Exporting MIT: Science, technology, and nation-building in India and Iran

Osiris

Volumn 21, Issue , 2006, Pages 110-130

  Leslie, Stuart W ^a   Kargon, Robert ^a  

^a JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33748581951     PISSN: 03697827     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/507138     Document Type: Article

References (130)

1. Gordon Brown, Norman Dahl, C. H. Norris et al. to J. A. Stratton, Oct. 27,1960, Box 5 f.218, Gordon S. Brown Papers, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. (hereafter cited as MIT MC 24).
2. AnnaLee Saxenian, Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Cambridge, Mass., 1994);
3. Susan Rosegrant and David Lampe, Route 128: Lessons from Boston's High Tech Community (New York, 1993);
4. and Alan Earls, Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech (Charleston, S.C., 2002).
5. For the postwar reform of the MIT curriculum, see Karl Wildes and Nilo Lindgren, A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT 1882-1982 (Cambridge, Mass., 1985). For the spread of engineering science across the United States,
6. see Bruce Seely, "Research, Engineering, and Science in American Engineering Colleges, 1900-1960," Technology and Culture 34 (1993): 344-86.
7. Gordon Brown to Carl Borgmann, July 15, 1959; Julius Stratton to Joseph McDaniel, Oct. 23, 1959, Box 23, f. "Ford Foundation," Julius A. Stratton Administrative, Records, 1957-1966, Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT (hereafter cited as MIT AC 134).
8. Gordon Brown, "The Engineering of Science," Technology Review 60 (July 1959): 19-22.
9. Michael Dennis, "'Our First Line of Defense': Two University Laboratories in the Postwar American State," Isis 85 (1994): 427-55.
10. Point Four: Cooperative Program for Aid in the Development of Economically Underdeveloped Areas (Washington, D.C., 1949), 95;
11. and Wilfred Malenbaum, "America's Role in Economic Development Abroad," Department of State Bulletin, Economic Cooperation series, 18-20 (1949): 1-6.
12. Michael E. Latham, Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and "Nation Building" in the Kennedy Era (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2000), charts the rise and fall of modernization theory through the Alliance for Progress, the Peace Corps, and the Strategic Hamlet Program in Vietnam. For an insider's look at CENIS,
13. see Walt Whitman Rostow, Eisenhower Kennedy, and Foreign Aid (Austin, 1985).
14. For a more critical perspective, Nils Gilman, Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America (Baltimore, 2003);
15. Allan A. Needell, "Project Troy and the Cold War Annexation of the Social Sciences,"
16. and Bruce Cumings, "Boundary Displacement: Area Studies and International Studies during and after the Cold War," in Universities and Empire: Money and Politics in the Social Sciences during the Cold War ed. Christopher Simpson (New York, 1998), 3-38, 159-88.
17. Andrew Rotter.. Comrades at Odds: The United States and India, 1947-1964 (Ithaca, 2000);
18. and M. Srinivas Chary, The Eagle and the Peacock: U.S. Foreign Policy toward India Since Independence (Westport, Conn., 1985).
19. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston, 1965), 437-40.
20. Rostow, Eisenhower Kennedy, and Foreign Aid (cit. n. 8).
21. George Rosen, Western Economists and Eastern Societies: Agents of Change in South Asia, 1950-1970 (Baltimore, 1985).
22. Deepak Kumar, Science and the Raj, 1857-1905 (New Delhi, 1995), 143.
23. Daniel Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1981)
24. idem, The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850-1940 (New York, 1988).
25. Arun Kumar, "Colonial Requirements and Engineering Education: The Public Works Department, 1847-1947," in Technology and the Raj, ed. Roy MacLeod and Deepak Kumar (New Delhi, 1995), 216-32.
26. L. M. Krishnan, "Memories of MIT, 1936-1939," MIT Review (April 1995): 24-5.
27. Kim Patrick Sebaly, "The Assistance of Four Nations in the Establishment of the Indian Institutes of Technology, 1945-1970" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan, 1972), 12-28, provides the best early history of the IITs and the discussions surrounding MIT as the model for Indian technical education. Ross Bassett has begun a comprehensive study of the IITs.
28. See Bassett, "Facing Two Ways: The Indian Institute of Technology Kampur, American Technical Assistance, and the Indian Computing Community, 1961-1980," unpublished paper, Society for the History of Technology, Minneapolis, Nov. 5, 2005.
