POST-GRADUATE TRAINING AND RESEARCH : ARTS AND SCIENCES
I.-Introduction 1. Importance of Post-Graduate Training and Research. 2 Tradition of Scholarships in India.
II.-Post-Graduate Training 3. Training of Students for the M.A. and M.Sc. Degrees. 4. Present Position of the M.A. and. M. Sc. Degrees. 5. Weakness of the Present system. 6. Recommendations.
III.-Research 7. Position of Research at the Universities up to 1945. 8. Foundation of' Learned Societies. 9 Appraisal of the Present Position of University Research. 10. The Ph. D. Degree: (a) Arrangements for Training, (b) Selection of Students, (c) Selection of Subject, (d) Supervision and Facilities, (e) Requirements for the Award of the Degree, (f) Publication. 11. Research Fellowships. 12. The D. Litt. and D.Sc. Degrees. 13. Research by College and University Teachers.
IV.-Humanistic Research 14. Value of Humanistic Research. 15. Scope of Humanistic Research and Suggestions : (a) Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, Islamic and Iranian Studies,, (b) Philosophy and Religion, (c) History and Archaeology, (d) Fine Arts,, (e) Social Sciences.
V.-Scientific Research 16. Introduction. 17. Shortage of Scientific Man-Power. 18. Shortage of Teachers in Science. 19. "Primary " and "Secondary" Workers. 20. Recommendations of the Scientific Man-Power Committee and their Implementation. 21. Effects of Shortage of Teachers in Science. 22. Basic or Fundamental Research and Applied and Development Research. 23. Need for Increased Capital and Maintenance Grants for University Laboratories. 24. Expenditure of Maintenance Grants.
VI.-Marine Biological Stations 25. Present Position of Biological Teaching and Research. 26. Incomplete Teaching, Restricted Fields of Research and Economic Loss. 27. Mariner Biological Stations in Other Countries. 28. Schemes for Marine Biological Stations in India. 29. Suggested Measures.
VII.-Border Line Sciences 30. Newer Fields of Research.
VII.-31. Recommendations 140
I.-Introduction 1. Importance of Post-Graduate Training and Research-Human civilisation has derived great benefits from the efforts of specialists who have penetrated ever more deeply into the secrets of nature and the motives and processes of human behaviour, individual and social. To a constantly increasing extent modern life is the outcome of research. To quote Whitehead, "a progressive society depends on its inclusion of three groups : Scholars, discoverers, inventors". While the scholars rediscover the past and set before us ideals of wisdom, beauty and goodness, discoverers find out new truths, and inventors apply them to present needs. The universities are the chief agencies for producing these types of men who will fuse progressive activities into an effective instrument. Universities are responsible as much for extending the boundaries of knowledge as for the training of citizens: in fact, the advancement of knowledge is a necessary condition of the continued vitality of their teaching, for unless a study is rooted in research, it will die. Although the argument for research Must Test upon the broad basis of its value in the intellectual progress of mankind, in India research has become a practical necessity for the continued progessive growth of our national life-in a critical appraisal and conservation of the best in our ancient indigenous culture (arts, history, philosophy and literature) as well as in modernizing and improving our agriculture, industries and public health. In the Humanities, research concerns itself mainly with the past history of man-the history of his thought as well as of his experiences, the understanding of man as a whole and the integration of the past with the present; while in the Natural Sciences research takes the form of searching out the undiscovered properties of nature and their application to the material needs of mankind. Humanistic research increases our knowledge of human nature and enables us to form correct judgments. Faced as we are with difficult political and economic problems, on the correct solution of which the very existence of oar nation depends, we need all the equipment we can get from a sober evaluation of the ideal and material motives which influence human action as well as from a full acquaintance with economic laws and their working. As regards Natural Sciences and Technology, even the man in the street. appre- ciates the fruits of research when he makes use of an automobile, an aeroplane, the radio, the cinema, penicillin, and the refrigerator. The last War and the difficult post-war conditions have forced even our administrators to think of scientific research which can enable us to grow more food on land and harvest more of it from the sea, find substitutes for petrol and coal, produce better breeds of milch cattle, and conquer malaria, plague and other diseases.
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Most of the materially useful applications of science are ultimately based on hard, patient and disinterested work by thousands of scientific workers in the laboratories whose aim is to advance the frontiers of knowledge, without regard to whether their discoveries can be put to use immediately or later or never at all. This funda- mental research is primarily the concern of the universities and gene- rally precedes its application to human needs. It should be the aim of the universities as our national institutions to undertake research in as many branches of knowledge as possible, and to produce an army of trained research workers, who, by their studies, will not only set high standards of intellectual life in scholarship and scientific research, but will also actively advance the moral and material progress of our country. Training in research is equally valuable for administrators and men of affairs. An administrator imbued with the spirit of research will tackle a problem more thoroughly and with greater directness than one who has had no training in research. Advancement of knowledge is a duty primarily of teachers and it is for them to inspire their students with a spirit of inquiry by their own contributions to knowledge.
