‘Nehru didn’t create IITs’: Govt advisor cites history, credits Modi for seven new campuses

Kanchan Gupta, Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, on Thursday claimed that India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, did not create the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). He argued that the origins of the premier engineering institutes predated Nehru’s role.

Gupta said Nehru should not be credited with establishing India’s first IIT and instead credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with expanding the network by setting up seven new IITs.

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“Should Jawaharlal Nehru be credited with setting up India’s first IIT, as is claimed by Nehruvian fantasists? NO. Should PM Modi be credited with setting up seven new IITs, taking the total to 23? YES,” Gupta wrote on X.

According to Gupta, “Nehru did not ‘create’ IITs. Nor did he set up India’s first IIT.” 

He said the idea of establishing Indian Institutes of Technology emerged in 1946, when a committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar prepared a blueprint for such institutions.

Gupta also credited former West Bengal Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy for establishing the first IIT in 1950 in Calcutta before it was shifted to Kharagpur on land owned by the West Bengal government. “IIT Kharagpur Act came six years later in 1956,” he said.

“IIT Kharagpur Act came six years later in 1956. Soviet Union set up IIT Powai; the US set up IIT Kanpur; West Germany set up IIT Madras (all of them with trade surplus and aid),” the senior advisor said, adding that the idea of setting up IITs took shape in 1946 with Humayun Kabir leading the way and the Nalini Ranjan Sarkar Committee preparing a report. “Extant records do not mention any role played by Nehru.”

What do official IIT records say?

According to the website of IIT Jodhpur, the idea for the IIT system did originate from recommendations made by the Nalini Ranjan Sarkar Committee.

The institute notes that the first IIT was founded at Kharagpur in May 1950 and that Nehru spoke at the first convocation of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, describing the institutes as essential for meeting India’s technological challenges. 

Official records show that five IITs were established during Nehru’s tenure as Prime Minister: IIT Kharagpur (1951), IIT Bombay (1958), IIT Madras (1959), IIT Kanpur (1959), and IIT Delhi (1961).

The Institutes of Technology Act was passed by Parliament in 1961, granting IIT Kharagpur the status of an institution of national importance and an autonomous university.

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How did the IIT network expand later?

The IIT system expanded significantly after Nehru’s era.

IIT Guwahati was established in 1994, while the University of Roorkee became IIT Roorkee in 2001. 

A major expansion followed a 2008 Cabinet decision that led to the creation of IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Jodhpur, IIT Patna and IIT Ropar in 2008, followed by IIT Indore and IIT Mandi in 2009.

Under the Modi government, five new IITs were established in Palakkad, Tirupati, Bhilai, Jammu, and Dharwad. In May last year, the Union Cabinet also approved the expansion of academic and infrastructure capacity at these newer IITs.

West Bengal and the first IIT

Gupta also linked the location of the first IIT to West Bengal’s industrial prominence in the 1950s.

“Why was the first IIT set up in West Bengal? Because in 1950s, West Bengal had the highest concentration of industry in India,” he said. He further argued that Nehru’s Freight Equalisation Policy weakened industry in West Bengal and eastern India, saying the state eventually became the “Disinherited State.”