29. Sudrid Sankar Chattopadhyay, "Kharagpur's Legend," Frontline, April 27-May 12, 2002, http://www.flonnet.com/fl1909/19090840.htm; Gyan Prakash, Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India (Princeton, 1999), suggests that Nehru's nationalist strategy of centralized planning and state-sponsored industrialization should be understood as a search for "a different modernity," learning from the West, as well as from the Soviets, but rooted in older, indeed ancient, indigenous traditions.
30. Gyan Prakash, Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India (Princeton, 1999), suggests that Nehru's nationalist strategy of centralized planning and state-sponsored industrialization should be understood as a search for "a different modernity," learning from the West, as well as from the Soviets, but rooted in older, indeed ancient, indigenous traditions.
31. Suvarna Rajguru and Ranjan Pant, IIT: India's Intellectual Treasures (Rockville, Md., 2003), 52-3.
32. Brown et at. to Stratton (cit. n. 1).
33. Max Millikan to Julius Stratton, Aug. 26, 1960, and Henry Heald to Julius Stratton, Aug. 19, 1960, MIT AC 134, 23/8 4.
34. Henry T. Heald to Julius A. Stratton, Aug. 19, 1960, Box 23, f. 8, AC 134.
35. Norman Dahl, "The Collaborative Program at the Indian Institute of Technology/Kanpur," Kanpur Indo-American Program, Final Report, 1962-1972, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Kanpur Indo-American Program, Box 1 (hereafter cited as MIT AC 334).
36. W. W. Buechner, Norman Dahl, and Louis Smullin to Julius Stratton, Feb. 13,1961, MIT AC 134, 8/4.
37. Dahl, "The Collaborative Program" (cit. n. 22), 8.
38. Norman Dahl, "The Kanpur Indo-American Program," Technology Review 67 (June 1965): 22.
39. Bob Halfman to Norman Dahl, Dec. 1, 1963, MIT AC 134, Box 23, folder 8.
40. "Eighth Semi-Annual Progress Report, 1965," MIT AC 334, Box 1.
41. Norman Dahl to KIAP Steering Committee, Sept. 12, 1962, MIT AC 134, Box 23, folder 8.
42. Robert Halfman to KIAP Steering Committee, Sept. 28, 1966, MIT AC 134, Box 1, folder "Steering Committee Minutes 1966."
43. "Report from the Fourth Five Year Plan," Nov. 1966, MIT AC 334, Box 2, folder "Fourth Five Year Plan."
44. Rajguru and Pant, IIT (cit. n. 18), 30.
45. Robert McMahon, Cold War on the Periphery: The United States, India, and Pakistan (New York, 1994);
46. and Dennis Kux, The United States and Pakistan, 1947-2000: Disenchanted Allies (Washington, D.C., 2001).
47. Shepperd Brooks to KIAP Steering Committee, Jan. 12, 1968, Kanpur Indo-American Program, Records, 1961-1972, MIT AC 334, Box 1, folder "Steering Committee."
48. Dorothy Nelkin, The University and Military Research: Moral Politics at M.I.T. (Ithaca, 1972).
49. Burton Newbry to Shepperd Brooks, Nov. 26, 1968, MIT AC 334, Box 1.
50. "KIAP Summary Report, Sept. 5-6, 1961," MIT AC 134, Box 23, folder 8.
51. "KIAP Seventh Progress Report," MIT AC 334, Box 1.
52. "KIAP Fourth Progress Report," MIT AC 334, Box 1.
53. "KIAP Final Report, 1962-1972," MIT AC 334, Box 1.
54. "Report Prepared for the Fourth Five-Year Plan," Nov. 1966, MIT 84-59/2. Norman Dahl, "Revolution on the Ganges," Technology Review 69 (April 1967): 17.
55. Dahl, "The Collaborative Program" (cit. n. 22), 29.
56. Ibid., 114-5.
57. J. J. Huntzicker, "Terminal Report," Jan. 1972, MIT AC 334, Box 1.
58. P V. Indiresan and N. C. Nigam, "The Indian Institutes of Technology: Excellence in Peril," in Higher Education Reform in India, ed. Suma Chitnis and Philip G. Albach (New Delhi, 1993),334-63.