2. Tradition of Scholarship in India-A high standard of :Scholarship has been traditional in our country. Manu1 said that all the people of the world would come to this country to learn from her intellectuals the lessons of moral behaviour. This intellectual leadership seems to have deserted us. In this world of change, the intellectual rank of nations, like their material Prosperity, does not continue in the same state. A people which relaxes its efforts in any department, falls behind its neighbours in that department. How we fell behind the advanced nations of the world in the matter of learning and science, it is not necessary to inquire. We must make a sustained effort to raise ourselves up. Political liberation, among other things, is a means for intellectual liberation. A cultural renaissance is in progress to-day, and a keen interest in Natural Sciences has grown up in the last two or three generations. While a few individual teachers have been doing valuable work in different fields, and a few universities have organised provision for post- graduate study, a great majority have not developed systematically and adequately this essential side of academic work, either because the supply of qualified students is not sufficient to justify it, or because they feel that they are not adequately staffed and equipped for the purpose. Provision for advanced study must be recognised as an integral part of our academic system.
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II.-Post-Graduate Training 3. Training of Students for the M.A. and M.Sc. Degrees-The term "post-graduate training" in our country is applied to the training of students for the M.A. and M.Sc. degrees. It includes. advanced study of one special subject of an extensive and Intensive kind, which can only be undertaken by really capable students under the guidance of first-class teachers who have kept themselves abreast of the knowledge of their subject and have engaged themselves successfully in research. Since so much of our under-graduate teaching is still of a propaedeutic nature, serious academic work for Pass graduates will only be done for a considerable period at the M.A. or M.Sc. stage. At this stage a student must be trained in bard intellectual endeavour which must form an essential feature of any good higher education worth the name. The post-graduate classes are intended : (1) to train teachers for all levels of higher education, (2) to train experts for many services in the non-academic fields, such as Government industry, commerce, agriculture and public welfare, and (3) to train research personnel.
4. Present Position of the M.A. and M.Sc. Degrees-While a majority of our students leave the universities after taking their B.A. or B.Sc. pass degrees and take to a profession, quite a number proceed to take their M.A. and M.Sc. degrees in order to qualify themselves for teaching posts in intermediate and degree colleges and the universities, or to take up superior administrative appointments in commerce and industry, or to compete for all-India or provincial administrative services. A considerable number take up the M.A. course in one of the Arts subjects along with their studies in law. Generally a Pass graduate has to spend two years of further study be- fore he can get an M.A. or M.Sc. degree, while an Honours graduate, who has already spent three years for his Honours degree, qualifies for his M.A. or M.Sc. degree at most universities after only one year of study. Since most students are anxious to take their bachelor's degree in the shortest amount of time, the number of students taking an Honours degree in three years is relatively small. Some universities (e.g. Calcutta) award an honours B.A. or B.Sc. degree on only two years of work which is not quite satisfactory. The three years' Honours course has succeeded at some universities, specially at Madras and the Punjab, but at other places it has not attracted a large number of students and has not been so popular (e.g., Lucknow and Allahabad). The M.A. and M.Sc. courses show a good deal of varia- tion front university to University. At some places (e.g. Lucknow, Allahabad, Banaras, etc.) these courses are well organised and a Pass graduate has to attend regular lectures and seminars in Arts subjects and lecture and laboratory exercises in Science subjects
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for two years and has to pass one or two university examinations, before he gets his M.A. or M.Sc. degree. At other places (e.g., Bombay, except in social sciences) there is no organized teaching by way of lectures or laboratory work and the student is mostly left to fend for himself, with the result that he is neither well up in the fundamentals of his subject, nor does he get any proper training in methods of research. At one or two universities (e.g., Bombay and Travancore) we gathered that pass B.As. and B.Scs. were immediately given problems for research to work for their Master's degree; but most of the teachers themselves acknowledged that this arrangement was very unsatisfactory, both from the point of view of the student whose knowledge of the fundamentals of his subject always remained weak and who had to spend one or two years in mastering the methods and techniques of research, and from the standpoint of research itself, as the student's research was generally of an inferior quality and was more often a working up of his teacher's ideas and methods. Even the one year M.A. or M.Sc. course for the honours graduate varies at different universities : at some places the examination for it is based entirely on a thesis, at others only on papers, while at others on papers and a thesis combined. The common experience of teachers and examiners is that M.A. and M.Sc. thesis, produced in a few months, are generally incomplete or unsatisfactory and are seldom worthy of publication.
