India’s old computing wars offer a roadmap for future chips
Historian Dwaipayan Banerjee's new book explores the history of India's computing industry from the 1950s to the 1980s, focusing on the challenges of achieving technological self-reliance. The narrative details the rise and fall of indigenous projects and the complex relationship with global tech giants like IBM.
Why it matters
Understanding historical failures in domestic tech development provides critical context for India's current ambitions in semiconductor manufacturing.
In his new book Computing in the Age of Decolonization , MIT-based historian Dwaipayan Banerjee uncovers the overlooked history of India’s computing industry from the 1950s to the 1980s, and analyses why the efforts to build self-reliance failed.
The story unfolds at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), where scientists found computing to be integral to national sovereignty and built TIFRAC, an indigenous computer completed around 1960. While the postcolonial Indian state fully supported this flagship project, it did not cultivate an industry around it, leaving a weak domestic electronics base and technical talent concentrated in a handful of institutions.
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