education Commission,” 150–200.
67. Ibid., 150–250.
68. Chakrabarty, “In the Name of Politics.”
69. “Report of the Allahabad Enquiry Committee,” 145.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid., 145–50.
72. “Renovation of Campus,” Times of India.
73. “Whose Union?” Times of India.
74. “Whose Union?”; “Genesis of Agitation,” Times of India.
75. Bhargava, Hundred Years of Allahabad University; “Genesis of Agitation.”
76. “Curfew,” Times of India; “Indiscipline,” Indian Express.
77. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography.
78. Wilkinson, “The Undisciplined Youth.”
79. “Discipline in Educational Institutions.”
80. Balibar, Violence and Civility.
81. “Discipline in Educational Institutions.”
82. Ibid.
83. Ibid.
84. “Greater Control over Varsity,” Times of India; Bhargava, Hundred Years of Allahabad University.
85. Bhargava, Hundred Years of Allahabad University; “NEWS FROM STATES,” Times of India; “University of Allahabad,” Times of India.
86. Bhargava, Hundred Years of Allahabad University.
87. “Jogendra Raj Kishore v. University of Allahabad.”
88. “Ram Chander Roy v. University of Allahabad.”
89. Bhargava, Hundred Years of Allahabad University.
90. Ibid.
91. Chibber, Locked in Place.
92. Mudaliar, “Report of the Banaras.”
93. “‘Embezzlement’ of Banaras,” Times of India.
94. Mudaliar, “Report of the Banaras,” 20–55.
95. “‘Banaras’ Varsity,” Times of India.
96. “‘Banaras’ Varsity Affairs,” Times of India; ‘“Banaras’ Varsity.”
97. Chatterji, “Report of the Aligarh,” 1–10.
98. “Aligarh Varsity Inquiry Committee,” Times of India.
99. Chatterji, “Report of the Aligarh,” 100.
100. “Remarks of the University.”
101. “Improving Aligarh Varsity’s Affairs,” Times of India.
102. Chakrabarty, “In the Name of Politics.”
103. Gautier, “A Laboratory for a Composite India?”
104. Subramanian, Caste of Merit.
105. Ibid.
106. Mody, India is Broken.
107. “Annual Report of 1962,” 20–7.
108. Ibid., 20–87.
109. “Question of Placing University.”
110. Ibid.
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Nainika Dinesh
Nainika Dinesh is a second year PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania and is interested in the history of education in India, particularly studying the construction of the “educated person” in colonial India and examining private initiatives in expanding education.