5. Weakness of the Present System-We have already emphasized the need for raising the standards of our first degrees (Chapter TV) and have recommended that both pass and honours courses for the B.A. and B.Sc. degrees should extend over a period of three years. Just as we are anxious to raise the standards of our first degree courses, we are equally anxious that the standards of our M.A. and M.Sc. degrees should be raised. The bounds of knowledge are, being extended at an impressive rate, but the time available for the student is limited. We believe that student who has taken an honours degree is not yet fully equipped for taking up a research problem on his own, much less is a pass graduate. These graduates need to carry on their studies to a further stage by regular instruction and to learn the methods of research. In Honours, courses we teach the students to learn facts and to think effectively about them. In the M.A. and M.Sc. courses we should train the students to take to careers of scholarship and research. At some institutions we were told that teachers were unwilling to prepare and deliver advanced lectures to the M.A. and M.Sc. classes and hence there was no organized teaching for these degrees. "Research had actually been introduced to cover up the void created by the failure to provide for advanced teaching by regular lectures and laboratory work."
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6. Recommendations-We, therefore recommend that there should be a certain uniformity in the regulations for the M.A. and M.Sc. degrees in all the universities. A pass graduate should study for at least two years and an honours graduate for at least one year for these degrees. Teaching should be properly organised by means of regular lectures, seminars and library work for the Arts students, and by the same course along with laboratory work for the Science students; it should include advanced training and the latest methods of research in the special subject of study so as to equip the student to be able to carry on independent investigations, but it should not include actual research. A candidate for the M.A. or M.Sc. degree should show a high degree of scholarship and achievement in his examination, which should be conducted by papers and a viva voce test, to be supplemented by a practical examination in science subjects.
Great care should be exercised in the admission of students to the M.A. and M.Sc. classes. The whole of the students' records from the high school to the B.A. and B.Sc. should be scrutinized before admitting them to this second degree course. There should be no manner of provincial restrictions in admissions, and the Government of India should make it a condition that no university shall receive a grant from them unless its admissions to these classes are made on merit alone and on an all-India basis. Emphasis should be placed on the capacity and quality of students and not on their number. These classes should be characterized by their small numbers and by the closest personal touch with the senior staff directing their studies. No one should teach these classes unless be has himself been a successful researcher in his subject.
III.- Research 7. Position of Research at the Universities up to 1945-As long as our universities were of an affiliating type, only a few individual scholars at isolated colleges conducted research on their own lines, sometimes with admirable results, and some of them deeply inspired their pupils for example, Sir R.G. Bhandarkar at Poona, Sir Ganganatha Jha at Allahabad, Professor Kuppuswami Sastri at Madras, Sir J.C. Bose and Sir P.C. Ray at Calcutta, Colonel J. Stephenson and Professor S.R. Kashyap at Lahore. Most of the research work in Sciences and Medicine was done by the scientific, services in the Government Research In- stitutions. But no organised attempt was made to train students in methods of research and to develop schools of research at any uni- versity. It was only in 1914 that Sir Asutosh Mookherjee founded the first post-graduate departments at the Calcutta University and placed post-graduate training and research there on a
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proper footing. Promising scholars from all parts of India were, appointed to professorial chairs and in a few years Calcutta had pro- duced research work of a high quality, both in the humanities and in the sciences and several of its professors won international recognition. After the first World War several new universities came into bieng: of these, the teaching universities started post-graduate training and research from their beginning, while some of the affiliating universities, new as well as old, started post-graduate departments in certain fields of study. These new schools attracted a number of young and promising teachers who organized research and raised the level of post-graduate teaching at several university centres. The degrees of Ph.D., D. Litt., and D.Sc. were instituted and were awarded to students on successful completion of their research es. In a few departments of some universities, the teaching staff came to consist largely of men with research degrees. A number of professors fulfilled their promise of leadership in research and their work brought them international recognition, like the Nobel Prize, the Fellowship of the British Academy, the Fellowship of the Royal Society, or the higher Doctorate Degrees of Oxford and Cambridge. It may rightly be said that both in quality and quantity the level of scientific research was at its best in Indian universities between the years 1920-1945. While before 1920 scientific research was mainly a monopoly of the scientific services, after 1920 the leadership in fundamental research in most of the sciences passed over largely to the universities. All this research activity was due to the hard work and enthusiasm of a few university professors, who bad to work with meagre grants, insufficient equipment and inadequate library facilities. There were practically no grants from the Central Government for fundamental research, although grants were given to a few university teachers by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for agricultural research and by the Indian Research Fund Association for medical research. Considering the handicaps under which these research workers in the universities have laboured, their record cannot but be called creditable.
The situation with regard to scientific research in the universities and research institutions was very well summarized by Dr. S. S. Bhatnagar in his report to the Empire Scientific Conference held tinder the auspices of the Royal Society in 1946 1
"Those familiar with the facilities provided by the modern laboratories in America or Britain would find it hard to understand the handicaps that beset the scientific worker in India at every step. Lack of equipment, lack of