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Oct 03 2026
Should the IITs have humanities departments at all?
Overview
The Swarajya article “Should the IITs Have Humanities Departments at All?” examines the history and expansion of Humanities and Social Sciences departments across the Indian Institutes of Technology. It considers whether the growth of humanities programmes has strengthened the IITs’ academic mission or diverted limited resources from their established expertise in engineering and science.
The article argues that humanities departments at the IITs tend to produce their strongest results when their teaching and research remain closely connected to technology, engineering and science. It also examines how global university rankings, the Institutions of Eminence scheme and the National Education Policy encouraged the IITs to become more multidisciplinary.
Details
Article: Should the IITs Have Humanities Departments at All?
Publication: Swarajya
Author: Nishtha Anushree
Estimated reading time: Nine minutes
Central question: The article considers whether IITs should maintain independent humanities departments and degree programmes or primarily use the humanities to complement engineering and scientific education.
Immediate context: The discussion resurfaced following protests over the death by suicide of a second-year BTech student at IIT Bombay and allegations of caste discrimination.
Debate over departments: Some critics demanded that humanities departments across the IITs be closed, while others argued that the principal issue concerns how these departments are managed rather than whether they should exist.
Long institutional history: Humanities and Social Sciences are not recent additions to the IIT system. IIT Kharagpur established its HSS department in 1951, while IIT Kanpur followed in 1960. IIT Bombay and IIT Madras also created departments during their early years.
Original function: For several decades, humanities units operated mainly as service departments. They taught compulsory subjects such as English, economics and philosophy to engineering students.
Doctoral research: From the 1970s onward, the departments also supervised doctoral research, although they did not initially have their own undergraduate or postgraduate taught programmes.
Expansion into degree programmes: The model began changing in 2005 when IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur introduced integrated economics programmes.
IIT Madras initiative: In 2006, IIT Madras introduced integrated master’s programmes in English and development studies, extending humanities education beyond service courses.
Institutions of Eminence scheme: The expansion accelerated after the University Grants Commission introduced the Institutions of Eminence framework in September 2017.
Scheme objectives: The programme offered greater autonomy to selected institutions and financial support of up to ₹1,000 crore each for public institutions seeking to become globally competitive.
Multidisciplinary expectations: The guidelines encouraged institutions to become multidisciplinary, offer interdisciplinary courses and promote humanities research in frontier areas.
Ranking targets: The scheme aimed to help selected institutions enter the top 500 of major international university rankings within ten years and eventually reach the top 100.
Warning about expansion: The Institutions of Eminence selection committee cautioned that expanding beyond an institution’s core competence merely to appear multidisciplinary could weaken its established strengths.
Resource concerns: Former IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi argued that IITs could not easily become comprehensive universities without potentially diluting their advantages in engineering and science.
Alternative perspective: Other institutional leaders maintained that multidisciplinary teaching and research could improve the IITs’ global standing and broaden their academic contribution.
National Education Policy: The National Education Policy further encouraged higher-education institutions, including the IITs, to adopt multidisciplinary models.
IIT Bombay programmes: IIT Bombay introduced a Master of Public Policy programme in 2019 and an MA programme in 2022.
IIT Delhi programmes: IIT Delhi launched master’s programmes in economics and cognitive science in 2020, followed by an MA in culture, society and thought in 2024.
Other IIT initiatives: IIT Guwahati introduced an MA in liberal arts in 2022, while IIT Hyderabad launched an MA in health, gender and society.
Changes at IIT Madras: IIT Madras replaced its five-year integrated MA with two-year master’s programmes and increased the intake from 58 to 75 students.
Ranking outcomes: According to the article, the initial expansion of humanities and multidisciplinary programmes produced limited improvements in international rankings. Between the 2018 and 2023 QS rankings, IIT Delhi moved from 172nd to 174th, while IIT Bombay also experienced little progress.
Article’s position: The article suggests that humanities at the IITs may provide their greatest academic value when integrated with engineering, science and technology rather than developed mainly to satisfy ranking criteria.
Broader policy question: The debate concerns how IITs can provide students with a broad education while protecting the specialised technical strengths and institutional identity for which they were established.
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