Today, Bengaluru is widely associated with science, technology, research and startups. But in the late 1800s, when Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata began working on his plan for a world-class research institution in India, the city was hardly the obvious choice. Bengaluru was a small city with limited academic traditions, frequent famines and serious public-health problems.Yet more than a century ago, it emerged as the home of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), an institution that would later play a major role in India’s scientific and industrial development.
Bengaluru was not the first choice
Tata’s plan for an institution dedicated to higher education and scientific research took shape in the 1890s. In 1898, he set up a 23-member Provisional Committee headed by educationist Burjorji Padshah to work out a detailed scheme. The committee consulted 76 people on where the proposed institution should be located.A majority favoured Bombay because of its industrial activity, wealth and civic importance. Other places considered included Calcutta, Poona, Coonoor, Nainital, Allahabad, Bengaluru and Roorkee. Bombay was also Tata’s hometown.Bengaluru, meanwhile, was still recovering from the effects of the Anglo-Mysore wars. Its Cantonment was expanding, partly because British soldiers favoured the city’s climate, while the more crowded local settlement, or “pete”, faced recurring famines. In 1898, the city was also at the centre of a plague epidemic.
A promise of land changed the equation
In early 1899, Tata travelled through South India and stopped in Bengaluru, where he met Seshadri Iyer, the Dewan of Mysore State. Iyer wanted Mysore to use science and technology to improve the lives of its people and had previously expressed support for a university in Bengaluru.This time, the offer was concrete. Mysore State would provide about 300 acres of land and contribute towards the cost of constructing the university if it was located in Bengaluru.The location remained contested. Bombay had strong public support, but the city was a crowded island where finding land for such a large institution was difficult. Its high humidity was also considered unsuitable for books and scientific equipment.Bengaluru offered something different: a favourable climate and the support of the Mysore Durbar in the form of land and money.
A Nobel laureate backed Bengaluru
The Government later asked the British chemist Sir William Ramsay to help give shape to the project and recommend a location. Ramsay, who would win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904, visited several cities during a nearly three-month tour of India.He was strongly impressed by Bengaluru. In his report, he highlighted its accessibility from Bombay and Madras, its proximity to mineral deposits such as iron ore and gold, and its access to a promising source of electric power at Shivanasamudra Falls.Ramsay also praised the city’s climate, describing it as temperate for most of the year. He considered its relative lack of distractions an advantage over larger cities such as Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. But the land and financial commitments offered by Mysore were ultimately crucial to the case for Bengaluru.
Roorkee emerged as a last-minute rival
Even after Bengaluru appeared to have won the location battle, the decision was not completely settled.A government-appointed committee headed by Colonel John Clibborn and David Orme Masson revisited the proposal in 1901. The two examined Bengaluru and Roorkee and concluded that Roorkee would be preferable if it could secure the necessary land and financial support.The suggestion, however, did not receive the patronage needed to establish the proposed institute there. Meanwhile, Mysore Durbar formally strengthened its commitment to Bengaluru, promising 371 acres and 11 guntas of land, Rs 5 lakh towards capital expenditure and an annual contribution of Rs 50,000.
IISc finally came to Bengaluru in 1909
The formalities took years, partly because of bureaucratic delays and also because Tata died in 1904. Finally, on May 27, 1909, the Government of India issued the vesting order that brought the Indian Institute of Science into existence in Bengaluru.The institute opened its doors to students in 1911 with 24 students and two academic departments: General and Applied Chemistry, and Electrical Technology.The institute’s early research was closely connected to industrial development. Under the influence of Sir M Visvesvaraya, researchers worked on studies of immediate importance to the country. IISc says six factories were established in less than five years as a direct result of investigations carried out there, including factories for acetone, thymol, straw boards, soap and sandalwood oil.
The institute helped shape India’s scientific institutions
IISc expanded considerably in the decades that followed. During World War II, it trained personnel, manufactured military and industrial goods and worked with Hindustan Aircraft Limited to repair and maintain British and American warplanes. New engineering departments, including Aeronautical Engineering, Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering, emerged during the 1940s.Under director Satish Dhawan in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, its research expanded into areas including materials science, computer science and automation, molecular biophysics and interdisciplinary studies.Its former students and faculty included Homi J Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, Anna Mani, Kamala Sohonie and CNR Rao. The institute also played a role in the creation of other academic and scientific institutions and organisations.
From an unlikely location to Bengaluru’s science identity
IISc has since expanded into new areas including brain research, nanoscience and engineering and hypersonics, while also developing industry links and incubating startups. Its campuses now include a 1,500-acre facility at Challakere in Chitradurga district.The contrast with Bengaluru of the 1890s is striking. The city that Tata’s committee considered alongside established centres such as Bombay, Calcutta and Poona eventually became home to an institution that helped shape India’s scientific and technological landscape.What began as a difficult decision over where to establish a new research institution ultimately became one of the defining chapters in Bengaluru’s emergence as a centre for science and technology.
