History of Design in India

☝ History of Design in India ☝

Although the history of art is quite old in India, nobody properly holds faith in the history of design in India. There are different schools of thought for Indian design history. Before I am going to explain the different schools of thought for Indian design history, it's better to understand what's design. In this context, I came across a few interesting definitions of design. These are -

 "Design is the Design for the Design by a Design" 

The meanings of these four designs are different. The meaning of the first design is a scientific discipline. The second design refers to the plan. The third stands for product or service/software or intangible products. The fourth design means problem-solving processes. 

The design discipline can be defined as a highly interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field of study which amalgamates the arts, science, engineering, and technology. A good designer is a good thinker and a problem solver who has both imagination and logical/analytical capabilities.  Thus. the design is also referred to imaginative and analytical abilities. 

Most of the designers believe that formal design education started with the establishment of the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. The NID Ahmedabad initially followed the academic structure of BAUHAUS However, the human-centric work/job design has been started long back during British India under the discipline Work Physiology and Ergonomics, Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Another group of designers believes that design education was formally started by Sri Ravindranath Tegore during British Raj at Kala Bhavana (in 1919 through art movement and later in 1980 through textile and ceramics product planning), Visva Bharati, West Bengal, India. Their design culture is more artistic in nature. Later,  the NID Ahmedabad formally promoted design education under various craftsmanships in India. Then, at the DoD, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati; and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore; IDC, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have offered academically more structured and research-driven design education. In the meantime, the Ergonomics Laboratory of DIPAS, DRDO  started the practice of ergonomic design.  Other private colleges and universities (e.g. School of Design, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun) also have offered Design Degrees in the past 10-15 years. After a long time, now Govt. of India started recognizing the value of design education for the upliftment of the Indian economy, and advise to open design and innovation centers at different government and private academic institutes of India.