Remembering V. Rajaraman, a tireless evangelist of computer education in India

Among the few sectors of science and technology in which India has done remarkably well is software programming and services. Computer programming that started in a small way in academic institutions in the 1960s developed into a formidable industry within a few decades. This became possible due to the rapid spread of programming skills, even before full-fledged graduate and postgraduate courses in computer science were introduced.

These efforts were pioneered at IIT-Kanpur under Vaidyeswaran Rajaraman (1933-2025). His contributions to this field are so immense that there’s hardly any computer programmer who has not read a textbook penned by him. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1998 in recognition of this efforts. He passed away on November 8.

Prof. Rajaraman began his career at a time when computers had to be designed, fabricated, and programmed for specific purposes. As a young student of electrical communication engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, in the mid-1950s, he happened to work on a project to design an analogue computer led by Vincent C. Rideout, a visiting professor from the University of Wisconsin. Rideout had brought with him components, sub-assemblies, and operational amplifiers to fabricate the computer, which was later named the ‘Philbrick-Rideout Electronic Differential Analyser’, or PREDA. After Rideout left, Prof. Rajaraman took charge of this machine, added new features, and made it useful for researchers at the institute.

He then went to pursue a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Wisconsin, after which he returned to India and joined the newly established IIT-Kanpur. The total number of faculty members then was just seven. One of the first courses that Prof. Rajaraman taught was on carpentry. When an IBM mainframe arrived in July 1964, it became the nucleus of the computer centre.

Since academic courses in computer science had yet to begin, the IBM machine was used to train programmers from other research centres and industry. Prof. Rajaraman conducted 10-day intensive courses in Fortran, a programming language developed in the 1950s. The course helped the computer centre forge links with industry. Prof. Rajaraman undertook consulting assignments for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which had just started its operations. Most postgraduates from IIT-Kanpur joined TCS and subsequently another start-up, HCL Tech. Many of the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Prof. Rajaraman later became CEOs and founders of software firms in the decades that followed.

While conducting short-term courses and teaching regular students, Prof. Rajaraman found there were no books available for them. He put together his notes on Fortran programming and got them printed as a booklet in 1968. It was sold in the campus bookstore for ₹5. It became so popular that outsiders would come to the campus to buy it. This prompted Prof. Rajaraman to approach publishers so that a book could be printed. Academic publishers, however, were not too keen because the subject was not a part of any course.

Prentice Hall eventually agreed and was surprised when 3,000 copies of the book were sold in the first year. Prof. Rajaraman had put in a precondition: that the price of the book should be lower than the cost of photocopying it. Therefore, the book was published on low-quality paper and priced at ₹15. Then, Prof. Rajaraman wrote books on numerical techniques, digital logic, and other subjects. All the books became bestsellers, selling in the lakhs over the years and making Prof. Rajaraman a household name in the programming community.

After successfully running the M. Tech programme in computer science, Prof. Rajaraman lobbied for a BTech in computer science. The IIT-Kanpur governing authorities grudgingly introduced the course with only 20 seats in 1979. As the IIT law had no provision for a department of computer science, the course was run in the electrical engineering department until the law could be amended. Gradually, other IITs and universities started independent departments of computer science and engineering. In the 1980s, when software exports were becoming an industry, Prof. Rajaraman, as the head of the computer manpower committee, made far-reaching recommendations that resulted in new courses, such as the three-year Master of Computer Applications. In 1982, Prof. Rajaraman returned to IISc, where he headed the Supercomputer Education and Research Centre until 1994.

Prof. Rajaraman actively participated in all the eras of the computer age in India, from analogue machines to supercomputers. Despite his long contributions as a teacher, policymaker, industry consultant, and author, however, he also shunned the limelight and continued his pursuits even after he turned 90. His latest book was published in June 2024.

Dinesh C. Sharma is a journalist based in New Delhi, and author of The Outsourcer: The Story of India’s IT Revolution.