59. Subhash Rele, "The Success Story of the Birlas," Industrial Times of India, Nov. 13, 1972, 4-9.
60. Medha M. Kudaisya, The Life and Times of G. D. Birla (New Delhi, 2003), 393.
61. James Killian to G. D. Birla, Jan. 19, 1962, MIT AC 134, 6/12 2;
62. Thomas Drew to James Killian, Feb. 1, 1962, James Killian to Thomas Drew, Feb. 9, 1962, MIT Corporation, Office of the Chairman, Institute Archives and Special Collections, AC 125, Box 5, folder 35.
63. Thomas Drew to G.D. Birla, Aug. 14, 1962, MIT 85-27, 5/35.
64. John Krige, "The Ford Foundation, European Physics, and the Cold War," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 26 (1999): 333-61, provides a thoughtful analysis of Ford's strategy in Europe.
65. Douglas Ensminger, "Why Did the Ford Foundation Get Involved in Training Five Hundred of India's Young Engineers in Steel Making?" April 24, 1972, Oral History, Ford Foundation Archives, New York City (hereafter cited as FF), section B9, 1-6.
66. Douglas Ensminger to George Gant, March 29, 1962, FF 0926/64-482/4.
67. George Grant to Douglas Ensminger, April 5, 1962, FF 0926/64-482/4.
68. Raymond Ewell to G. D. Birla, May 14, 1963, FF reels RR 0926/grant number 64-482 4.
69. Thomas Drew, "Project for Assistance to the Birla Institute of Technology and Science at Pilani, India," July 11, 1964, MIT MC 24, 13.
70. Gordon Brown to Edwin Gilliland, Aug. 5, 1964, MIT AC 134, 6/19 2.
71. Norman Dahl, Robert Halfman, and Louis Smullin to Gordon Brown, Aug. 21, 1964, MIT MC 24, 13/521.
72. Gordon Brown to Norman Dahl, Robert Halfman, and Louis Smullin, Aug. 26, 1964, MIT AC 134, 6/19 2.
73. Eugene Saletan to Gordon Brown, Nov. 13, 1967, FF Report # ED 67-23.
74. Louis Smullin to Gordon Brown, March 28, 1966, MIT AC 134, 6/19.
75. Thomas Drew to Members of the BITS Advisory Committee, Dec. 6, 1965, Arthur T. Ippen Papers, Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT MC 11 IPPEN, Box 5, folder Gen. Correspondence.
76. William Schrieber to Julius Stratton, May 7, 1966, MIT MC 24, 13/521.
77. Howard Dressner to McGeorge Bundy, May 29, 1968, FF 4265 680/1.
78. Douglas Ensminger, Oral History (cit. n. 50), 92-4.
79. C. R. Mitra, "A Note on Practice School Programme," April 6, 1974, FF 4264/680 5.
80. "BITS-MIT-Ford Foundation Report, 1964-1974," FF 5175/680 3.
81. N. N. Sachitanand, "Pilani: Educational Paradise in the Desert," Hindu Weekly, Jan. 21, 1972, MIT MC 24, 15/591.
82. "BITS-MIT-Ford Foundation Report" (cit. n. 65).
83. John Sommer to Harry Wilhelm, April 2, 1971, FF 4264/680.
84. Charles McVicker, "BITS Grant Supplement Meeting," FF 0926/64-482 4.
85. Barry Rubin, Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience and Iran (New York, 1980), 149-51.
86. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, former chancellor of the Aryamehr Univ. of Technology, interview by authors, Sept. 4, 1996.
87. Gordon Brown to George Bugliarello, Feb. 4, 1972, MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 232.
88. Gordon Brown, "Goals," n.d., MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 244; and Arthur D. Little Co., "Functional Master Plan for the Isfahan Campus," Oct. 1972, MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 233, 38-44.
89. and Arthur D. Little Co., "Functional Master Plan for the Isfahan Campus," Oct. 1972, MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 233, 38-44.
90. Arthur D. Little Co., "Functional Master Plan" (cit. n. 73), 38.
91. Seyyed Hossein Nasr Foundation, http://www.nasrfoundation.org/bios.html.
92. Nasr interview (cit. n. 71).
93. James Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations (New Haven, 1988), provides a good overview of the White Revolution and its consequences.
