Indian Statistical Institute: Autonomous and Important

Abstract

The case history of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is illustrative of several dynamics that are at play within the Indian higher education system. First, it was an Indian initiative in the colonial era that was not imitative of any pre-existing model. Before Mahalanobis and ISI, statistics did not exist as a separate academic discipline in the country. ISI not only initiated the teaching and research of statistics in India, it also put India on the global map of excellence for this discipline. Second, ISI illustrates the difficulty of creating ‘Centres of Excellence’ within the conventional university system. ISI started its life as the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Calcutta, yet achieved its eminence only after it was spun off from the parent. This datum is treated as one without any relevance in existing accounts of the history of the Institute, yet it becomes pregnant with significance when one is specifically investigating the causal events that have led to the specific nature of the present university system—what it does and perhaps more importantly what it does not. Third, the history of the Institute also explains, in part, the emergence of ‘autonomous’ institutes that reside outside of the mainstream university system but those that have degree-granting powers. Autonomous institutes in India (couple of other institutes of this nature have been discussed in the next chapter) are a complex genre to comprehend. Generally, they are more in the nature of technical institutes that have been deliberately kept out of the mainstream university system by policymakers for a variety of reasons. Autonomous institutes are also typically the loci of the Centres of Excellence in India ranking higher up in various league tables compared to mainstream universities in research and reputation.