Engineering India, colonial and post-colonial period – ENGIND

The diversity and specific expertise of the ENGIND team, which brings together sociologists, historians, and specialists in both South Asia and Europe in addition to Indian and French scholars, reflects one of its main scientific goals: to examine models of industrialization and social change, which are primarily derived from the Western experience.
The analysis will be conducted through case studies, which geographically cover the major part of India. Given the size of the object, we can not pretend to be exhaustive but while choosing our various research topics, we took care to favour either very representative sectors of the profession or thematic entries that allow us to articulate occupational group study and analysis of evolutions in Indian society (such as gender, religious minorities, etc.).
The idea is to conduct simultaneously quantitative analysis (to identify evolution or inertia in the social composition of each group studied, etc.) and qualitative analysis (on the ethos, “esprit de corps”, politicisation, etc.) in order to ascertain the role played by this profession in the social and economic changes of the country.
However, given that we are dealing with a largely unexplored field, where knowledge still needs to be consolidated, we intend to focus, on the first instance, on qualitative approaches common to all researchers involved, whatever their discipline. Rather than immediately conducting quantitative studies based necessarily on imported variables, we aim through the qualitative approach to identify processes and to build an analytical framework, which would takes into account the specificities of the Indian context.
The sources used will be manifold and largely untapped. Besides the oral interviews with different categories of agents, we intend to consult a large range of already identified documents: archives of the training institutions, professional associations, alumni associations, engineering journals, administrative reports, etc.

Data collection and management have been the main focus of the research team. As of now, 52 weeks have been spent on the field.

Ethnographic work has been undertaken in seven cities, both in North (New Delhi, Kanpur, Dehra Dun, Kota) and South India (Nagpur, Trivandrum, Bangalore). Three main topics have been covered by the different studies:
- Engineers at work
- Evolution of engineering educational sector
- Social mobility and career analysis of graduates from elite engineering institutions

Two complementary research directions have been investigated in a historical perspective: the study, first, of the qualified personnel the Public Works Department of the Bombay Presidency, and second, of the private sector’s engineers in Calcutta. These two studies cover the same period, from 1880 to 1950. Archive collection has been undertaken in eight centres both in India and in Great Britain.

A large amount of empirical data has been collected: archival materials, official reports, Alumni yearbooks, 171 interviews, 700 questionnaires, etc. Part of this data is being qualitatively analysed. Moreover, seven databases have been constituted. Two focus on the social characteristics and career paths of the Bombay Public Works Department’s engineers both during the colonial and the contemporary areas. Three other databases document the CEO (mostly engineering graduates) of the largest Indian IT companies. Finally, through the analysis of two other databases, the social and educational characteristics of a sample of 700 coaching centres students will be assessed, as well as the career paths of the professors of engineering at IIT Kanpur.

We intend to develop empirical knowledge in three areas of study :
1- Dynamics between the engineering profession and the Indian social stratification. In this field, we will examine the connections between the profession’s rapid development and how the stratification of the Indian society has evolved. Have the institutionalization of the profession since the late nineteenth century and the discrimination policies of the new independent state favored a degree of social mobility for certain underprivileged groups (Dalits, women, etc.)?
2 - Role played by the engineering profession in the economic development of India, and especially in the state economic policies. This second line of inquiry explores the role of engineers in India’s economic development. How did they contribute to the emergence of development policies immediately following Independence? What positions do they occupy in the industrial sector and within the state?
3- Labour market globalisation, group re-composition and models of professional organization. This final area of study concerns the changes facing the profession in the context of a globalized job market. How have Indian engineers reacted to the arrival of highly qualified foreign manpower since the 1990s and the opening up of the country’s economy to competition? What is the impact of international mobility, especially the return of Indian engineers who spent time working abroad, on how the profession is organized in India?
The dissemination strategy will be implemented through three main types of publication: an edited volume in English containing the results of our empirical and theoretical work, a special issue of an international journal tackling the more theoretical aspects of the research based in particular on the comparative perspective and the creation of a virtual exhibition on the web, as an attractive and accessible interface for the general public.

Roland Lardinois and P. Vignesh Illavarasam, Le secteur des technologies de l’information et de la communication en Inde, Les études de l’emploi cadre, n° 2014-07, February 2014, Association pour l’emploi des cadres, Paris, 142 pages.
cadres.apec.fr/Emploi/Observatoire-de-l-emploi/Les-etudes-Apec-par-thematique/Region-et-international2/Secteur-des-TIC-et-informaticiens-en-Inde

Roland Lardinois (to be published) « L’espace social des écoles d’ingénieurs en Inde. Entre l’État et le marché », in : Derouet, A. et Paye, S. (Eds.) Les ingénieurs : unité, expansion, fragmentation, XIXe et XXe siècles. Tome 1 : La production d’un groupe social. Collection « Histoire des techniques », Paris : Classiques Garnier.

Today, the engineering profession, more than any other, seems to embody the transformations which affect contemporary India. It simultaneously symbolizes the rise of the hypothetical « middle classes » and the positioning of India as an emerging power in the international job market, since the country has become one of the preferred destinations of large technological firms. Each year, India awards 3,50,000 engineering degrees.
Such figures and the current technological power of the country can only be understood from a historical perspective, particularly by revisiting the period of colonial domination. Thus India appears to be a unique case, the British having opened Engineering Colleges since 1840 there, whereas the emergence of a complete system of technical education was achieved in Britain only around 1914. Local manpower, thus trained, was expected to contribute to the exploitation of the colony. Soon after Independence, the economic and social development of the country was perceived as being largely dependent on the mastery of technology. One of the priorities of authorities became to facilitate the training of highly qualified manpower which was assigned a central role in the implementation of development programs elaborated under the aegis of economic planning of the years 1950-1970, and especially during the “green revolution”.
In spite of the position that engineers have held and still hold in the economy and social structure of the country they have been largely neglected by the scholarship. The ENGIND project proposes to fill this empirical lacuna, by analysing the role played by this group in the construction of modern India in a socio-historical perspective. Three main questions will direct this study. The first will look into the interlinkages between the rapid development of the profession and the evolution of the stratification of the Indian society. Have the institutionalisation of the profession since the end of the XIXth century and the discrimination policies of the new independent state favoured a certain degree of social mobility for some underprivileged groups (Dalits, women, etc.)? How are the inequalities, especially the gendered inequalities – translated within the profession? The second axis of enquiry will analyse the role played by the engineers in the economic development of the country. What was their involvement in the emergence of development policies immediately after Independence? What positions do they occupy in the industrial sector and within the State? These questions aim at understanding the national specificities of capitalist development in India since the colonial era. Finally, the last axis will study the re-composition of the professional group in the context of the globalization of the job market. How have Indian engineers reacted to the arrival of highly qualified foreign manpower since the 1990s and the opening up of the country’s economy to competition? What is the impact of international mobility on the organisation of the profession in India and especially the return of a fraction of engineers who had previously worked abroad? We need to undertake a long term study of the different types of logic of national market protection mainly implemented by the State and the professional associations inherited from the colonial period and their present day limitations.
The composition of the ENGIND team, which brings together sociologists and historians, specialists of South Asia and of Europe, Indian and French scholars, reflects one of its scientific ambitions: to review, through the Indian case, the models of industrialisation and social change, which have been derived largely from the historical experience of the West.