Universities as sites of nation-building: Rethinking the role of higher education in post-colonial state formation in India

This paper examines the role of universities in post-colonial nation-building, using India as a case. Moving beyond the conventional view of universities in postcolonial contexts as mere extensions of the developmental state, the paper argues for a decentralized understanding of their role in the process of nation-building. Drawing on the spatial turn in sociology, particularly Jeff Malpas’s conceptualization of place as a bounded yet dynamic opening shaped by intersecting forces, the paper conceptualizes universities as active, contested sites where meanings of nationhood, modernity, and identity are continuously constructed and negotiated. Through an analysis of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), established in 1962, the paper explores how this institution became a pivotal site for constructing a particular postcolonial vision of Indian modernity during the 1960s. Delving into the complex negotiations and the influence of diverse actors and stakeholders, the study traces how a specific sociotechnical imaginary of management science—blending American models with Indian modernization aspirations—was embedded in IIMA’s curriculum, selection processes, and campus design. By foregrounding universities as co-producers of national imaginaries rather than passive instruments of state policy, this paper underscores the importance of recognizing the agency of universities in nation-building processes.