Technical Institutes in Colonial India Kala Bhavan, Baroda (1890-1990) Dhruv Raina S Irfan Habib Technical institutes set up in the native states in colonial India did not offer engineering degrees as did the universities, but only turned out a generation of middle and lower rung technicians. With the Presidency towns serving as metropolises, the native states became the provinces, reflecting the hierarchisation of the distribution of knowledge as well as power THE three jewels in the imperial crown, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, had acquired universities by the 1870s.1 By 1887, Punjab and Allahabad had also acquired university status. The story of the native Indian states is, however, quite different. In their case the project of modernisation had to be undertaken not through imperial structures in alliance with local elites, but at the initiative of the native elites and ruling classes themselves. The process was in turn catalysed, among other factors, by the demand for an emerging class of literates and professionals. Thus it is of interest to investigate the founding of a technical institute in the native state of Baroda in 1890. This interest docs not merely rest in commemorating the centenary of the event as institutional history, but of identifying one more modality for the introduction of modern sciences in 19th century India.
