The origin of the Department can be traced back to 1947 when the Section of Economics and Social Sciences was setup in 1947. This pioneering step was largely a result of the long-term vision of J.N. Tata, which had sown the seeds of management education and research in the country.

This vision was given substance by a resolution of the Indian Institute of Science to found a Philosophical and Educational Department, including methods of education, ethics and psychology, Indian history and archeology, statistics and economics, and comparative philology