94. Brown to Bugliarello (cit. n. 72).
95. Arthur D. Little Co., "Functional Master Plan" (cit. n. 73), iv-v, 38.
96. Hossein Nasr to Jerome Wiesner, April 19, 1973, MIT 85-12, 27/Iran.
97. Gordon Brown to Jerome Wiesner, March 31, 1973, MIT 85-12, 27/Iran.
98. Jerome Wiesner, Memorandum to Academic Council, June 20, 1974, MIT MC 24 6/215.
99. An Agreement for a Program of Collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Aryamehr University of Technology, June 19, 1974, MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 244.
100. I. H. Henry to James Killian, William Pounds, Gordon Brown et al., Jan. 15, 1975, MIT 81-27, 21/Kuwait.
101. Jerome Wiesner to Hossein Nasr, July 8, 1974, MIT 85-12, 27/Iran - Oceanography Project.
102. Jerome Wiesner to Walter Netsch, Jan. 23, 1975, MIT 85-12, 26/Iran (2);
103. A. H. Meyer to James Killian, Dec. 22, 1974, MIT 85-27, 21/Kuwait.
104. M. C. Flemings, "Summary and Current Status, MIT Project for the Shiraz Technical Institute, Shirza, Iran," Jan. 4, 1979, MIT 85-12, 26/Iran.
105. Jerome Wiesner to Hossein Nasr, March 7, 1975, Jerome Wiesner Papers, MIT Archives and Special Collections, MIT 85-12, Box 27, folder Iran - Energy (hereafter cited as MIT 85-12).
106. K. F. Hansen to Alfred Keil, Jan. 23, 1975, MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 243.
107. Manson Benedict to Jerome Wiesner, Feb. 5, 1975, MIT 85-12, Box 26, folder Iran (3).
108. "Debate Over Iran in Nuclear Engineering Department," MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 243.
109. Joseph Weizenbaum, "Selling MIT: Bombs for the Shah," The Tech, March 7, 1975, 1; and The Tech, April 15, 1975, 5.
110. Gordon Brown to Joseph Weizenbaum, March 28, 1975, MIT MC 24, 6/243.
111. Joseph Weizenbaum to Gordon Brown, April 1, 1975, MIT MC 24, 6/243.
112. George Rathjens to Walter Rosenblith, March 21, 1975, MIT 85-12, Box 27, folder Iran - Nuclear Engineering.
113. Pat Bevans to Ed Porter, "Draper Laboratory Educational Program for Iran," June 18, 1974, MIT 85-12, Box 26, folder Iran (4).
114. Nathan Sivin to Jerome Wiesner, Feb. 26, 1974, MIT 85-12, Box 27 (hereafter cited as MIT AC 12).
115. Jerome Wiesner to Nathan Sivin, March 5, 1974, MIT 85-12, Box 27.
116. Osgood Nichols to Jerome Wiesner, June 2, 1975, MIT 85-12, Box 27, folder Iran.
117. Nasr interview (cit. n. 71).
118. Sharif University of Technology Association, http://suta.org/.
119. Farhad Khowrokhavar, with Shapour Etemad and Masoud Mehrabi, "Report on Science in Post-Revolutionary Iran - Part 1: Emergence of a Scientific Community?" Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 13 (Summer 2004): 209-24, provides the best overview of science under the revolution.
120. Mehdi Zarghamee, interview by authors, Sept. 12, 1996.
121. http://www.sharif.ac.ir/en/research/.
122. http://www.iut.ac.ir/.
123. http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/facility/esfahan.htm.
124. Gordon Brown to Charles Goshen, Jan. 26, 1972, MIT MC 24, Box 5, folder 175.
125. Gordon Brown to Roger Malek, Dec. 29, 1971, MIT MC 24, Box 6, folder 232.
126. Rajguru and Pant, IIT (cit. n. 18), 6.
127. Sandipan Dep, The IITians: The Story of a Remarkable Indian Institution and How Its Alumni Are Reshaping the World (New Delhi, 2004), 8, 57. Dep, an IIT-Kharagpur graduate, tracks the careers of many of the most successful IIT graduates and offers some shrewd insights into the strengths and limitations of the IIT experience.
128. AnnaLee Saxenian, Local and Global Networks of Immigrant Professionals in Silicon Valley (San Francisco, 2002), based on an extensive Internet survey, is the best study of the Indian (and Taiwanese) high-tech community in Silicon Valley.
129. Dep, The IITians (cit. n. 110), 310-7.
130. http://www.parstimes.com/news/archive/2004/rfe/brain_drain.html.